I'm writing a lot of thoughts down for a journal entry. You can read everything if you want but I just wanted to write things down before I forget.
We went to the tow yard today to get some last things out of our Explorer. The car was officially labeled ‘totaled’ by our insurance company. It was surreal looking at the damage, and realizing how it could have turned out if we didn’t hit the truck where we did. The first impact was between the rear left corner of the semi and the left drivers side, right at the point where the door is hinged to the car (one of the strongest points on the frame of the vehicle). The impact crumpled the dashboard and of course left the door unable to open...leaving Wade stuck. If we had hit a few inches further down the door (the weakest point on the car) it would have caved in on Wade. He feels very lucky.
I know that the damage on the car doesn't look like much. But we had hit the semi while it was going forward at a fast speed. In addition, the impact was on the strongest point of the frame. But I think it's still pretty scary looking. Thank goodness all we had to deal with was some bruises and soreness. Wade hit his head and he didn't hurt after that. I seemed to be the only one that was really sore.
We were just north of Ogden and we hit the snow storm. The roads were pretty clear and it was just cloudy when we started out in SLC. But we got into a storm. We slowed down of course but kept going. I remember Wade saying that we should have stopped and stayed the night at Jean and George's but we were so far north that we decided to keep going. Then we saw an electronic road sign that said icy conditions, use caution. And literally...not a second later, we started losing control. Wade kept trying to get control of the car. He has had pretty good practice because they had to take a snow driving class on his mission (Canada Calgary mission) and all the practice in Canada and in Logan, etc. - he knew what he had to do. I trusted Wade that he was going to gain control and we'd just have a close call type of thing. Well, I remember seeing the corner of the truck coming right towards us. I felt in my heart that Wade was going to be hit directly. It seriously was heading straight towards him. I actually thought he was going to...well...die. I screamed out "WADE I LOVE YOU!!!!!". That's all I could do. I seriously thought it was going to be the last time I ever could tell him. Crazy thinking when you are almost about to hit a semi-truck. But when we were hit and he was okay, I couldn't believe it. The second hit was so loud because of the glass breaking. We then ended up perpendicular on the road. Wade had to back up out of the freeway so we wouldn't get hit again. Once we were off the road, I had to comfort Jack and Charlotte. Charlotte was okay when we started Curious George back up on the DVD player. Jack was really hard to comfort. And then I lost it. I was uncontrollably sobbing. Wade kept telling me that it was okay-that everyone was okay. I knew we were but my emotions...I just couldn't stop them. About 5 min. after we had the accident someone finally stopped over. They asked if they could call 9-11 for us or the cops. They were so kind. Wade found his phone on the floor of the car and ended up calling and at the same time I called my parents. We sat on the side of the road for a long time. About an hour. Jack was needing to be fed and comforted, Charlotte was still okay. I got Jack and held him in the front seat but after a few minutes Wade wanted him back in his carseat fearing that another car could hit us and Jack wouldn't be safe. So I put him back. Jack did not like that. Poor guy. It was hard waiting for the police to come. We thought the Wal-mart truck just kept driving but he actually stopped about a mile north. It was icy out and I'm sure it was really hard for him to stop. I felt bad that he had to deal with this. I wish I could tell him I'm sorry but we don't even know who he is. We didn't even meet him. Anyway, about 45 min. later another caring family stopped by to see if we were okay. They told about a really bad accident a few miles behind us which was why it was taking so long for them to get to us. And another car came about 5 min. after that to check on us. Eventually the police came and helped us out. My parents kept in contact with us the whole time and my Aunt Jean and Uncle George were ready to leave in a second to come get us. They were so wonderful to do that. The only reason why we decided not to was because we wanted to get home and we didn't want to risk them going through the canyon just to take us home. We kept trying to call people we knew...especially with 4 wheel drives. But no one was home because of Valentine's Day. Finally, we got a hold of our neighbors, Angie and Kevin Stott. Kevin is on the bishopric with Wade. We are so grateful to them and for them willing to come and get us without hesitating.
I think of the what ifs...we were following a caravan of cars and semi's for a long time. It's amazing to think that there wasn't any when we hit the semi. If there were...things would have been worse. And if we didn't hit the semi...we would have most definitely rolled. It was truly a miracle that we hit the semi. And it's an even bigger miracle that somehow the truck which was in direct line to hit Wade ended up hitting the strongest point of the car. Heavenly Father has blessed us and I'm so grateful.
Notice the crack in the dash?
Thank goodness the windshield or door window didn't shatter onto Wade. He would have been really cut. But he did end up finding glass in his mouth and in his shoes! Weird.
After we had settled, things were strewn about. We found the headlight nob (which is located on the left of the steering wheel) inside a treat bag on the console. We thought that was crazy. We started picking up stuff around us. We needed to get all the things we could take with us. Unfortunately, we could only find one of Charlotte's hearing aids. She had removed them a little bit before the accident because she couldn't hear out of them so she thought they were broken and gave them to us. So we had them on the console. Well, after the accident we looked EVERYWHERE for the right aid. We couldn't find it. Even after we got out of the car, Wade and I swept through the car to try and find and we just couldn't. I was devestated. Charlotte needed it because we didn't know when she would start hearing and didn't want her to go without it for a long time. We got home and brought in everything. I kept praying that we would find it and I kept thinking, where is it? It had to be in the car. But then I got to thinking about the knob in the treat bag! If that thing could somehow get in that bag then the hearing aid might be in some weird place. Then I got to thinking what was in front of my feet? I checked out the feeding pump bag...nothing...then I remembered the pharmacy bag with Charlotte's steroids. I looked in and saw a hershey kiss (from valentine's we were going to deliver) and then there was the hearing aid! I was SHOCKED. It just reassured me that Heavenly Father is going to help Charlotte get her hearing back. What a miracle.
Charlotte handing out the Valentines for her Valentine's party.
So this was a camp scene on our dig. Dr. Janetski is holding the guitar. He performed a song called "Blue Eyes" and dedicated it to me from Wade. This was before anything happened between us...I was so embarassed. ha ha.
