We are BLESSED!!!

This past Thursday afternoon, Don, Mari and I were traveling out to see my daughter, Laura. She and her husband will be taking care of Mari while we are in China to bring Lukas home. Since Laura is a 4th grade teacher, Mari will need to be in daycare during the week while she is at work. So we packed up for the 1-1/2 hour ride so that Mari will be familiar the place. When we started out, the weather was a little drizzly. I absolutely hate to travel (as a passenger) in the rain. There is a particularly dangerous area on the stretch of highway we would be traveling on. Most accidents that happen here end in serious injury and more often are fatal. Although we have traveled this too many times to count, my heart always races madly as we approach this stretch of highway. We always sail through with no problems, but still I have that sick feeling when we drive by and see all the roadmarkers of crosses (and there are many) of all the motorist that have not been so fortunate.

So as we approach this area in the midst of traffic, all seems fine...until our car suddenly hydroplanes out of control and we hit the center concrete wall, spin around hit again, spin some more. All the while, I am waiting for the next big hit from another car and suddenly we stop. Right in the middle of the slow lane and no one has hit us. We are all shaken up alot, windows are broken out of the car, glass everywhere. I check everyone and grabbed Mari from her car seat. We are able to open the door and get out. An 18 wheeler stopped just about 15 feet behind our car "to block" othe other cars from us. He got out of his truck and told us he did not see the accident, but saw our car stopped there and wanted to keep us from being hit from the other cars on the road. How this man managed to not see the accident, but stop before hitting us is nothing short of a miracle. Truly an angel sent to protect us. He was standing there behind us when I got out of the car with Mari. I talked to him just long enough to hear what he did. He walked over to help Don move the car off the road and then he was gone. Just like that.

There had been an accident there in the same area just about 15-20 minutes earlier so the highway patrol was still there. The officer was on the frontage road, but jumped the fence, told us he had another officer on the way, a tow truck on the way and did we need an ambulance. I had a searing pain in the back of my head but I was not bleeding. I did a quick check over everyone and determined that we were ok enough to wait until we got back to Belleville so we could go to the ER there.

After our ER assessments, it was determined that Mari had a small bruise on her cheek, Don had some muscle strain, but no injuries and I had a fist sized lump on the back of my head along with a bruised shoulder. God was surely protecting us! It is a true miracle that we are all safe.

Our car was totaled. It can be replaced. A life cannot.

God has blessed our family! We have lived a miracle. We are forever grateful.

Vicki