Only by the Grace of God

Needless to say my week last week was not one of the best. What most of you don't know is that after all the other crap that went on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Thursday added not only the whipped cream, but the cherry to my week.

At night, to avoid repeated interruptions in my sleep and my husbands sleep I set my phone to ring only. That way I am not hearing beep, beep, beep when emails, text messages, and whatever else is sent to my blackberry arrives. That being said I didn't change anything about my routine Wednesday night prior to closing my eyes. Why would I?...I had just hung up the phone with my hubby who was out of town and headed back the next morning. Well....at 7:30 my phone rang...it was Luke...
"Did you not get my text?"
Me: "No"
Luke:" I was in a wreck this morning"
Me (interrupting): "Are you hurt?"
Luke: "Yes..I am at Crisp Co. Hospital"
Me: " I am on my way"
Luke: OK

OK now the kids are still at home, I have not had a shower, and I am starting to scream at them to go to Ms. Keisha's house.

Ever lost your mind first thing in the morning? I did Thursday morning.

Well, I managed to get the kids out the door with lunches in hand, get a shower, call Mark (Luke's brother who used to work in South Georgia for FEMA), and get out the door in less than 30 minutes. New record for me!!!

I managed to get a cup of coffee and a muffin at Starbucks on Main Street too. And can you believe the guy at the counter...He asked if I wanted whipped cream....UH, YEAH!!! and Whole milk...Oh, and while your at it throw in an extra shot of Espresso...I have a LONG drive. Now, this may seem like an unnecessary stop to some of you, but I needed something to eat as I didn't get it on my way out the door and I thought the caffeine and sugar would help my nerves a little. No such luck.

Well, I managed to make it through rush hour traffic and head south to exit 102 (I live at 290 so that is like 188 miles, roughly 2.5-3 hrs with no traffic) I made it in the allotted time of no traffic. Yes, I did get stopped for speeding, but I think I have an out and the Supervisor of the officer that pulled me over is investigating the situation. (I will post on that tomorrow or Tuesday when I get my answer).

I arrived at Crisp Co. Hospital (no thanks to the officer that stopped me) to find my husband with a black eye, 8 stitches in the left side of his head, road rash on the left side of his face, shoulder, and blood everywhere. Talk about thankful. He looked bad, but he was alive, talking, and walking in his trauma room. The workman's comp/DOT compliance lady from his office arrived the same time I did, but that is another post too. I managed to get him settled, stitched some more (he had pulled a large piece of glass out of his cheek and that needed stitches too) 3 more to be exact on his left cheek. Ice packs applied to the face seemed to help with the pain. The hospital said that all of the x-rays, and CT scans were clear. They didn't see any broken bones, or a concussion.

We left the hospital grabbed a bite of lunch at Mickey D's and headed to see the vac truck and collect what we could of his personal belongings. When we arrived at the wrecker service to see the truck I almost lost my composure. The following is what I saw.



I don't know how my husband got out of that alive, but he did and I praise Jesus for it. Luke said that he had started to doubt that he was going to make it out as he was skidding across I-75 Northbound. I can't tell you how sobering it is to actually see the damage that is on that truck and to think that only 3 weeks ago I was in the passenger seat of that truck coming home from Houston.

Now to answer the BIGGER question you are asking....WHAT HAPPENED? Apparently, as Luke was coming up I-75 North around exit 82 there is a rest stop. A white Ford minivan was starting to come up the on ramp as Luke approached the on ramp. Luke was traveling approx 65 mph in the right hand lane and the minivan(traveling approx 30 mph) decided that they were going to just enter the interstate without using the acceleration lane. They just hung a left on the interstate in front of Luke. Luke said his first thought was OMG if I hit them they are dead and he made as smooth a transition as he could to the right to use the acceleration lane as his "out". Then the idiot driving the minivan, either 1) realized what they had done 2) was on the phone or 3) had a death wish, pulled back right and slammed on their brakes (right in front of Luke again). This caused Luke to have to make a HARD left hand swerve to miss hitting them for the second time. Luke was loaded with water from the EFR (don't know what this is) he was doing in Tifton, and weighed approx 60,000 lbs. The water due to the right hand turn and then the hard left hand turn surged, caused the back tires to blow out and the vac-truck to tip to the left thus causing the above picture.

The people in the minivan did NOT stop. They kept driving. If they only understood that by Luke's evasive maneuvers they are still alive.

Anyway, 2 other truck drivers stopped to help Luke and told him they had no idea how he managed not to hit/run over that minivan. (I know...it was by the Grace of God that he didn't kill those people or himself) They even stayed after the ambulance took Luke to the hospital to give their statements to GSP, local police, and motor vehicle compliance officers. Due to the generosity of those drivers my husband has no charges, no fault, and nothing on his record. Usually a roll over like this is faulted to the driver due to excessive speed, or careless driving. None of which Luke was doing. He was under the speed limit, under weight for the truck, and the only reason he had to move out of his lane of travel was the idiot in the minivan.

I did manage to get him home after the review of what happened and it has been a long weekend.

Luke is bruised but not broken, in pain but not dead. It will be several days/weeks before he is back to remotely normal and I don't think I'll ever sleep well again when he is out of town on a job.

For those of you who knew and prayed...Thank you

For those who didn't and just said a word of praise...Thank you.

It is a good reminder that God has met us in our deepest need....just as we need him the most. God is always with us....his timing is always perfect. It is amazing the calm that I felt when I heard Luke's voice on the phone on my way to him. God was saying to me that even though he is hurt...he is alive...even though I am not right there....HE is. Thank you Jesus for being the steady rock on which I can lean and stand. Thank you for giving me peace in times of turmoil.

My weakness is your strength. My faith is small, but your are GREAT!!! I can do all things ( can go through anything) through Christ who strengthens me.

Have a great Memorial Day!!!