miracle

"I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust....He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge...for he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways." Psalm 91:2,4,11

Tim and I experienced these words come to true fruition on Saturday. We left for Chicago on that morning to spend a day with the extended Keeler family and watch the magnificant play, "Wicked." While on our way there, we battled some snowy weather and slippery roads. At one point, while traveling westbound on I-94 just before the toll road, we moved to change lanes and got caught up in some slush and snow between lanes. This caused the car to lose traction which Tim tried to correct. Despite this, the back of the car didn't regain traction and we ended up spinning at 60 mph, across 3 lanes of traffic and flew headon into the guardrail on the side of the highway. After hitting the guardrail front on, the back end of the car spun around, hit the guardrail and propelled us back across the 3 lanes of traffic to the other side of the highway. Because both airbags went off (and blew out what smelled like gun smoke, making it really hard to breath), the car automatically shut down but Tim managed to bring the car to rest on the side of the road.
This was by far, the scariest moment of our lives. We were truly protected by God's angels as we walked out of the car without any major injuries, only some really sore necks and some burns/cuts on my face from hitting the airbag. As we took time to call the police and our families (and manage not to get hit while standing on the side of the busy highway), we were in shock but were later able to reflect back on the experience. We both can say that it felt like slow motion as we were spinning towards to guardrail and although this is morbid, we both thought "this is it." After hitting the guardrail and our airbags exploding, throwing Tim's hands off the steering wheel, the rest of the experience was in "real time" and was so fast. I remember bracing myself as we spun back across the highway because I thought there was no way the on-coming traffic wouldn't plow into us. We still can't fathom how there was a break in traffic for that very moment...we consider this a true miracle and are so overwhelmed with God's grace. We bow in humble awe and gratitude for the way that He used his power and his angels to protect us in that moment. THANK YOU FATHER!

The Lord continued to provide for us as members of Tim's family happened to be only a few minutes behind us and were able to stop and pick us up. Despite the emotional experience of that morning, we were able to get to Chicago and spend some fabulous time with family (thanks again Dad and Dottie!).

Here are a couple of pictures of the car, a '95 Honda Accord....it was our most favorite car ever! It's still sitting at a towing company in Indiana but we hope to have it towed back up to Holland this week. We are considering it a total loss and now have to face the reality of purchasing another car (and now having a car payment) which wasn't exactly what we had wanted...but we are learning not to dwell on that and just keep praising God for his faithfulness and protection!