The next chapter

So, now I've told you about the horrible accident that we were in. That was May of 2004, and I was 16 weeks pregnant with my first son. God miraculously spared us from severe harm; we all survived, and God continued to bless us. Let me tell you about the phone call that we received just two days after the accident.

On Monday, I came home from the hospital. Now, as anyone who has actually been IN the hospital can attest, it's not really a place to get rest, especially a head trauma pregnant woman. They keep waking you up to make sure that you can, and to check the baby and make sure he's OK, too. Like I said, no rest! So when we got home, I could actually sleep and rest.

After resting for a bit, I called Bethel Baptist church. I wanted to let them know we were OK, and thank them for everything that they did. Let me rewind a tad, here. After the men that got to us first pulled us out of the car, people rushed to "duty". Our car landed on it's top in the road right between the two driveways of the church, so there were people directing traffic in and out of the parking lot so that the rescue vehicles could get to us and so that traffic kept going.

Of the many people that helped us, three beautiful souls come to my mind. I don't know their names, but one man introduced himself as a nurse (we found out later that he was actually a Corpsman in the Navy), one younger man introduced himself as an EMT, and the blonde lady was just there, shaking as hard as she could, using her water bottle, pouring fresh water over my mangled hand to wash it as best she could. I'll never forget how she shook!

Small tangent here, but let me just say how marvelous our God is! This was no accident, folks! These people were put there specifically for my husband and me, no question in my mind! Not just one medical professional, but two! What's even more miraculous is what we were told by the EMT. He usually went to church with his dad somewhere else, but just felt like coming there with his mom that day. Praise God that he was there!

Back to the phone call. When I called the church, the receptionist that answered was ecstatic that I'd called. Apparently, she had been deluged with calls about us wanting to know if we were OK. She asked if there was anything that they could do for us. I told her that if they knew of anyone selling a car, we were in the market for one, as we had just totalled ours. Actually, because of financial problems at the time, the car we wrecked was not ours, it belonged to my father. We were out a car now, and this was a problem.

On Tuesday, our phone rang. Hubby answered it, and by his nervous laugh, I knew something was up. When he hung up the phone, he rushed over to me, put his head in my lap and said, "they want to give us a car!" There was a young couple a little older than us that had just had a second child and needed a new vehicle. They had already bought one, but hadn't done anything with the old one yet. Yes, folks, I said "give". Not "sell", "give". At that point, though, I really didn't believe it. Not at all.

On Sunday, we went to my parents house. Hubby had arranged to have them come there to the farm because we had no place to park a car with no tags where we live. When they drove up in that car, I think I was still a little in shock. Why would someone do this for total strangers? But here it was. A 1996 Mercury Sable. Free. Ours.

Not only did they give us the car, but they knew it wouldn't pass inspection by the end of that month because of the tires, so they put $200 cash in the glove compartment for new tires. Funny thing was, the car that was wrecked was a 1996 Ford Taurus. Same car, same tires. We had just put new tires on the Ford, and they weren't damaged; remember, we landed upside down! So we were able to use that $200 to pay the "gift tax" to get the car titled and registered.

Thanks be to the God that gives! I'll never forget this, and will tell this story for the rest of my life. My family and I are known as the "ones that lived" there at Bethel. We've been back a few times over the past 4 years, and as big as that church is, they remember us. Amazing.

Tomorrow, I'll try to post the story about my emergency surgery while I was pregnant with my second son! God is all over that one, too!

TJ