I'm going to skip ahead in time here now because this is so fresh in my mind. In fact, I'm not sure I've actually processed it completely yet. Last night, on our way home from
Cade and Blake's first birthday party, we got in a car accident. It was the first accident for both of us (minus spinning out into the ditch and a minor incident with a deer), and, while we escaped with only minor bruises and scratches, it was terrifying.
I was driving. I keep replaying it in my mind. What could I have done differently? We exited the highway in search of Noodles & Co. for dinner. Our GPS lost it's signal so we missed a turn and got rerouted. If we hadn't missed that turn, we wouldn't have been on the road we had the accident on.
We were on Illinois Route 72, a four lane road with a speed limit of 55 mph, in South Barrington, IL. A car pulled out in front of us to turn onto a cross street. We didn't have a stop sign or stop light or anything. I remember thinking something along the lines of "What is this idiot doing? Oh sh**!!" I'm not sure if I said it out loud or not. I'm not sure how long I kept my eyes open. I heard the crash of metal as the two cars collided. The airbags deployed. The car stopped. I think I said out loud, "I better put it in park." I did not turn the car off. All I could think or say was "We gotta get out of this car." There was smoke, from the airbags, I think. John asked me a couple times "Are you OK?" "Yes. Are you? Let's get out of here."
Luckily, there was a car of three people who sort of saw what happened. At first they thought we had barely missed each other. They got out of their car and helped us and the elderly woman from the other car. They called the police for us. One of them even gave the police officer her name and number to give to me in case we needed a ride.
The South Barrington police were so nice. They took our statements, helped us get our things out of our car (we had gone shopping since we were out of the city with a car), and called paramedics to make sure we were OK. The accident was completely the fault of the other driver. Once the investigation was complete and the cars had been towed away, they took us and all of our stuff to the South Barrington Police Station so we would have a safe place to wait for a ride home. That was my first ride in the back of a police car.
John got on the phone with the rental car company almost immediately. They were not too efficient or helpful. John was on the phone for a long time trying to figure out if they were going to bring us another car so we could get home. Instead we called Keith and he came and got us "on his way home" from St. Louis. We're pretty lucky to have such an awesome friend.
I made it until we got home and I got in the shower before I completely broke down. I couldn't help but think that it could have been much worse. What would I have done if it had been worse? Thankfully, it wasn't. Thankfully, we just have bruises and scratches. Thankfully, my husband is still right beside me and me beside him.
