Tuesday, December 3, 2013

A moment

Have you ever had a moment that made you stop and think?  Today I had that moment. 

Miss K and the boys have clogging on Tuesdays.  We gathered up everyone’s shoes, coats, diapers, treats, Kindle… everything we would need for the 3 1/2 hours we would be gone.  Then we loaded everyone up in Big Delores (the Suburban). 

It had been snowing all day long and wasn’t going to let up any time soon.  I hadn’t wanted to go to dance at all because of the weather but I knew Miss K needed to be there as this is her last class before their first holiday performance set for Friday.  So, I scraped the snow off the car as it ran to get warm and defrost the windows.  Then we were off.

We had just made it out of the neighborhood when I realized how bad the roads were and I suggested to the kids that we should probably say a prayer.  Miss H enthusiastically offered to say it.  She had just finished and asked Heavenly Father to keep us safe as we entered the on ramp of the freeway.  Suddenly, Delores’ big rear end was fishtailing. 

I panicked!  And yet, I was calm… and I did everything WRONG! 

Everything started happening in slow motion.  It’s amazing how much you are able to think about in times of panic! 

Should I hit the brakes?  Do I turn into it or out of it?  What am I going to hit?  How do I stop this car?  Please don’t let us hit anything!  Oh no!  Here comes the air bag! 

I don’t think I said anything out loud but all of these thoughts raced through my mind.  Obviously the answer to braking… NO!  But I did.  I should have turned into it, but I turned out.  What did I hit?  Absolutely nothing! 

And I remember the entire time hearing Miss K screaming.  When we came to a stop in the ravine/shoulder (not sure what to call it) she was still squealing.  It is so unlike me to be cool, calm, and collected in a situation like this but I surprised myself today.  The other kids all seemed to be alright and I just rubbed Kayla’s arm to reassure her that we were ok.  We would be alright.  She was next to me in the front seat, crying.  Normally, I would be too but something kept me strong.  We sat there for a minute collecting ourselves while Little C kept asking why I would do such a thing.  “Why did you do that, Mom?  I don’t like that!  Why did you make us slide into here?  We almost hit the wall!”  It’s true.  We ended up about 4 feet from a brick wall.  He told me, “You shouldn’t do that, Mom.  I’m really freaked out now.”  If you know C you understand why this is funny.  He said it in such a monotone voice.  You just have to know him.  Even K laughed at his effort to sound ‘freaked out’. 

After explaining to him that this was not something I had intended to do, I tried backing out of the ravine.  No luck!  The tires just kept spinning.  K asked what we were going to do now to which I didn’t have a good answer.  I had left my phone home with Miss A.  I couldn’t call the police.  Since we had ended up perpendicular to the on ramp the only thing I could think to do was to have Miss K wave someone down.  I rolled her window down and had her start waving.  But before anyone stopped, someone on my side of car was walking toward us.  He had seen it happen and parked just up past the on ramp to get out of the way.  He made sure that we were all ok and called 911 for us. 

He was our angel today!  Well, one of them.  He was a young Hispanic man with earrings.  Little C wanted to make sure he wasn’t a bad guy.  I assured him that he was there to help.  And he insisted on staying until help arrived.  I felt so bad for him because the snow hadn’t let up at all and it was 29 degrees outside.  All the poor guy had on was a sweatshirt.  But he waited. 

At one point he had me borrow his phone to call Anthony.  Luckily he answered!  He doesn’t usually answer the phone if he doesn’t recognize the phone number.  Anthony really wanted me to try backing out again in 4-high.  I tried but had no luck.  We had been waiting about a half hour at that point. 

Another 15 minutes went by and FINALLY they came… a blaring ambulance and a fire truck.  I should probably have been embarrassed.  They blocked the entire on ramp for this.  One of the firemen (or maybe the EMT?) got into the driver’s seat and after some struggle and 3 other firemen/EMT’s pushing, they freed Big Delores!  MORE ANGELS! 

They didn’t bother with an incident report or anything… just sent us on our merry way (I’m sure they had plenty of other incidents to take care of).  Only now it was Miss H crying.  She was scared when the man was getting us out of the snow because the car went really squirrely again several times. 

We chose not to make the drive to dance even though we could have made it in plenty of time for Miss K’s class.  She was pretty shaken up. 

I never got too emotional about this one and I’m not really sure why.  So not like me!  I cry at everything. 

EVERYTHING!

So, while I didn’t get too shaken up, it still made me really think.  How blessed I was today!  Did our prayer work?  I choose to believe that it did!  Obviously I meant for nothing at all to happen but it could have been so much worse.  The girls attribute the car stopping without hitting the wall to angels.  They believe angels stopped it.  Why not?  I choose to believe they are right. 

How blessed am I in my life, in general?  Wow!  I can’t even begin to count the ways.  But I can say that almost every night I thank my Heavenly Father for two things.  First, I thank him for my family’s safety and my own.  Safety in every sense of the word.  Yes, we get hurt… but in general we have been blessed with safety.  Second, I thank him for our health.  Sure, we get sick but no one has any major medical issues to deal with. 

Not that I’m terribly superstitious but I really hope I didn’t just jinx myself by saying that.  *Knock on wood, right?* 

I just felt inspired by the events of today.  I needed to share my humble testimony of the Lord.  He hears and answers our prayers!  Not always the way we expect but he did send mortal angels to minister to us in our time of need.  They didn’t have wings or halos.  They weren’t even dressed in white but I’m telling you, they will be blessed for their efforts.  I don’t know how and I wish that I could repay them myself. 

This time of year always seems to bring out the good in a lot of people.