Lat night, we got into an accident on I-5 as we were heading south to go see the festive lights and such in Bellevue. We were rear-ended while coming to a stop and hit the car in front of us. Thankfully, little man was asleep when it happened, rear-facing in his car seat, and was laughing and playing with the accident response folks minutes after it all happened. I, however, shook from shock for awhile. I was rear-ended a few years ago, so I got to re-live some of that accident during this experience.

A couple amusing things from the experience:

A.  Apparently, my first reaction to being hit while on the road is to cry out an annoyed/irritated, “Hey!” I was rear-ended around 5 years ago, during which my first reaction was to yell out, “Hey!” as I was pushed across an intersection.

B.  Rich and I were first concerned about little man. Rich got out of the car and walked towards the driver of the car that hit us yelling, “Hey! We have a baby in the car!!” as though knowing that would have stopped the accident from occuring in the first place. I was screaming awhile, scared that little man had been hurt. Once Rich showed me little man was okay, I started screaming and shaking for other reasons.

C.  This would possibly have been a fine opportunity for some choice language to be used. However, when the driver of the car (a woman) behind us came to see if everyone was all right, I turned and started screaming at her, “You FREAKING…!!!” I stopped in part because Rich started calming me down, and in part because I couldn’t think of a single mean word/name to use! (And I really did scream the word “freaking” at her. It was the only word I could think to use.)

I had neck pain from being hit, and because of the prior accident, decided to be safe and get checked at the hospital. I got strapped to a backboard, neck and back immobilized. Thankfully, there was no serious damage. As I lay strapped on the board in the hospital, I decided to start counting blessings.

A.  Grateful for having kept little man rear-facing in his car seat after his first birthday. We saw no point to turning him around, since he wasn’t making a fuss about it. I kept thinking last night how grateful I was he was literally laughing and playing with emergency staff minutes after the collision. Having taken the force feet-first, he didn’t even seem to be sore later in the evening!

B.  Grateful I started weaning little man from nursing so much. A week ago, he was nursing every few hours. It made his waiting at the hospital much easier on all of us, including our friends who came to help watch him while I was being examined.

B.  Grateful we already fought the sleep battles. He slept through the night before, and slept through the night after. I feel like God gave us a little tender mercy of rest right when we needed it.

C.  Grateful for a second set of wheels. It means we can still go home for Christmas.

D.  Grateful that, even without the second car, we live super close to a few grocery stores, a pharmacy, and even places to eat if we wanted to eat out.

E.  Grateful for the friends who came to help us last night both at the hospital and at home. I know there are many more who stand ready to help, too.

F.  Grateful for my heroic husband who made sure we were ok, took control of the situation, talking to emergency responders, giving info, calming me down, and was just such a rock through it all. My husband is my hero.

G.  Grateful for insurance. So, so, SO grateful for insurance.

The list goes on, but those things have made the top of my list in the past 24 hours.

Bottom line, I’m grateful for a healthy family and wonderful friends this Christmas. So grateful!