One year ago...

It was a rainy Friday morning June, 2009. I was headed to the school to pick up the kids year book. We were leaving for the weekend to attend my newphew's baptism as soon as I got back. I had Zach in the front with me. Shaelynne, Henry, and Kate were with me. Alexys and Justyn stayed home.

We pulled onto the highway near my home and I told Shaelynne to make sure the two younger kids were buckled up. They weren't so she put their seat belts on them.

Less than 5 minutes later I rear ended a truck. I have no idea where he came from. He was just suddenly in front of me, stopped and waiting to turn onto a side street, and there was nothing I could do but hit my brakes and pray. We were traveling 45 mph. I hit the breaks as hard as I could. We hit the back of the trunk and bounced off the truck.

We didn't stop. We were still moving....FAST! The impact bounced us off the road so we were traveling down a grassy patch along the side of the road. I hit the brakes again. NOTHING!!! They were broke. I tried the E-Brake. NOTHING!! It was also broke.

We were still traveling about 35 mph hour. I had no brakes, very little steering, steam was coming out of the hood of the car, 4 of my 6 kids in the car with me, and I had no way of stopping the vehicle.

The grassy lane was coming to an end and then what. My only thought was that I had to find something else to hit so the car would stop moving. But what damage would that cause? And what was I going to hit?

I screamed, "Zach, I can't stop the car! The brakes don't work!"
He calmly said, "Turn the car off!"
"What????"
"Mom, Turn the car OFF!!!"
"How?"
"If you turn the key to off, the car will stop!"

So I did! And the car slowed down and came to a peaceful stop. No one was hurt. I only scraped my big toe because I was wearing sandals. The air bags never deployed. The kids were all buckled in. And Zach saved us from further damage.

Later, I asked Zach how he knew what to do. He said that he had been reading on the internet the night before about what to do if your brakes don't work on your vehicle. One of the things it said to do was turn the key off. So that's what he told me to do.





When they repaired the vehicle, they told me that they had never seen an accident like this. According to all the figures, the damage should have been different and worse. The way the car hit was a miracle. I think the whole accident was filled with miracles. Do you believe in tender mercies from the Lord???