The Phone Call...

Did you ever get one of those phone calls where you just know the news is not good? Happened to me last night at about 8:00. My MIL called and says... "Carrie, okay... we are on our way to *** (the town where my SIL lives)." Now I just spent an hour on the phone with that SIL earlier today... all was good. No mention of mom and dad coming for a visit. So I knew... I just knew this was not a pleasure visit. Apparently, my SIL, her husband and three kids (6, 4, and 22 days) were in a car accident. All air left my lungs... Her next words were that everyone was okay... they were being released from ER. Other than some bumps, bruises, cuts and probably very sore... all are okay. But when I think about how bad this could've been... it just tears at me. Somebody "upstairs" was watching out for them.

Apparently, their minivan was hit by a woman who had fallen asleep and ran a red light. Her story... her daughter had just had a baby last night and she had been up all night with her. When I thought about what her lack of sleep could've resulted in, I was angry, pissed off and then had to realize that this could've been me. If you knew how many times I have driven on a lack of sleep... sometimes I had gone 30, 36 hours without sleep... sometimes I had only an hour or two. And there is even one time that I can remember driving with the kids in the van with me (don't remember what was so important that I needed to drive to it without proper sleep... couldn't have been that important that I had to risk my kids lives.) We were two miles from home and I remember telling the kids to watch my eyes... if they started to close, they needed to shout at me... Which they ended up doing a few times on that short but very long ride home. That right there is reason enough to be glad for my job change this month. I was extremely lucky. I very easily could've been that woman yesterday who nearly destroyed a family very dear to me.

So I owe many thanks to Him... for watching over my SIL and her family last night... and for always having an eye on me for all the times that I drove on minimal or no sleep at all. And for those of you reading this... I hope you never get THAT phone call where you know the news is not good.