Pictures/story of the accident

For all of you's who wanted to know about the

accident, it was pretty amazing just how much the Lord protected us! I was driving the kids home Thursday from Ben's Karate lesson at about 5:20pm. It was raining really hard so this makes the streets really slick. Hydroplaning on streets are a reality to be aware of during the rainy season. I was stopped at a red light with about 15 cars in front of me when I heard/felt a big thud from behind. I didn't see it comeing, which is a small blessing since there would have been nothing I could have done to stop the impact and if I would have inched any closer to the car in fron this would have been bad too! The impact was very sudden as the lady in a small Ford focus hydro-planed into my back end. When I realized what happened I realized my foot wasn't pressed hard on the brake as it was when I had first stopped and I was slowly moving forward toward the car in front of me. THANKS TO MY DADDY, who taught me to never get so close to the car in front of you that you CAN'T see their back tires (gotta love those things that actually stick!)....... anyway, by the grace of God and maybe an invisable angel that worked as a sponge between the car in front and me, I stayed far enough away from the next car up to prevent a huge bumper to bumper mess on one of the busyest streets in town! The lady who hit me, her car was very damaged and didn't appear to be repairable while ours is still drivable. The back bumper will need replaced and the back door, while it still opens and closes just fine, will need to be popped back into the right shape. OTHERWISE, there is no other damage! No broken glass from the back OR side windows that could have shattered on top of the kids and there doesn't seem to be alignment damage! The girls parents walked in the pouring rain to the scene where they profusely apologized. I felt such sympathy for this poor 18 year old girl & her family. Probably because at the age of 18 I had 2 accidents that were my fault and where I totalled vehicles all because I was being too reckless...... Her family had to walk to the accident scene as it seemed that she was driving the only car. Can you please be praying for this girl as she recovers and heals from this traumatic experience. Being 18 and knowing that she put the family in a pretty hard predicament must be a lot of pressure so please pray that their insurance company would speed up its usual red tape battle for them to recieve compensation soon!The kids pretty much escaped without any harm done except for the trauma of being in an accident. Abby's first response as I dialed 911 was to ask "Mommy, can we pray". She is always my tender-hearted one! As I talked with the 911 officer her big sister prayed with her, however, shortly after this and after assessing the damage to the car behind us, Abby broke down. She started sobbing "I WANT MY DADDY" over and over, so I cut my 911 operator short to comfort Abby and let her know everything will be OK. Shortly after that the kids were on to a much happier subject..... "Mommy does this mean we will get to buy a new car?" Yeah, from that statement I KNEW they were fine as they shared their extravagant wishlist of what a new car will have (A TV for every passenger in the back). They were a tad bummed when their bubble was burst and they found out the car was fixable! :o) The fire, police and ambulance showed up which also provided the kids with the needed distraction and people asking if they were OK or felt any pain. Here is another so cool God~thing...... John gets off everyday at 5, but on Thursdays he usually goes straight to the church for Men's prayer to wait for others to arrive at 6. On this day in particular he took an alternate route to kill time and not get there early. It would just so happen that his alternate route was right beside the accident scene. Once he saw our van he was able to stop and come see if everyone was OK. This was so cool that God heard Abby's prayer for her daddy. It was also very neat that he got to witness the scene so that he knew about it before returning home at 7:30 & extremely exhausted from his full day. After finding that we were all OK and Abby was calm he was able to get to the church in time!Last night & today I was feeling the results of whiplash & the light-headedness never left so I went in to the ER to make sure everything was Ok. Somehow during the chaos of the accident I lost my liscense. I remember the police officer handing it back to me but after that where I put it I am not sure. After looking for a while with limited range of motion, I had to take a detour to the DMV before being scene...... Hospitals are kinda funny about not wanting to see people without ID? Anywho, I got in to the room......... after my spine was X-rayed & head CT, the Dr said that I had no new injuries that she could see! With the fact that I have osteoporosis in my spine this was a huge relief to know that there was no further injury! My CT was OK as well, which is another big praise for someone who needs to keep what I have left on my brain!! I am still pretty sore and probably will be for another couple weeks as my muscles heal. Thank you for all your concerns and prayers!I just ask if you would please pray for a couple other things besides the girl and her family..... Could you please pray that the insurance would be expediant at doing their jobs on our side as well and that we find a good shop that will charge within reason of what the insurance estimated it will pay for repairs. Florida has some weird insurance laws so this will be a learning experience but I am sure God has a reason for everything and that maybe we will have opportunities through this to be a witness of Him. I am going to go to bed now but tomorrow I will post this on my blog along with pictures of the damage! I have my blog set up with a widget on the side that allows you to sign up to recieve any new entries, via e-mail. That way you can keep up without having to constantly check. If you already get them sent to your e-mail address you don't need to sign up again! Thank you for all your prayers! Here was the song that was playing in my head soon after the accident was over, and the realization of how much God protected us was understood:

The Lord is gracious and Compassionate, slow to anger and rich in Love (2X)

And the Lord is good to all, He has compassion In all that He has made;

As far as the East is from the West,

Thats how far He has removed our transgressions from us (2X)

Praise the Lord, Oh my Soul, Praise the Lord (2X)

HUGS all!

Here is the lovely rainbow that appeared after the rainstorm!