The Big Roll

This is a blog post that I've been writing for a while.  It's taken me a long time to get the whole story down, so don't feel bad if you don't want to read it all!



Warning:  Long Story Ahead

Once in a while, there is a family in our church who let us use their time share so we can have a little vacation/family time.  It's been a huge blessing, and we were so excited to be able to go to Traverse City the week before Christmas.

We left Sunday evening and were planning to stay until Wednesday or Thursday.  The roads were a bit snowy (it was December in Michigan...snow was to be expected) but not too horrible.  We had big plans for the week....relaxing, visiting the pool and hot tub, going to the children's museum, and hanging out with some extended family in Traverse City.

As we traveled north, the roads became more snowy and the wind was really blowing.  The girls were watching a movie and I had to get up and give Gianna an empty cup to puke in...she was getting car sick, probably from the wind pushing the van around. 

I sat back down in my seat, buckled my seat belt, and was preparing to call Brooks' parents on speaker phone.  They had just been driving south from Sault Ste Marie, and we wanted to see where they were and how the roads were.

Before I knew what was happening, we lost control of the van.  Brooks was driving and still doesn't really know what happened.  We don't know if we hit a patch of ice, or the wind caught the van on some slippery road, or what happened.  But we swerved, slid into the other lane, and ended up driving into the ditch at a sharp angle.

We slammed into the ditch and the van rolled....360 degrees and a bit more.  We came to a stop on the driver's side, which means I was hanging down from my seat belt.  We were all fine.  Scared, bruised, and in a bit of shock, but fine.

Brooks and I got the girls out of their car seats and little Jorja was still sleeping when we unhooked her from her car seat.  I was amazed that the girls were unharmed.  Gianna had a little bump and bruise on one of her eyebrows, but nothing serious.  Some nice people stopped and opened the back of the van so we could get out.  Soon, an ambulance arrived and we were able to get into the back of the ambulance to keep warm.

Thankfully, we had some amazing family members who came to our rescue with a big 15 passenger van with four wheel drive.  To make a LONG story a bit shorter, we went up and stayed up in Traverse City as planned (we were closer to TC than home), so we could heal and figure out what to do.  We didn't have a vehicle anymore, so thankfully, our family let us borrow the 15 passenger van.

It was quite a trip.  Our van was totaled.  But through the entire situation, we saw God's hand.  And because I know my girls will someday read this, I wanted to remember how God was faithful.

1.  Two weeks before this trip, we got a phone call from some family members who said they just bought a new vehicle and they had a mini van that they wanted to GIVE us.  For free.  Seriously...it was crazy.  We were surprised, humbled, and very much in awe of the generosity of this gift.  And it was a NICE van, too!  At the time, we prayed about it and accepted the offer, not knowing that soon we would need that vehicle.

2. We weren't injured.  Just minutes before the accident, I was walking around in the back of the van.  If the accident would have happened then, or if I wouldn't have buckled my seat belt when I sat back down (which I do, occasionally)...I don't know what would have happened.

3.  We had people stop and help us.  They opened up the back of the van and told us to hand them the girls....that they would put them in their cars to keep them warm.  It was really windy...and cold...and the snow was coming down like crazy.  We were terrified to hand the girls out to strangers.  Brooks asked the man what his name was, and he said, "Jason".  Jason is Brooks' oldest brother...Brooks felt that God was reassuring him that we could trust this guy.

4. The ambulance drivers were two 20-something ladies.  They were so sweet and helpful...and very willing to entertain four little girls.

5.  Our family is not tiny.  So having a vehicle that can handle four car seats is unusual.  It just happened that some of our extended family had a huge 15 passenger van that they let us borrow.  And it had four wheel drive, which is super unusual for those vans.   They were so, so generous in letting us borrow the van--it would have cost us a LOT of money to rent a vehicle that would fit our family.


Here are some pictures of the van after the accident...

This was after they pulled it upright.  You can see the snow flying.

This is the view from the hotel we stayed at.  It was gorgeous to look at Lake Michigan with the ice and snow on it.

The accident was so scary and I'm just so thankful we are all okay.  The girls were definitely shaken up and still talk occasionally about how our van rolled over.  Yikes.  I don't want to do that again!