A parents biggest fear

Everyone was swimming in the pool on Friday when Chase brought out my cell phone because it was beeping. When I checked my phone I seen that I had several missed calls from Andrew’s dad as well as a voice mail. Just 30 minutes prior Andrew was picked up by his stepmom to spend the weekend with his dad.

Before I even checked my voice mail, I knew something was wrong.

The voice mail said, “Please call me as soon as you get this message.”

When I called Andrew’s dad, the first thing he said was, “Andrew is fine, so don’t worry…but he is sitting on the side of the expressway right now, there was an accident”.

Actually I shouldn’t be using quotes because I have no idea if that is exactly what he said. It was like I heard the words, but my emotions took over and I freaked out immediately.

He had to tell me like 3 times that Andrew was fine so he could actually tell me what happened.

Andrew was driving his stepmom’s minivan to their house on the expressway. (He has his temporary drivers license right now, he will be 16 in October.) He was in the far right lane when the car in front of him ran over this large piece of metal and it flew up at their front windshield. Andrew swerved to the right to try and avoid getting hit by the metal, but it hit the upper corner of the drivers side of the window.

THANKFULLY no one was hurt.

What makes this situation so scary is the thought of what could have been. The piece of metal is so big and heavy. I guess it was some sort of part from a semi-truck (I forget what it is called). When the cops came they found the piece of metal laying just inside the drivers side door when they opened the door to check the VIN number on the van. The cops said that Andrew would not have survived if the metal hit his head or face and that it was his lucky day.

I CAN NOT even imagine. I mean trust me, I have thought all kinds of scary things and I just keep shaking my head in disbelief over the entire situation. To think that the metal is so heavy and with the speed of the car and the thing flying up so fast that it busted right through the windshield seems so unbelievable to me. Andrew did have some minor scratches from the shattered glass on his arm.

My sweet, overly mature son, handled the situation so well the day that it happened. He calmed me down when I started crying again the minute he called me to tell me he was okay. He continued to say so many positive things like how this was meant to be, how if his stepmom had been driving- maybe it would have happened differently and how his cross necklace that we got him for Easter saved his life and so on. But that night when he went to go to bed, he had trouble sleeping. He has continued to have some pretty bad dreams/daydreams…which I know is to be expected. He hasn’t driven since, but we haven’t really gone anywhere either. I don’t want to push him to drive and in a big way, I don’t really want him to drive at all. I know we all will need to work past this, but it is still so freaking crazy and scary I can’t even tell you.

I consider myself a bit of a worrywart as it is and while this has always been one of my biggest worries (my children driving)…we certainly have a lot to be thankful for. I didn’t do a whole lot of listening at church on Sunday…just a whole lot of praying.