SCREECH, BAM!

Recognize the sounds in the title of this blog? I gotta say, its been years since I've been in a car accident. And the last time I was, it was all my fault. This time...it was not.

Brett and Austin and I were on our way to the grocery store when it happened. All three of us in the car. My thoughts were on Austin the entire 500 milliseconds as it occured. We were approaching an intersection just 100 yards from a red light, so thankfully we were only going about 20mph or a little less when we hit the guy. He had a stop sign. We did not. He stopped at the stop sign. He did not see us, so he began to pull his 70's model full-sized Ford truck through the intersection. I gasped! Brett swerved to try and miss him, but it was too late. Our left front end met his right front end with unexpected force...a force that would later prove to be enough to put all three of us in pain. The entire half second seemed like it took a full 30 seconds. Slow motion...just like the movies. The few seconds following, silent. Then Austin says "Boom! Truck." :) My observant little 22 month old.

Brett and I looked at each other, then at Austin, making sure we were all ok. Everyone was fine, but then adrenaline was still pumping through our veins.

The next few minutes were full of calling the police, the insurance companies, moving the cars, and talking to a couple of Mountain Home police officers.

A few people stopped to see if everyone was ok, an affirmation to what I already knew, that we have good people surrounding us here. One of those people was a really sweet old lady in a minivan who offered us a ride back home. Austin and I gratefully took the offer. Come to find out, she lives not one mile from us. The kind officer who took Brett's statement turned out to live not one mile from us in the other direction. Its so nice to see neighbors taking care of neighbors around here. You don't see much of that these days...even in the South.

So, the sweet little old lady took Austin and me back to our house where I put the carseat in Brett's car and returned to the scene to pick up Brett.

On our way to get groceries after the accident (ya gotta move on with life, right) I was talking to Brett and he was saying how repentant and sorry the guy who pulled out in front of us was. My heart went out to him. A simple mistake will cause him grief and inconvenience for the next few weeks. Now, granted it will cause us the same grief and inconvenience, but I still felt bad for the guy.

Later on, Brett went to the hospital to get checked out. He was in a lot of pain. He took the brunt of it, being in the driver's seat. Everything checked out except for a bit of swelling in his back and neck. Austin and I will go to the doctor on Monday just for precautionary measures. I'm sure everything is ok with us, too. We just want to be certain since we're both feeling the effects of whiplash already.

All in all, everything is ok. We're ok. The car will get fixed. It will be worth less...much less, having been wrecked now, but we are ok. The other guy is ok. Everything is fine and we have good people all around us. :) We are blessed!