In an instant!

Ben, the boys and I were on our way to church (on a Sunday night) for a meeting before Awana's got started. We were on Hwy 59, which is a major freeway throughout Houston, and we were changing lanes to get ready to exit. All of a sudden, the truck in front of us stopped and we slammed into him. Apparently there was a cooler that was in the lane and the truck guy just stopped instead of swerving. I saw the guy stop about 1 sec before we crashed. It was by far the most traumatic thing I've been through besides Daddy's cancer. The boys had fallen asleep in the car and they awoke to the air bags being deployed and smoke filling the car. They were screaming and of course I was crying and immediately jumped into the back seat. Hudson was very scared and kept saying, "I need my Daddy". When Ben and I smelled the smoke we decided to get out of the car. Apparently air bags let off smoke when deployed, but we didn't know that at the time. So we slowly got out of the car and tried to be very careful since we were in the 4th lane of 59. There wa a rapid response crew there immediately to take care us. Everything happened so quickly and I think I grabbed Landon from Ben, because I just wanted to hold one of my kids. As I began to walk, I felt my body beginning to black out. I was so afraid that I would pass out while holding Landon and he would fall and then a car would hit him. I screamed for Ben and down I went. I layed on the highway trying to breathe and not totally black out. Hudson began to totally freak out and thought that I was dead. I remember him crying and saying, "Mommy are you dead? No, you're not dead you're just tired. Say you're tired Mommy." I knew that I had to stay in control and show Hudson that I was okay. I prayed for strength and began counting to myself to get up. I have passed out many times in the past and usually once I feel it coming on I don't have any control, but the Lord gave me strength and enabled me to not fully black out. I got up on my knees and held Hudson. The ambulance came and checked me out and then took us to a nearby gas station to talk with the police.

Once again the Lord has reminded me and my family that we are not invincible and that life does change in an instant. I decided that driving is no small task. You have to constantly be thinking about what the other person might do. When I started driving my sweet Daddy told me, "Everyone else on the road is an idiot". I remember thinking that was a rude statement, but you never know what the other person might do and many times it is something stupid and you have to anticipate that and know how to react.

So our Mazda CX9 was declared totalled so we are now apart of the minivan club. :) In a way it is a blessing. We bought our Mazda when Landon was a week old. It has a 3rd row and a fair amount of storage, but now that we have 2 kids in big car seats and a third on the way it would have been a little difficult. Hudson is still in a 5 point harness seat, which I am so glad that we had that car seat for the accident, which means that I usually have to help him buckle part of the harness. He would have been in the back seat when the new baby comes and getting back there and helping him would have been a challenge. Now we have a Honda Odyssey with lots of room and the fabulous power sliding doors. It is so nice to push a button and the kids can start getting in the car without my help. Plus we have bucket seats and it is easy to get to the 3rd row. Maybe when the kids are all out of car seats and they care what kind of "cool" car we drive we will get a suburban, but for now the most practical and easy access is the minivan. I must say I LOVE driving it and it has lots of cool features. :)