Car Accident...a Blessing

Even though this happened a month ago...I have decided to blog about it.  I think it took me a while to process what happened and we were waiting to find out what happened with the insurance. Just a heads up this is going to be a long post...

We spent a long Thanksgiving holiday in Denver.  On Tues Dec. 4th we decided to make the trek home to Kansas City.  The whole family was together in our 2004 blue pontiac montana mini van.  We bought this van from a family in Fort Collins just before we moved to Kansas City in June 2011.  Right before we left for Denver it was time to reliscence the car.  So we spent about $800 in repairs because the driving column needed to be replaced.  I also spent a little money on chip repair with the idea that I wanted one car in really good working condition that we could trust.  We were carrying all our Christmas presents from family, two very large bins of wheat and some canned applesauce. So in this car we began the 10 hour journey back to Kansas City.

Before the drive we said a family prayer that we would have safe travels.  I think Dave said the prayer.  During that prayer I had a very small but very distinct impression that we would be in a car accident that day but everything would be fine.  I ignored the prompting thinking it was my over active mind worrying. I ignored it so much that I made comments to Dave as we drove how grateful I was to have a car that we knew was in fabulous working condition and that we didn't need to worry abou it. But as I have processed this whole even I have realized that this impression is actually very important.  I will explain later in the post.

We drove through Colorado and started on through Kansas.  Somewhere on I-70 past Colby but before Hays there was a cloud of dust on the highway.  It was clear that an accident on the road had just occured.  As we approached there were several semis stopped on both sides of the highway both east and west bound.  Dave got into the left lane and slowed to about 40 miles per hour because people were exciting their vehicles to help the accident that had just occured and was in the median.  We drove at this speed for about 1 minute.  The girls were asleep.

Suddenly, I heard the girl's screaming I looked around and realized we were being pushed.  I looked back at the girl's and watched Dave.  The car came to a stop.  I unbuckled Jade and handed her out to Dave who immediatly exited the car through my door.  His door was jammed.  I then unbuckled Layla, grabbed her, grabbed my shoes and backpack I use as a purse and ran to the middle of the median.  I found one of our pillows on the way, put Layla on it and told her not to move.  I ran to Dave who had gone to the car behind us to help and grabbed Jade from his arms.  I ran back to Layla and the three of us sat in the middle of the median as many, many good samiratans came to our aid.  There were several emergency vehicles already on the scene to help the other accident that happened before ours.

People began collecting our Christmas presents from across the highway and putting them in a pile by us.  I sat with the girls and tried to calm them down.  Layla was crying hysterically, Jade was very quiet but alert.  We all were fine with no injuries.  Emergency personnel began coming up to us to check us out.  Dave was running around collecting our items and helping the other driver who was injured.  I was brought an envelope that I was carrying from sister containing 90 year old letters that my great grand-father had written while on a mission in Germany.

We decided to go to the local hospital to be checked out.  I wanted to make sure the baby was OK.  So we left almost all of our belongings on the side of the road and our crushed car and went to a small local hospital in Quinter, Kansas.  We were all checked out and just fine.  We had a little whiplash and Dave had one glass scratch on his arm. 

While at the hospital, the other drivers involved in both accidents were brought there too.  We were able to piece together what had happened.  We were rear ended going 40 miles per hour by a single lady around 60 years old going 80 miles per hour.  Her car locked under our car and pushed us then detached at some point and we skidded another 225 feet until we stopped.  Witnesses from the other accident said they were shocked we were hit and that we didn't flip.  Because we didn't all the sudden slow down.  The lady behind us really was just not paying attention at all.  She came out of the accident with a few broken ribs but other than that fine.  Our car was totally crunched in the back to where the girl's were sitting.  The back window was blown out.