not quite the day i had expected...

http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=13372845

this morning the kids and i prepared for the day. henry dressed for school and recited 1 corinthians 13 which he would recite at speech meet shortly after the school day got started.

after dropping him off i found a parking space and began the lengthy process of unloading the three girls, pulling out the stroller and making sure we had the diaper bag, the snack bag and my purse. all things were accounted for and so we began heading across the parking lot to the other property where speech meet would take place.

one of henry's classmate's little sister, embry, was hanging out with daphne and anna and so we told her to ask her mom and dad if she could head over to the other side with us. with their permission we again headed toward the other building. at the edge of the school's drive i told the girls to stop so we could make sure it was safe. (this is standard protocol for us.) a car was approaching from the right and another car was coming to the exit drive across the street. the approaching car stopped in the road and waved us across but before going i looked to the driver across from us. he looked up at us and then stopped his van. with this i understood it to mean we could proceed and so we did. when we had reached half way across the street the gentleman began turning left right towards the girls and me. i had noticed his window was down before crossing street. when he began turning into us i began screaming, "stop! stop! no! no!"

embry was hit first and his front drivers wheel ran over her and then he hit our daphne who was pushed to the ground. i turned and could see daph was not pinned or seriously injured but embry was partially under the man's vehicle. without thinking, i pulled her out from under the car and the man said, "i'm sorry. i'm sorry" i just replied, "ok. could you pull over please." at this our friends, embry's parents, were there and i handed her over into her mother's arms. i went to daphne and just held on to her and asked another parent to take my two little girls in where my friend was waiting to see our big kids recite the selections for speech meet.

the shock and fear that i was experiencing rivals very little else. people began congregating around us calling 911 asking questions and praying. the prayerfulness of the people was amazing. as i stood shaking and crying i could see people stopping and praying. at one point i looked up and saw standing there in his white starched shirt, our friend, tom askew. i could see that he was praying. he was a source of strength and calm for me mentally.

fire trucks, two ambulances and a couple of sheriff's deputies arrived on the scene and began assessing the girls. it was evident that embry was more serious and so they began loading her in the ambulance. they assessed daph and determined she needed to go to the er as well to be on the safe side.

all this was happening and i was being asked a ton of questions and giving the officers all the info i had and then i look up and there across the way is the gentleman that had been driving. my heart was broken for embry and for her family and my heart was aching for my family but my heart was so broken for this man as well. he never even saw our girls. he didn't do it on purpose. this man is paralyzed from the waist down from an accident years ago and he is a grandfather. this was breaking his heart.

we went to the hospital and daph was in shock for a while. her injuries were so very minor. she has a bruise on her hip and a scrape on her elbow. our little friend was taken to a different hospital and after a long day she left the hospital with no internal injuries, no broken bones and 13 stitches to her knee. our mighty God protected our girls this morning.
i love our school family for many reasons but i found another reason this morning. in light of a very scary and serious accident the parents first response was to pray and then to comfort all involved. it was a place where i saw and i experienced grace. none of these responses were generated by these people but rather from Christ, our Cornerstone. John 13:35 says, "by this all men will know that you are my disciples- if you love one another."

please pray for the man who was driving that he might know and feel the grace of God in this traumatic experience. pray for me and ross to have an opportunity to express our love to him and his wife. pray for embry to heal physically. pray for daphne, anna, ramey and embry to heal emotionally as any fear could surface days or weeks from now. pray for me as i struggle with having been the one who was caring for e along with my own girls.

tonight, hug your babies a little tighter for we do not know what tomorrow will bring.

now these things remain: faith, hope and love but the greatest of these is love.