Jesus take the wheel...

I've always loved this song by Carrie Underwood but Friday night, this song really came to life for me. We ate dinner at Brady cousins house that night before traveling to deep creek lake to meet my parents (who brought Carter the day before). It was pouring rain- to the point that Brady asked me about 15 minutes into the drive if we should just head home and leave early the next morning. But anxious to get there and spend the most time at the lake as we could I said no, we'd be fine. After listening to the Presidential debate, I laid my seat back to get some rest after making sure Bryce was asleep. Not long after, when I was in the "in between" stage from awakendness to sleep, I feel the car begin sliding out of control as we skid sideways down the freeway going almost 70 mph. I shoot up and hold on tight to the arm rest and door handle as the car begins doing a 360, and then another. We are going way too fast I thought as I prepare myself for the car to flip. I hear Brady saying, "oh my gosh, oh my gosh..." again and again. A thousand thoughts flew through my head. "We're going to flip..." "it's okay, Brady knows what to do..." "I'm buckled, Brady's buckled, and Bryce is buckled..." "When is this car going to stop spinning??" "How bad are we all going to be hurt?" "Are there any other cars going to hit us?" "When are we going to flip? Any second now...hold on!" We smash into the guardrail and skid another 60 or so feet until we finally slow down to a stop. Brady is still saying "oh my gosh, oh my gosh..." I put my arm on his shaking hand and say, "we're okay, we're okay" as I rub his back. I turn around at the same time I'm saying and doing this to check on Bryce. Bryce is tipped over on his side still hooked into the car seat asleep. "...she cried when she saw that baby in the back seat sleeping like a rock..." (Carrie Underwood). I panicked and jumped from front seat to the back to check on him and lift him the right way up. I had transfered his car seat back into my car from my friend watching him a couple hours that day and did not latch his car seat into the car so the whole seat just fell to the side. I began praying in my heart feelings of relief and gratitude filled my soul. I don't even want to think about what could have happend if we had flipped and Bryce's seat had not be secured into the car.... another sweet mercy from above. Brady was outside assessing the damage to the car to see if it was able to drive while I buckled Bryces seat in and checked him over from head to toe. He was okay, and not even aware of what happened! He whined a bit that I had woken him up to check on him, but went right back to sleep. I went outside into the pouring rain to be with Brady. We were both, cold, wet, shaking, and grateful. It could have been SO much worse! We notice half our front bumper has been torn off and the rest is wobbly. We look back to the guardrail and see our bumper sticking out of it. After we even tried to pull it out, we couldn't. It was firmly lodged in. Soaked, we climbed back into the car which we were still able to drive and continued along our way.

Life is so fragile. Each day is a gift. Family is the greatest blessing and joy. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, might, mind and strength.

I love my family. I love my life. I'm glad I have more of it left to live.