I was knocked to my knees! No, literally, I was knocked to my knees. Just seconds earlier I was curbside and getting my children out of the van to go swimming at my friend’s house. Then, before I knew it, I was whipping through the air, landing on my knees, struggling to regain my footing, and then landing again on the dusty bike path along the parkway. Where was the van? Where were the kiddos? What was happening? Each time I tried to get up, my head spun and my struggles turned to falls. All I could do was sit there in the shadows of the trees and wait for help.
* “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in Whom I trust” (Psalm 91:1-2).
I screamed! I screamed so hard I shrieked! “Help me! I need my boys! Someone help me find my kids!” No one answered. By now my black-and-white vision had lifted, and the shimmering glass scattered around the spare tire on the roadway made me realize we had been hit! The van, however, was nowhere to be seen, the other driver was not there, and worst of all, my boys, ages 2 and 5 weeks, had seemed to vanish into thin air. Where was everyone? I was very alone.
* “O Lord, You have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether…. Where shall I go from Your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me” (Psalm 139:1-4, 7-10).
My friend Bekah came running across the street from her house. She had heard the crash and the screaming, but when she first arrived on the scene, she saw nothing. After scanning the area, she saw me and I begged her to find the kids. I tried to get up to help her, but she looked at my arm and told me to stay. “Is it attached?” I asked. She nodded but told me to just keep holding it.
Bekah spotted the van and was able to see inside part of it from a distance. “Um, the baby’s car seat is not in its base!” We panicked for a minute until another friend, Stacy, came out and pointed behind me. “Help me!” Bekah and Stacy carefully lifted the sliding van door off of the top of baby Zach’s car seat. “He’s alive!” They cried as they brought him in his little baby seat over to me. He was sucking his favorite two fingers and looking up at me with his sweet little eyes. For the first time during the whole ordeal, I my eyes filled with tears — tears of joy.
* “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice” (Philippians 4:4).
“Now let’s get Jake! We need to get Jake!” We all called out to little Jacob as Bekah and Stacy scoured the thick brush behind. “Jake! Jaker Baker!” Where could he be? Why would he be this quiet? I dreaded to hear what Bekah and Stacy might find. How would I ever survive such news? I sat there with my twisted arm clasped in its opposite hand. I could barely breathe; I was numb.
“There’s another one in the car and he’s just fine!” Unbeknownst to us, another man had entered the scene and had found Jacob still sitting in the van down in the ditch. “Do you want me to take him out and bring him up to you?”
“Oh, thank God! Yes! Please bring him up!” My tears of worry and sorrow soon turned to joy as I saw Jacob’s precious little face looking puzzled at the events.
* “You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy” (John 16:20b).
“Jacob, look at the big fire truck! It’s here to help Mommy! Wow!” I tried to keep his mind alert and his body calm by talking with him and letting him know that we were getting help. The rescue workers, family members, and other people from the neighborhood were all starting to flood the scene, and, oddly, it felt good. We were not alone; help was there!
* “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; He Who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand” (Psalm 121:1-5).
Shortly after they loaded the boys and me into the ambulance, my husband, Matt, arrived and hopped into the back of the ambulance too! At the hospital, I began my healing journey that would include blood clot treatments, 4 surgeries, and 60+ physical therapy sessions for my broken arm. My boys, thank God, were checked out right next door in the children’s emergency room and given a clean bill of health. Interestingly, however, when the police officer asked Jacob about his “ride” down into the ditch, my very verbal son, who had recently learned the word “gorgeous,” exclaimed, “The ‘borgeous’ man sat next to me and held my hand and said, ‘It’s O.K., Jake! It’s O.K.!’ And then we went boom into the tree!”
* “For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways” (Psalm 91:11).