I'm Thankful

This is a day when all I can muster in my heart is, “Thank you, God.”

Ironically, after yesterday’s post, I got the late night phone call that every parent dreads: “Mom, I’ve been in a car accident.” My daughter and three of her friends, driving home from a football game, were in a bad accident . The driver of the car, cut off by another vehicle, hit the guard rail going 50 miles an hour and crashed into the median, totaling the car. Thankfully, all four teens walked away with relatively minor injuries.

My heart dropped to my stomach as I arrived at the scene, road blocks set up, emergency lights flashing, and saw the front end of the car, completely smashed. I climbed into the ambulance to see the four teens, being attended to by the paramedics, huddled together, upset and comforting each other.

I shared a bond with the other parents who rushed to the scene, grabbed their kids in bear hugs, and said over and over, “Thank God you’re alive!” The same unspoken thoughts clouded our hearts. Many other scenarios have played out in my mind since, over and over again, like a movie reel that is stuck. The “what if’s.” It could have ended very differently. One of the fire fighters told us, “They’re very lucky.”

Yesterday, before the accident, I was annoyed with my teenage daughter over the usual. The empty liter bottle in the fridge that somehow didn’t make it to the recycling bin, the wet towel left on the floor of the bathroom, the unsatisfactory trigonometry grade.

Today I drove past the scene of the accident, viewing it in the daylight. I saw the guard rail that had been cut away, the skid marks and oil stains. Reminders of how very blessed I am to still have my daughter with me, the annoyances of yesterday now completely insignificant. I will hug her often today and remember just how passionately I love her.

Yesterday morning I asked God to protect my children. And in His love and mercy, He did. And today I say, “Thank you, thank you, God.”