In the Potter's Hands: The wreck

If you're bothered by hearing/reading about automobile accidents, you should skip this post.

It had been a busy day. We had been out of town visiting Alex's parents at their ranch, and then helping some friends pack up as they prepare to move out of state.

It was late. We were tired, but happy. We felt like we had accomplished a lot. Jacob was exhausted -he still doesn't nap well when not at home- so we had worship music playing in the background to help soothe him to sleep. Alex and I were daydreaming, talking about the future, excited about possible opportunities. There was a lull in our conversation and we both started singing along with Chris Tomlin's "Famous One".

Everything happened so fast after that, some of it is just a blur, and some of it is clearly engrained in my memory.

Alex said "Oh my!"
I looked up and saw a gigantic bull elk standing in the road. In that split second I processed that the bottom of it's hindquarters were at about the height of our car, it's head was a different shade of brown from it's body -just like my mom's painting of an elk that I grew up admiring- and that it had a very large rack of antlers. Immediately after noticing all that, I knew we were going to hit it.

The world exploded.

It seemed deafening, the squealing brakes, a thunderous sound of impact, shattering glass. My eyes were closed and I could feel myself being peppered with the spray of something. It stung and I thought "So this is what a serious crash feels like" I think I prayed for protection. It all happened so fast.
I know that I didn't scream, but Jacob did. I think he had just fallen asleep when the noise of it all woke him up.
We came to a stop in just moments and I started processing noises again. Cars driving by, the smell of dirt and heat, grit and grains of glass in my mouth. I spit and then looked at Alex. He was okay, but two of his fingers were bleeding, he was dazed, and trying to remember where his hazard lights were. I had spots of blood on my left arm and everything was stinging still.
I can't explain why I did what I did next, but I stopped my ipod and turned the radio off. Maybe I just didn't want any other noises to overwhelm me. I fumbled in my purse for my phone then dialed 911 and handed the phone to Alex. Jacob was still crying and I needed to be sure he was okay. I turned around and saw one of the most terrifying sights in my life. He was sitting in his car seat crying, covered in glass. He had little pieces of glass in his hair and on his head, and big chunks of it just filling every space in the seat around him. I unbuckled him and slowly picked him up and over the seat. As soon as he was standing in my lap he stopped crying and I made sure he was okay. He had some blood smeared on his face, and a drop on his onesie, as well as a few scratches on his feet, but he seemed fine. Most of the blood on him was from my arm.
Alex was just finishing talking to the emergency operator when another car pulled off the road in front of us and a man came over. He asked if we were all okay, and what had happened. We assured him that we were fine and told him about the elk. We made a few jokes about it. I said that I prefer my elk meat cooked, and we all laughed a little. Alex was shaking like crazy and I grabbed his hand. It was such a relief to be alive, to be okay, to be holding my baby -who was covered in glass and had blood and scratches, but who was displaying his beautiful smile to a complete stranger despite it all.
The car was still running and we followed the man, Ben, off the road a bit more. I wanted to get all the little pieces of glass off of Jacob, but knew I shouldn't touch them, he looked like he had glitter poured on him, as did Alex and I.
I noticed that the windshield was shattered, but still holding together, and that the roof was dented in too. It looked like a giant, heavy ball had landed on our roof, then been removed, just leaving the round indentation. The windshield was low enough it was practically touching us, I had to keep Jacob from grabbing it. I noticed that the hair tie I had used as a temporary fix to hold my visor in place had snapped. Such a silly, minor thing to notice.
Ben asked us if we had dogs. I thought he was just trying to keep us talking to be sure we weren't in shock. Alex told him we had a cat at home, but had just left some friends who had dogs. Then we looked around. What I had thought was dried grass was elk hair, and we were covered in that too. It was stuck around the edges of the window, scattered across the dashboard, on our pants, in our hair...we talked about how crazy it was. Ben walked down the road a little ways to see if he could find any sign of the elk, and Alex called one of our friends from church. I noticed that the back window was blown out, and realized that it must have been the glass on Jacob. I saw our skid marks and shattered glass on the road, and then the police and medics were arriving. Ben told us he was glad we were all okay, mentioned again how crazy it all was, and left.
The medics came and asked us how we were, amazed we had so few injuries. They asked if we were cold. I was shaking now too. It had taken that long for my nerves to set in. Jacob was smiling at the medics too.
After telling us how to rinse the glass off, the medics left. They had a lot of other calls to take care of.

Everything after that just seemed to take forever. The policeman had me sit in the back of his car, and Jacob was fussy, so I nursed him. I was nervous though because there was glass in my bra. He did fine, but because he was so tired he kept squirming. I had to hold him off of me, because I didn't want him rubbing in the powdered glass that was all over me. We were like that for the next 20 minutes or so. My left arm that was holding his head up started to burn, the muscle was so very tired. I just kept rocking and Jacob finally closed his eyes. Right then was when Todd, the friend we had called, arrived to give us a ride home. The tow truck had already come and taken Alex's car.
Alex told me later that when the tow truck operator arrived he said that the thought we had rolled, and that the car is almost definitely totaled.

When got home and we all showered, very carefully. Jacob was having a meltdown by this point we put him to bed. Alex and I took longer to unwind, go over what happened, trying to figure out where we'll go from here.
I'm a bit overwhelmed now. Everything that was in the car is covered in glass and elk hair. I despise elk hair. it's thick and dark, and I keep finding it in everything. I've already done a load of our laundry, but there are still so many things. The diaper bag full of toys, Jacob's exersaucer, bumbo seat, my purse...everything is on our front stoop right now.

Alex went to the towing shop today and got everything out of the car, and took pictures. We are both in awe of how God was protecting all of us. Seeing the damage in daylight, and from the outside of the car just made us realize how very badly we could have been injured. Praise the Lord for his mercy and protection!