Blessed

So, this post is a little different.  It's not about Josh.  It's about me.  Weird, I know, but this is a story that I need to share.  So, here goes.

Mike and I went out of town on a 'vacation' of sorts this past Wed, Thurs, and Fri.  Mike would argue about the 'vacation' part since he had meetings all day, but I was definitely on vacation.  Kat and Misty were kind enough to take care of Josh and get him to and from school and all that jazz.  Friday I had agreed to do a research MRI in SLC and so the plan was that I would leave at 6:30 Fri morning and Mike would come home with a coworker after his morning meetings.  Friday morning I was up and ready to go by 6:15 and stopped to get gas and fill up the tires with air.  I also said a prayer of safety, mostly thinking of Josh and Gideon, never dreaming it would end up being for me.  I was on the road by 6:38 and my BFF (aka my GPS) predicted that I would arrive at my destination  40 min before I needed to be there.  I had plenty of time.

The weather was not great.  I drove through pockets of rain and snow and even stretches of dry, mostly clear skies.  I had been driving for about 3 1/2 hrs and it wasn't raining or snowing at this point but there were some wet spots on the road, when something terrible happened.  I had just passed some people so I was in the left lane, not speeding, but definitely going faster than I probably should have been, when I hit a huge patch of standing water.  My car started hydroplaning and heading straight for the center divider.  I tried to straighten out but it didn't seem to do any good so I finally over corrected and my car responded by sailing across the lanes and spinning around.  I was going backwards for a bit until I did another full turn, hit one of those metal mile post markers (but without the mile marker on it) and came to a stop on the right shoulder, perpendicular to the freeway.

I was freaked out.  I couldn't believe what had just happened.  I got out of the car to see what damage that metal pole had done to the car and to see if I would be able to get off the shoulder.  I could smell something, but couldn't tell if it was just burned rubber or antifreeze.  As I walked around the car, I couldn't see any obvious damage but I knew that I had hit the pole and so I figured there must be damage underneath.  A nice guy had stopped to see if I was ok, and he helped me push my car out of the soft shoulder.  Mike called at that exact moment and I tried to hold it together as I talked with him and told him what had happened.  He suggested that I take the car to a mechanic and have them check out the bottom to see the damage.  I was close to an exit and since the car seemed to be running ok I decided to take that exit and see if I could find a mechanic.  Before I drove off, I looked at my tire tracks and saw how they went straight into the metal pole that was now bent almost to the ground.

I found a mechanic and they were super kind about getting my car in so that they could look at it.  After what felt like forever, the mechanic came out to talk to me and said that my back right tire was way bad and that two out of the other three really needed to be replaced too but that he didn't carry those size tires and I would need to go somewhere else to get them.  But besides that, he could find nothing wrong with the car.  There was no damage to the underside and there was nothing leaking or punctured.  I couldn't believe it.

I canceled my appointment in SLC and headed home.  I had kept my composure until I arrived safely home and knelt down to say a prayer.  Then everything came out and I started bawling.  It was a very scary experience but I was also overwhelmed with the protection I had been blessed with.  Even with all the other cars on the road, at the time I was out of control, there was not a single car anywhere close to me.  I KNOW I hit that metal pole.  I felt the hit and I saw my tire marks run straight into it.  But neither I nor Mike can find any body damage to the car and the mechanic wasn't able to find anything wrong underneath it.  There's no luck about any of it.  I know that I was protected and blessed.  I'm so grateful for the power of prayer and I know that Heavenly Father was watching over me.