A Sunday Evening We Won't Forget // Part II

So many things happened all at once. First, I heard the crunch of metal, and then it sounded like a bomb had gone off. I went forward a bit before the seatbelt tightened. I felt something in my right shoulder area break. Then I felt pain in my legs. There was smoke, the console was black, there was a siren sound, and all of the interior lights turned on.  I couldn't see much of anything else - my glasses had flown off. Emery was panicking, and I reached over to her, "Are you okay?! Are you okay?!" She confirmed that physically, she felt okay. I tried to calm her down and told her to stay put until help arrived. "We're okay. We're going to be okay. It's okay. It's okay." I kept repeating that out loud as if I were trying to reassure myself just as much as her. There was so much going through my mind. She responded with, "This is not okay. I can't believe that just happened. This is not okay." And that's when we heard the voices outside the vehicle. 

I heard someone start pulling on the driver's side door, and then asking if Emery was okay. He had a very calming voice and asked her questions to help her focus and perform a body check. She stated she was okay and asked him to help me out of the vehicle. He assured her they would help me, and then I could hear him asking someone else to escort Emery off to the side grassy area. That's about the time that the police, fire department, and ambulance arrived. I heard another voice on my side, and then the door was being pulled open. I could see the flashing red and blue lights. But I let them know that everything was blurry to me because my glasses were off. I couldn't find my shoes either. They asked me the same questions that they asked my daughter. And I let them know that I was hurt. They helped me get my shoes on and out of the vehicle. Two people helped me walk over to the side where Emery was sitting.  

The rest happened so fast. We kept being asked what had happened and what we remembered. All of those who responded to the accident needed to hear our side of what happened. Someone told us that the other driver tried leaving the scene and that he smelled of alcohol. Another person said beer bottles had fallen out of the other driver's vehicle when he opened his door to get out. Several witnesses were there with us and they kept telling us and the police officers that the accident was not our fault. "Your light was green, and he just turned into your lane - hitting you head-on." There was yelling, and I could feel a lot of pain in my body. Emery expressed how thankful she was that we didn't have her little brother with us. She verbalized what I had been thinking. A police officer was able to find Emery's phone, and I told her to call Corey. We let him know what happened, and he said he had gotten an alert on his phone. He would be there as soon as he could. Again, we were asked what happened. I refused to be transported by ambulance, "My husband is on his way, the hospital is close, he can take me." I had to sign paperwork for that. Oddly, even in that pain, I was worried about the medical bills. 

When Corey arrived, he was able to help me up and into the truck. He asked if they could look for my phone and my glasses. Thankfully, they were able to find both. My glasses were broken, but I was still able to put them up to my face to take a look around. And y'all, when I saw our vehicle...I was so thankful to God that we weren't more seriously hurt, and that we were both still here. Pretty banged up, but alive.  

Our vehicle is on the left

I was still in a bit of shock, and I felt cold. I called my mom and dad to tell them what happened. She said they would meet us at the hospital. I asked Corey about our son, and he said he was being cared for by his uncle and aunt. Then Corey drove us to the hospital, and that whole process was less than ideal. However, it was confirmed that I had broken my collarbone. A police officer came in and asked for more of our information. She also wanted our permission to receive our medical information from that night, as she wanted to arrest the other driver. The only thing I can say is that he was drunk, confirmed by several police officers, a firefighter, and two nurses. So I agreed. There were a lot of emotions as I sat there. Anger, guilt, fear, and thankfulness. But I reassured Emery that this was not her fault. And she didn't do anything differently than what I would have done. 

I won't dive into the rest of the details, because we'd be here forever. But after a few hours, I was released in a sling with instructions to contact an orthopedic surgeon. We did the following day. I had surgery two days later, and then the recovery process began. It has been a rocky road ever since. Recovery, both physically and emotionally, has been intense. I had to take a lot of time off from work, and I went several weeks without being able to hold my son. Several more before I was even able to pick him up. My daughter is still having to work through the trauma of what happened, and thankfully, we were able to have her start counselling almost immediately after the accident. Corey had to take time off from work, which set us back even more financially. I'm still trying to process my feelings and work through the trauma. I'm also trying to find it in me to forgive the other driver. 

Then the bills started coming in. My vehicle had been totaled, which meant we had to purchase another one by the time I went back to work. And y'all, it has been rough. There have been weeks where we haven't known how bills would get paid or if we'd have enough money for all the groceries. To add to that, a week after my surgery, we were informed that the vehicle's owner had reported to his insurance company that the driver was not authorized to drive the vehicle. So, their insurance informed our lawyer that they were not responsible for damages. And my health insurance has filed a lien because I sustained injuries in a car accident - that means they don't believe they should have had to pay for my medical visits/surgery. How awesome is that? Please read that with a heavy dose of sarcasm. 

So yeah, that's life lately. It's been a bit of a doozy. We still don't know how we're going to get by on most days. But so far, God's provided enough for us to squeak by on bills, food, and the necessities. Right now, so much is out of our control, and I can't give a lot of mental energy to all of the negative. I tell myself that I need to trust our lawyer to figure out the best solution for us. And every time I start to feel overwhelmed by it all, I just think about how grateful I am to be here. How grateful I am that my daughter is here. How thankful I am that my husband and son were not with us that evening. I thank God for another day, and just do my best to move forward. 

Wordless Wednesday

A Sunday Evening We Won't Forget // Part I

Where to begin? Well, March was going by rather smoothly for us. We were getting into a routine. My daughter's athletic commitments were winding down. I was getting into a groove at work. We were finally getting to go back to church. And financially, we were getting by. Life was starting to feel relatively normal again. However, in the blink of an eye, our lives were disrupted - our plans and progress halted.

On the evening of March 30, I woke up from a nice nap with my son. My husband came into the room and said, "Ice cream sounds really good right about now." I rolled my eyes and laughed while responding, "Okay, okay. We'll go get ice cream." My husband said, "I'll stay home with the baby so Emery can drive and y'all can have some time together." I walked over to Emery's room and asked if she wanted to go into town, and she could drive. Her head popped out from her closet door, her hair in a heatless curl set, and she immediately said, "YES!" She grabbed her sunglasses and off we went to grab some ice cream. The drive there was so fun! We had a great playlist going, and talked about the track meet coming up. Emery was ready for the season to be over, but was really excited about the last track meet with her friends. I had already requested time off work for that Monday so I could go watch her run. She grumbled that it wasn't a big deal, but that she was okay with me showing up. You know, teenagers.  

As we turned into the Dairy Queen parking lot, we both noticed how long the line was. We sat in the drive-thru line for about 15 minutes before we even got our order in. I took a picture of us and the line ahead of us to send to Corey. The things we do for those we love, right? When we finally got to the pick-up window, it was just after 8 PM. Emery said she wanted to avoid the normal route because there were so many cars, and instead, she wanted to go through the lights on the loop. I told her that was fine. We headed out of the parking lot and started the trip home. As we came to a light, I kicked off my sandals and picked up Corey's DQ Blizzard to have a taste. Emery teased me, "You got your own ice cream, and you're still eating Corey's." I told her that I was just tasting it because it looked similar to mine, and I wanted to make sure they hadn't gotten the order wrong. We laughed as she turned onto the loop. It was such a smooth turn, and I complimented her on how she handled it. We got to a second light, and she asked me to change the song, so I reached for the phone and found a different playlist. I set the phone back down and went to reach for my Blizzard. The light was green, and we were just passing under it when I saw the front of a Dodge pick-up truck as it swerved into our lane and hit us head-on.