We were on our way to a family getaway with my (Brian’s) side of the family where we were looking forward to celebrating my mom’s recovery when we were unexpectedly rear-ended on the freeway. A recently widowed woman dropped her phone and crashed into us pretty good.  Then unfortunately she panicked and reversed 10 feet and hit the accelerator and crashed into us again, with a bit more force than even the 1st one. We were stopped on the freeway at the time. It was a scary scene and tough for the kids especially.

        Everyone is ok, but we all still feel some residue of the impact and different aches and pains.  The woman who hit us was deeply distraught, but God granted us the grace to minister to the woman and provide pastoral care in that moment when she was overcome by fear, guilt, and disorientation. Please pray for her too. She is a woman of faith and a follower of Christ as far as we can tell.  We felt for her.

Accident Fallout

         While we are grateful everyone is ok and insurance will cover expenses, there are two things where this has hit us hard a bit.   

          First, despite the engine not being damaged, it was assessed as a total loss as we head to settlement discussions. Financially, we weren’t ready to replace that car right now as we’re transitioning to sending Morgan to college among things. The car served us with much higher value than we can get for what its value on the market will be. So we are praying for a generous settlement and that the Lord provides pathways for us to buy a replacement family car that will serve us well going forward. It’s not what we felt ready to do financially, but something we will need to figure out in the weeks and months ahead.

 Second, this van has symbolically been special to us (even though our kids would prefer we not drop them off at events in it anymore!). The loss definitely taps into a lot of the grieving and losses we’ve navigated since leaving the Philippines.  It’s the one thing we had in our name while overseas. We bought it before Kaelyn was born and were able to use it every time we returned from the Philippines…most importantly it was one of the main constants the last 3 years in the crazy events of our transition. The van was a point of stability and continuity that really served us.  All of us feel it.  We are preparing shortly to take one final ride as a family! It’s going to be missed. It’s been an extended season of loss and change for all 5 of us and this is the next thing God has put before us.