MLK Jr. Day Miracles

This is a story from last year that I just had to share. I wasn't blogging then so I decided to just share it on the anniversary of the occasion.

Last year on the Friday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, my parents took Nathan and I dropped off Benjamin at my in-laws house (they were still living in Early at the time) so that David and I could go to a wedding in Dallas on Saturday. Well, Texas weather decided to throw us a curve ball and blanket everything with a sheet of ice. We canceled our hotel reservations in Dallas and stayed put. We had planned on picking up Benjamin on Sunday but the road conditions were so yucky we decided we would just go get him on Monday since David had a the day off. Well, Monday morning there was still a solid sheet of ice on the ground but we really needed to pick up our boy (David and my mother-in-law both had to go to work the next day) so we started out anyway. The roads were very treacherous. As we slowly made our way down the road to Early via Lawn we passed what in retrospect may have been a bad sign - there was a TxDOT truck (one of the ones that was supposed to be putting down sand to make the roads a little easier to travel on) resting upside down on the side of the road. Not good. As we crawl through Lawn and start up the hill on the other side of town we're following a big tanker truck. A little over half way up the hill (which was still in the shade and super slick) the tanker starts sliding back down the hill right toward us. David tries to maneuver the car (we were in a rental car at the time because my van was being repaired) around the left hand side of the truck but the truck's back end starts to slide to the left. We end up stopping with our front driver's side tire in the bar ditch on the left hand side of the road. Though a little concerned about oncoming traffic coming over the hill and hitting us we were much more concerned about the tanker still sliding (now sideways) down the hill toward us. Here comes the first miracle (at least that's how I see it) the back tires of the tanker slide off the left side of the road as well - about 50 yards in front of us. Whew. I think our guardian angels went into double time to pull that one off.

David manages to back down the hill to the turn off for Oplin (he had great traction as long as he kept his driver side tires in the bar ditch) as we now plan to take that road over to Highway 36 and then take 36 through Cross Plains to Early since 84 is completely blocked by a tanker. As we approached Oplin the road turned sharply -we didn't. Here's the second miracle (again in my humble opinion). We slide through the bar ditch (which is kind of triangle shaped because of an intersecting road), David steers to miss a stop sign and a culvert (once again there is great traction on the grass), and we land on the intersecting road with not a single scratch on the car. Whew, again. The whole way from Lawn through Oplin to Highway 36 I don't think we passed a single vehicle. Everyone else had sense enough to stay inside I guess. We finally make it to Cross Plains and had lunch at the Dairy Queen. (We had planned on having lunch in Early but obviously that didn't work out very well for us.)

We made the rest of the way to Early (slowly but without incident), grabbed our baby boy and all his stuff, and made our way back home safely. My parents just kept Nathan an extra night rather than try to bring him home to us on the still treacherous roads. We praise God for His faithful guardianship over us.

"For He will give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways." Psalm 91:11