The Lord's Protection

After the events of last weekend, we have a lot to be thankful for - especially in regards to the Lord's protection over us!

Tony headed out with a couple college students early Friday morning toward Tennessee to spend the weekend at a camp there (he was asked to be the speaker for a high school retreat). I just happened to check the weather forecast late that morning (for selfish reasons - anticipating my own little road trip) and the first headline that came up was tornadoes heading to the Kentucky/Tennessee area. After looking at the map and all the warnings and watches about to occur, it didn't take me long to realize that this entire "red" area was right where my husband was heading. I got a hold of him within the next hour (they were driving in rain/thunder at the time but had no idea about the tornadoes) and was thankful that I just "happened" to have seen that forecast - they changed directions and took a different route, stopped in southern IL to wait out the storm for a while before driving to the camp later that evening. So thankful that the Lord protected them and that they were kept from driving down toward Louisville and other areas where the storm hit hard. It definitely wasn't just a coincidence that I checked the weather forecast that day.

Hannah Beth and I left home on Friday after lunch to drive about 2 1/2 hours to visit my sweet friend Charissa and her husband Ryan. She is expecting a baby girl just 3.5 weeks after me and this was our first chance to see each other since finding out each other's pregnancy news :) It was a fun, relaxing weekend spent hanging out together, chatting about baby stuff among many other things, playing with Hannah Beth & Gilbert (their 100+ pound puppy!), trying a couple new dinner recipes that turned out to be delicious!, lunch at Chick-Fil-A (where Hannah Beth was TERRIFIED of the big cow!), browsing baby things at Target, Starbucks coffee, consignment shops, a visit from Charissa's friend Wendy and her husband, Whitey's ice cream, Sunday church services, lunch at Hy-Vee deli, etc.

So back to the part about the Lord's protection - on our way home on Sunday afternoon, after driving over 2 hours (only 10 minutes from home at this point) - we had run into some snowy weather about 1/2 hour earlier but I was driving on the interstate and the roads weren't that bad or snow-covered at this point (or so I thought...). I was going right along with traffic, around 65 mph, driving straight ahead in the right lane, when all of the sudden I started to feel the car sliding on the road and felt myself losing control. It all happened so fast, but I ended up spinning around in a complete 360 degree turn and landing in the grassy ditch/median that divided the highway. As I started to spin, I remember calling out, "Lord, Lord, please keep us safe, please help us..." A complete answer to my prayer - I am really amazed that we didn't hit anyone else or anything on the busy highway. We stopped just a few feet away from a mile marker sign but our car ended up being undamaged.  Hannah Beth was completely unfazed and was just fine sitting in her car seat - I was traumatized and very scared that the stress would hurt Baby Boy but thankfully he seems to be doing just fine. After calling my parents & Tony, we sat in the car, watching cars zoom by on both sides of us and waiting for AAA to get the car and my dad to pick us up. After waiting probably 30-40 minutes, a police car picked us up, we left all our stuff in the car, and he took us to the nearest exit where my dad picked us up and took us home eventually (after figuring everything out with the tow truck). Hannah Beth was pretty thrilled that she got to ride in a car for a bit on mommy's lap, without her car seat! haha. We even got our car back later that night - delivered by the tow truck to our house, and it is running just fine - amazing.

The rest of the day I was pretty shook up & emotional - I'm sure part of that was due to pregnancy hormones - but I kept thinking how much worse it could have been - and replaying the entire scene in my mind over and over again. 

Prayers for safety will definitely never be taken for granted again. So thankful that the Lord listens, answers, and has His angels watching over us 24/7!!