Today was getting rough before we even left the house. We were headed to have dinner with Amy's uncle Bill. Amy's aunt died a little over a week ago, quite unexpectedly, and it has hit the family hard. We made dinner plans that included Amy's brother and his family, and another of Amy's aunts. Amy worked hard in the kitchen all day, and we left a little late, as usual, but we still managed to get out there pretty close to on time.

Unfortunately, one of the tea pitchers we had in the back turned over and spilled -- pouring about a third of a gallon of concentrated sweet tea all over the back of our three-month-old van. So when we got to Bill's, instead of me watching the kids while Amy got dinner set out, I was outside cleaning the car, hosing off the removable cargo bins, rushing to keep ants out of our stuff.

At one point after dinner, I was sitting at the breakfast bar, holding Jeremiah, trying to keep him from getting into everything. Before I realized it, he had grabbed a candle in a glass candlestick (and a big one at that, too), and it fell to the floor in a big crash, pieces going everywhere.

As we were preparing to leave, I got back outside and found ants all over the cargo bin - which had been left outside to dry, but I suppose hadn't been cleaned off as well as it needed. So I spent a few minutes getting a couple of dozen ants off of it as it began to rain. Eventually I figured I had gotten enough of them, and put it back into the car as Amy put Jeremiah in.

I went back inside to say goodbye, and as I got to the front door with McKenna, the windows of heaven opened up and there was a huge downpour. With the umbrella in the car (with ants likely in there, I figured), I just went on and put McKenna in the car, bucked her seat belt, closed the door, and hopped in, by which time the back of my shirt was soaking wet.

We pulled out of the neighborhood and onto Pleasant Hill, making our way slowly since the rain was pretty extreme and visibility was low. The traffic light at Pleasant Hill and Peachtree Industrial was out -- if you've ever had to honor a 4-way stop with three lanes of traffic each direction, I don't have to try to describe how frustrating that was. Obviously, people have very little courtesy in situations like that.

We turned left onto McClure Bridge Road to head through downtown Duluth, and the rain was just as bad as ever. I was watching the side of the road since the middle line was difficult to see, and keeping my speed pretty low, watching for big puddles and what not.

All of a sudden, I heard Amy scream "watch out!" Followed by one long, deafening, intense scream. I looked ahead to see a car in our lane, headed straight towards us. Either he had been going too fast and hydroplaned or simply couldn't see where he was going. Or possibly both. I was expecting him to swerve back into his lane at any moment -- but he didn't. At the last moment, I served onto the left side of the road and around him completely.

As I moved back into my lane, we could see behind us that the car had gotten back around to the correct side of the road and moved on. After I could hear again, Jeremiah was crying and McKenna was asking what was wrong.

Everyone in the Mooney clan knows this, but for those that don't, we were less than two miles away from the location of the wreck where I was seriously injured over fourteen years ago. God protected our family then -- and He protected my family tonight as well.

I was speechless for most of the drive home, kind of in a half daze. Except for when we were on Ga 120, nearing Satellite Blvd, and I see a guy in the middle of the road (it had just stopped raining), waving one of those little red batons. I slowed to stop, not knowing what was going on, and it was a cop, trying to stop traffic, to let a single car out of the Korean church. No police lights on or anything, just a guy in a vest waving a little red baton trying to get people to stop who are going 50 miles an hour downhill on wet roads. We were, of course, going much slower since I was still a bit shaken up, but traffic coming the other way (which had not been slammed by this storm yet) was not stopping, and this cop was getting angry. I bit my tongue and waited to be waved on, but after what we had gone through tonight I felt that this was downright silly. If he wanted people to stop, he should have been a little more conspicuous.

We made it the rest of the way home without incident, though we did pass by a wreck at Sugarloaf and Old Norcross that was halfway cleared. Other than that, McKenna wanted us to repeatedly explain to her what had happened when Mommy screamed. Three-year-olds want to know everything about the world around them.

So we got home, brought the kids in, and as I was unloading the car, I found a few more ants, of course. The kids are now in bed, the trash has been taken out, and we can still hear some distant thunder that keeps the adventure of this evening fresh in our minds.

Still wearing a damp t-shirt (from getting soaked nearly two hours ago now), events play out in my mind, as well as big "if's". If I had been going faster, if he had been going faster. If I had panicked. If he had gained control and swerved back into his lane as I was swerving around him. If there had been another car right behind me that might not have known what to do, either. If I had gone through that unexpected 4-way stop sooner, or later. If the light had been working. If I had chosen to take a different route (I almost did choose to avoid that road).

But most of all, what's going through my head is that now, as it was fourteen years ago - God has designs for us, and He is in control. And that no matter whether we escape without injury, survive with major injuries, live with life-long limitations, or die unexpectedly -- what is important is that God is honored above all else, and that we understand that our time here is limited and is to be valued like nothing else.

Labels: life