Car crash

August 16th I was driving on the way to church and stopped before turning left into the church parking lot because there was a car coming the other direction. I had been stopped for several seconds when we got hit from behind. I got out and tried to open the doors to get the kids out, but the sliding doors wouldn't open, so I climbed back in from the front doors and got them out. By that time people from church had run over to help us, so I handed the kids out to them. The kids were all crying, but were ok, not hurt. Jacob had something hit him in his face, maybe his hand, which made his glasses cut into his face by his nose, but other than that he was ok, just a little dazed.

We got out and it looked like everyone was ok. Someone called 911 and they said they wouldn't send anyone out to the accident since there were no injuries. So we decided to head in to the foyer to exchange our insurance information since it was already hot out even though it was just 9am. Some young men took the other lady's kids in to the nursery to play and some people from our ward took our kids in to sacrament for us. A police car that seemed to just be driving around on patrol stopped to see if we needed anything. They talked to us, then the lady that hit us, and ended up doing a sobriety test on her and taking her in. Apparently she was on meds that she shouldn't have been driving with.

 When we got home from church (thanks to some friends who gave us a ride), I realized we never did get the lady's insurance information. All we had was the police report number. It was a pain in the neck to get the insurance information. After several calls, an unproductive trip downtown, and a few messages left, the detective investigating the case finally called me back on Thursday and got me the insurance information. I was very happy to find out that they had Allstate, too. I know from experience that claims through them are relatively painless.

Anyway, by the following Monday we got the news that they had declared the car a total loss. They gave us $1000 over blue book value for our car, and we got started looking for a new car. Which is to say we called a friend who shops auctions to find us a car.

 We had to go sign the car over to the insurance company, and while we were there I got out the rest of our belongings that were left in the car and took a few pictures.

 This was the most disturbing.

 Annie was sitting in that seat (in a booster) and it was a bit disturbing to see how close the car's crumpling had gotten to her. We said many prayers of thanks for all our protection. Even tonight, 2 1/2 weeks later, Ryan included in his prayer, "Thankful that we were kept safe when our car crashed."

Saturday we got our new car delivered. It's a 2011 Sienna. We named it Sally and I have high hopes that in a year or two maybe we'll get around to painting it a lovely shade of light blue. :)

It drives real nice and we're enjoying the new car. But sad for the money that we weren't planning on spending on a new car yet. Oh well. Such is life.

Looking back, we can see some blessings that came through this experience. There is no better place to get in a crash than right outside our church when our whole ward is there to help. We felt the true meaning of "ward family" that day. There were so many helping hands and offers of help.

That night when I was helping Ryan with his prayers before bed he said, "I want a priesthood prayer. But I don't want you to do it. I want Dad to do it." So Jacob gave him a blessing of comfort. Then Rachel asked for a blessing. After her blessing she told me, "That blessing made me feel loved." I told her that was the Holy Ghost comforting her. Sometimes trials are great for spiritual experiences.

One other blessing I realized in hindsight was that the day before we had driven up to Mesa to go to the temple and visit with Susie and company, so we had changed Megan's car seat so it was facing forward instead of rear-facing so she would be happy for the long drive. That morning before we left I thought maybe I should turn her back around, but just left her seat forward facing and buckled her in. At first I was kicking myself for not turning her around because rear-facing is safer, until I realized that rear-facing is safer for a head-on collision, but forward facing is safest when you're rear-ended. So having Megan forward facing probably saved her from any whiplash or injuries that would have been sustained had she been rear-facing still.

And now my kids pray for safety with more faith, knowing that God does answer our prayers for protection. :)