A Day of Blessings and Thankfulness!!!

This will probably be one of the hardest blogs for me to write about. A year ago today,(1/2) around 4pm (mountain time) our family of five was out going to do a bit of shopping. We were stopped at a stop light on a two lane highway, about 10 minutes from our home. I clearly remember every detail, as if it had just happened. We were the fourth car in line at the red stop light and I can still hear my husband say "oh no" as our honda Odyssey van was hit from behind and we than were pushed into the truck in front of us. It still feels so surreal to me! I can still hear the crashing of metal and the smell of burnt tires and the cracking of glass! As any parent would do, I jumped from the front seat to the third row to rescue our daughter. She was sitting in the third row on the driver side, I can still picture her sitting there with the whole back window gone and the scared look of shock on her face! As I reached the third row I could see smoke, hear the grinding of metal and that's when I went into shock. The impact was so horrific! As I grabbed my daughter from her carseat, I noticed our entire trunk was missing and all that I could see was the back of the seat where my daughter was sitting! The boys were safely sitting in the middle row and seemed to be fine, but confused as to what had just happened. I quickly returned to my seat with my daughter and called my good friend to let her know what had happened, just as I noticed my phone was about to run out of battery, I also made one last call to our good friend and minister. My husband who was in the drivers seat was doing his best to move our van off to the side of the road where we would be safer. The man whom we were pushed into and the man driving the car in front of him, jumped out of their cars and ran over to check on us and called 911. The next thing I remember is this small young lady running up to our van opening the passenger side door and jumping in. She was asking a lot of question about how we felt and checking our necks and reminding me to stay still and not move. She said her name was Lauren and she was a midwife. She reached down and picked up one of my kids toddler Bibles on the floor and began singing Jesus love the little Children. She was doing her best in one of the worse situations to keep my kids calm as well as me. My daughter who was sitting on me began to complain of pain in her knee, which had worried me since she had surgery a few months before hand. As we waited inside our car for help to arrive, the driver of the other car finally made his way over to our van. He had been bleeding and most likely was a little out of it from the impact and the impact of his airbag. A short while later a nurse also showed up at the accident scene as she was passing by on the highway.
It's seemed like eternity before the ambulance and the fire department showed up. While waiting for help to arrive, the pain in my neck finally kicked in! Wow, I was hurting! When the crash happened I wasn't sitting straight forward looking out the front window, I was turn to the side toward the back looking at the kids. I distinctly remember being tossed back and forth multiple times. My daughter and I were taken to the ER where our minister/friend was already waiting for us. I was so thankful he was there as my husband and boys stayed behind. A few hours later my husband showed up to get checked out, and boy, was I glad to see him. While in the hospital, we had found out that, the man who hit us at 60mph never once stepped on his brakes,as he was playing with the radio. We also learned he was driving without a license and had no insurance. Did I mention he was also an illegal citizen.
Today I share this story with you to remind you to cherish those you love! Don't sweat the small stuff, for tomorrow may never come. Cherish each and everyday! We feel incredibly thankful each and every day! I know God has a plan for our family and that Angels were watching over us that day and always! Though it's been a year, I am reminded daily of what could have been. I can live with the migraines and the whiplash pain knowing how blessed we are to have each other! I'm still healing emotionally from this, and yes this was very hard to write about and to look at the pictures again, but I just wanted to remind you to cherish those close to you! May you wake each day, and feel blessed by those around you!


Picture of the back of our van. (you can see how close the metal and glass came to where our daughter sat. in this picture it's on the left right by the crinkled metal and broken glass)



a view of the front



this picture was taken a few day's later at the salvage yard. You can see the back headrest where our daughter once sat.