When I was 36 weeks pregnant, I had a major, life altering car accident. It terrified me, and taught me to appreciate God, and my pregnancy, and ultimately, my child, so much more than I had been before that.
It was hard to scrap, because I wanted to be certain that the story took center stage, and that it was an appropriate layout...not too frilly or fancy. I think I succeeded with an extremely simple page, with lots of story telling.
Here is the text:
At 36 weeks pregnant, I was on my way in to work at 6:40am on Saturday morning. I went about my morning drive as usual, until the merge from 35W to 35E. As I accelerated up the on-ramp, preparing to merge in to oncoming traffic, my car shuddered hard, and the wheel pulled hard right in my hands. Ice, I learned later…a tiny little patch of black ice on a day when there was virtually no ice anywhere. But for the moment, all I knew was that I had a split second to react…if I didn’t correct, I would go off a small embankment, and probably roll down a steep grass hill. I pulled the car hard to the left, knowing that I had already lost control. In that moment, I know that God sent an angel to sit down in the car with me. Time slowed as my car started to spin across the highway. I spun across what should have been two lanes of oncoming traffic, and miraculously, the road that is always busy was empty. Somehow, at fifty five miles an hour, with only a few meters to go, time slowed down enough that the following thoughts ran, in order, through my head: 1. Pull the wheel a little more left so you don’t hit that concrete barrier head on. 2. Tuck your seatbelt under your very pregnant belly. 3. Arms to your side, off the wheel, and relax. I followed all three quiet commands, and the next memory is no more than a couple of eye blinks. A concrete barrier and an empty highway. A much closer concrete barrier. A shudder. And then I was stopped. Immediately, I assessed my situation-I was in a car that smelled very strongly of chemical…something, and it looked like smoke in front of me. Although I was later to learn this was the chemicals from the airbag, at the moment, I thought it was possibly fire. I turned off my car-the keys stuck in the ignition, so I left them there, and bailed out as quickly as possible. As I stood on the side of the road, I began to cry. Here I was, 36 weeks
pregnant, and I had just hit a concrete barrier at 55 miles per hour. I took stock, realized I didn’t have a cell phone, and my glasses were lost. It took eight minutes and countless cars passing me before the first person stopped to help me, and I admit to losing composure in that time-screaming for help, crying, and finally just hitting my knees beside my car, and praying. At last, people started to show up-a nurse stopped, first, and calmed me, and took my vitals. She also let me use her cell phone to call my husband (mine had shot across the car and ended up in the back seat on the passenger’s side during the accident). I was unintelligible, and he realized that something was terribly wrong, and simply began driving the route I took to work. Then a cop showed up, a fire truck, and finally, just as they were loading me on to the ambulance, my husband-never had I been so glad to see anyone! And in all this time, my constant fear-my baby hadn’t moved. I was an emotional wreck, and time was moving too slow. Why didn’t anyone understand that I wanted-no-*needed* to get to the hospital, and hear her heartbeat?! When my husband finally got there, I knew he’d understand! And, at last, I was underway…praying every second of the trip. My husband followed in his car, and got Pastor Jerry and Karyn up out of bed and on the way. And at last, at *long* last, we were at the hospital. They strapped the fetal monitor to my stomach, and tears of joy were uncontainable, for both my husband and myself, as that steady little heartbeat began. Thank you God! They kept me overnight for observation-better safe than sorry! Although all that was wrong with me was a banged knee (I still have a bit of a bruise there, almost five months later). But all the things that should have been there after an impact of that magnitude, just weren’t. I never even touched the airbag, and normally that leaves burns on your face, a broken nose, and black eyes. No seatbelt bruise or even potentially broken collar bone. No whiplash or other similar neck or back injuries. Nothing. When the cop arrived on scene, he walked up to me and the nurse, and asked where the person from the accident was. When I said it was me, he looked at me in disbelief-could hardly fathom that I had simply stepped out of the car. The people at the wrecking yard were astonished that I walked away without a scratch, and the insurance agent who evaluated the car afterward was equally impressed with my lack of injury. I have a BIG GOD who loves me, protects me, and heals me. I have a BIG GOD who knows that my daughter is destined to do great things for His kingdom, and my God wasn’t about to let a simple little car accident get in the way of those plans! Thank you, God, for all that you have done! Thank you for my life, and for the life of my child.
