The Mortician's Daughter: Gratitude ... on my MIND

This Friday will mark the 3 year anniversary of a rather unforgettable day in my life. A day that always makes me reflect on what could have happened - a day that makes me even more grateful for the simple moments that I like to write about in this blog.

We were living in Las Vegas then and I worked at Sunrise Hospital and Children's Hospital down near the strip. It was raining that morning as I headed off to work which means the roads were very slick. We would go for months without rain in this desert that we called home so when it did rain all the oil that had collected on the streets over the months would come to the surface making the streets as slick as the black ice we used to experience in Washington.

You've probably guessed where this story is headed ... so I won't bore you with too many details. The picture below will give you a peek at the end of my story for those impatient types that like to peek at the end of a book before reading the details on the pages in between...

Yes, that's my trusted little car ... parked on it's side ... in some one's backyard. No, the accident was not my fault, I was t-boned by a kid that ran a stop sign - in a LARGE truck. I'm sure the accident was all over in a couple seconds but it felt like minutes as my car was rammed first on the driver's side by the aforementioned truck, then hurled across the intersection and up onto the hood of the car stopped at the intersection opposite the truck. I thought the madness would stop then but instead my car bounced off the hood of the car and continued down the street on its passenger side until it jumped the curb and came to rest in the backyard of the house on the corner of that intersection (thanks in part to a few trees and the home's concrete cinder block fence that finally slowed me down).

I can't tell you how vulnerable I felt as I hit the brakes and and slid on those oil-slick roads into that intersection realizing at the same time that I was absolutely going to get hit by that truck.

I can't say that my life flashed before my eyes ... but it was all very surreal. I felt a moment of panic but then as I realized that my immediate destiny was COMPLETELY OUT OF MY CONTROL ... I felt a moment of peace. This does not mean that I wasn't screaming NO at the top of my lungs during all this, but in that moment as I realized my life was in God's hands - I felt, oddly enough, at peace. Side thought - I often wonder how Nie Nie felt as her plane went down this past August. I anxiously wait for her to WAKE UP and inspire us with more of her faith promoting insights. For those that don't know what I'm talking about you have to read the Nie Nie dialogues blog or her sister C Jane's blog (link in my sidebar) - end side thought.

Fortunately, I walked away from that wreck. OK - it was against the medical advice of emergency services crew but I worked at a trauma hospital and I promised them that I would go straight to my ER (and I did - but I went homed and kissed my baby first).

Poor Per ... I was so disoriented when I called him. I mentioned the wreck and something about how I was hanging from my seat belt in my car ... and tried to give him the intersection but I gave him the wrong street and as he raced to my side he passed all the emergency vehicles - going the other direction - and had to hang a u-turn and follow the ambulances to me. He was sure, given how confused I was about my whereabouts, that I was equally confused about the degree of my injuries. And poor Torby and Brynn ... their carpool ride picked them up just as Per sped off to find me so they were sent off to school having just heard that their mom was in a nasty wreck.

I know I'm going on and on tonight but I just want to share a couple things I learned from this experience.

First, I learned that I have more faith than I realized in that I knew in that moment with a surety that my life was in God's hands and that whatever the outcome - He would take care of me.

Faith = Peace

Second, I did not know this then, but I was pregnant with Kyra at the time of the wreck. One evening a few weeks after the accident, as I was preparing for an MRI the next morning I was thinking about how tired, achy, and weak I felt. I assumed these were merely symptoms of the trauma that my body was working to mend but then I had a very distinct impression that I should take a pregnancy test that night. This thought seemed absurd. Annika was only 9 months old at the time and still nursing. We definitely were not trying to have another child ... but sometimes birth control fails ... so I took the test and was SHOCKED to see the positive results. And then I of course immediately called and cancelled the MRI (the one that had taken WEEKS just to get my insurance company to approve). ;-)

I realized then that had I not followed this impression and taken that pregnancy test my youngest child, little Kyra Lynn, would surely have been torn to pieces by the magnet in the MRI the next day. I know the impression that I felt that night was a prompting from the Holy Spirit. I know the Holy Spirit is a constant companion and is here to protect me, comfort me, and teach me. There have been many times in my life when I have been so grateful that I followed these promptings of the Spirit - and this was another one of those times.

And third, I was reminded how fragile life is and how quickly one's world can change. I was blessed and protected that day and I determined then that I would make a renewed effort to live in the present and enjoy those simple things in life that are often taken for granted. I hope I can teach my children to listen for and recognize the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit. And if I'm not here to share these life lessons with them someday ... I hope they can read some of these journal entries and gain strength from my testimony.

One last picture of Kyra Lynn, our surprise "miracle" baby. She survived the wreck (and multiple ensuing x-rays), she narrowly avoided eminent demise by an MRI, shortly thereafter she endured a move across the country to TN (in-vitro) and all her mother's stress related to that event (new house, new job, new schools, etc), and somehow Kyra came into this world ABSOLUTELY PERFECT. And all this leaves me feeling very BLESSED and very GRATEFUL tonight!