Heaven's Bubblewrap

Yesterday morning I left Brian and Elliott at home and headed for Target to pick up a few things we still need for the baby. I took the "dumpy" car, our ancient Toyota Tercel we paid $900 for 1 1/2 years ago. As I was driving about 35 mph down a busy, 2 lanes each direction, street, I approached an intersection and saw a red car coming from the cross street on my left, acting like he was going to turn left. "Oh my gosh, he's going to hit me!" BAM then everything happened in slow motion for the next few seconds. Me honking, the airbags deploying, which blocked my vision of the windshield entirely, my foot all the way down on the break, trying to steer towards where I thought my side of the road was and SPINNING at least twice. I remember thinking, "Oh my gosh, this is a busy street! I think I'm okay now but I really hope no one else hits me." I also had a split second recollection of a dramatic law and order svu where a pregnant woman gets hit by a car and is trapped inside and is about to have the baby. Oh the things you think of...

The car came to a stop as it hit the curb on my side of the road and the smoke/dust/powder from the airbags was gagging me so I rolled down the window so I could breathe a little easier. I realized the car was smoking or steaming inside and I thought to myself, "I've gotta get outta here! What if it blows up or starts on fire!" So I grabbed my purse, opened the car door, and as I stepped out, it felt so surreal. My first thought was, "I'm so glad I'm able to walk away from this accident," followed quickly by, "And my water didn't even break!!!!! I coulda had the baby today! I was just spinning in a car accident and my water didn't even break!" =)

The guy who hit me stopped in the road behind me and got out of his car and said, "Are you alright?" "I think so. What just happened?" "I think you ran a red light." Ummmmm no sir, I didn't, I thought as I grabbed my cell phone and called 911. I told the operator who sounded like a dumb pizza delivery guy that there'd been a car accident and where we were. Then another guy stopped his car and got out and asked me if I was okay. He had seen it happen. A witness! He was on the same street as me, headed the opposite direction. Then another car stopped and a woman in scrubs got out and said, "I'm a nurse. Is everyone okay?" Then she saw me, how pregnant I was, and started freaking out. I told her I was okay and she told me to go sit down at the conveniently located bus stop bench very close to where we were. (I had spun a good half block down the street from the intersection where the impact had occurred.) I called Brian and told him to come NOW. The nurse hadn't seen the accident but I think she said she used to be a cop. She was Very concerned about getting the cars moved out of the road so no one else would hit them and get hurt. So the witness and the guy who hit me moved their cars to the parking lot in the shopping center nearby. They tried to move my car but it wasn't going anywhere. I think the axle or the wheel was broken or something. It was leaking a lot of stuff too.

I just kept thinking WHERE ARE THE POLICE?! I expected them to be there within 2 minutes. It was seriously more like 15 minutes. The nurse said it was because I had told 911 no one was hurt so we weren't a priority. Plus, it was sprinkling rain so I guess it was a busy day for cops as far as accidents go. The longer it took everything started setting in and I probably was in shock a little bit. I just kept thinking, "I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. Where are the cops? Where's Brian?! Am I really okay? If I say I'm okay now can I change my mind about that later? No, I don't want an ambulance." Luckily, the nurse was very smart and helpful. She told me I didn't have to talk to the guy who hit me, the police would, and they would give me his information. When Brian got there she told him the name of a towing company to call because it would be a lot cheaper and less of a hassle than if the cops called City Tow to come get it.

The witness told me that he was surprised my car didn't flip over because I was on TWO WHEELS at some point in my spinning. I also found out he was my witness. He said, "If you ran a red light, I ran a red light, and I know I didn't, so you didn't." Hallelujah. I was pretty sure I hadn't. I mean driving is kind of a subconscious thing a lot of the time. It's not like you say out loud, 'and this light is green and this light is green' etc. But it's a busy street, there were other cars. If it was yellow or red, I would have seen other cars stopped or brake lights. Plus, I wasn't on my phone, wasn't changing the radio, wasn't digging in my purse for something, I was paying attention. What was the other guy doing?!

So the cops finally came, they wrote down our information, exchanged it for us. They called a police van with a rubber bumper to push the Tercel into the parking lot. They were nice. They looked concerned for me. They said the way my car looked went along with my story. And they left.

I'm so lucky. I'll get to the physical luck in a minute but I was so so lucky that the other driver was only going 5 or 10 mph, that he was in a focus, not an explorer, and he was nice. He was concerned about me. Even though he thought it was my fault (!) as he was leaving he touched my arm gently, looked me in the eye, and sincerely said, "I hope everything works out alright with you." I'm so lucky I had a witness and a nurse who stopped and waited I don't know, a half hour or so through the whole ordeal. I'm so lucky I was in the crappy car we hardly need anyway, that Elliott wasn't with me, that I didn't hit anything/anyone else, that I didn't flip or roll.

I was so protected. My body didn't hit anything inside the car. It was like I stayed very upright, wrapped in Heavenly Bubblewrap. Because the car was old, the seatbelts didn't get tight when I slammed on the breaks, probably good for the belly. So something under the front of the car is all messed up and the passenger door behind me is like one complete dent but somehow, my door (my body) was completely untouched. How could his car have hit mine on my side, and missed me? Heavenly Father was protecting me. I could go on and on, like how there was no broken glass to strike my precious horn playing lips or anywhere else. How I have no cuts, scrapes, or bruises...you get the picture.

We eventually made it to the hospital where they hooked me up to fetal monitors for 3 hours and then they said I could go home "but are you going to get your glucose test?" HA! Yeah right!

It was a day that wore me out, physically and emotionally. It's so cliche, but your life can be changed in a split second, and while I'll never be exactly the same, emotionally, as I was on Dec. 8, Dec. 9 will always be a day I remember as when I was miraculously watched over and protected. Thank the Lord for a husband who as I was heading out the door that morning said, "Wait, come back for family morning prayer."