“Our car is smashed.”  That is what Kaelem has been telling everyone since we were hit on Monday. I was driving home from the grocery store with the boys that evening when a driver hit our right side. He was attempting to make a left-hand turn out of a drive-way, but obviously didn’t see us right there among the oncoming traffic. It’s crazy how time moves in slow motion, yet happens so fast. I remember thinking, huh, that doesn’t look right, then trying to swerve out of the way, then feeling the impact, then hearing the boys scream, then hearing myself scream, then pulling over to the side of the road. I looked behind me at the boys and saw glass everywhere, and jumped out to get Quincy. I couldn’t open his door, so reached through the busted window hole to start unhooking him from his car seat. I kept thinking why is no one stopping? I finally unhooked his stubborn car seat buckles and brushed the glass off his legs. There were no cuts or bruises, but I didn’t even think to look for that then. He stopped crying soon after I held him. As I was cleaning Quincy, a young guy ran up and asked if I needed help. “Yes,” I said nearly crying. He went to get Kaelem, who was still crying, out of his seat. This made Kaelem cry all the more, so I went out into the street holding Quincy and pulled him out myself, and told the guy (who told me later he was the one who hit me) to call a cop.

A woman was walking along the sidewalk stopped when she saw me with the kids and came over to sit by me. A police officer who was in the area came. We waited in the grass on the side of the road for the officer of jurisdiction to come and that was when I looked up and saw the damage to the car. I prayed with Kaelem and Quincy thanking Jesus for keeping us safe. At this point I realized I had just assumed they were fine the whole time. It hit me that we could just as well have been not fine. Kaelem was still crying and wailing, “There’s ice on our car!” The shattered glass looked like ice to him. The woman sitting with us pulled some glass out of my hair. She asked if there was anyone I needed to call. I hadn’t even thought about calling anyone. Jed was out of town. “I’ll need a ride home,” I told her. She called her friend who was out with his family at the grocery store. The man, who happened to also be a close neighbor of ours, drove his wife and baby home, then came back with his car seat to take us home after the paperwork was filled out. The officer called an ambulance because Kaelem was still crying. He was also kind enough to give Kaelem a bag of toys and books from his car, which helped immediately. The woman pulled my personal things out of the car for me while the officer transferred my groceries to the neighbor’s blue car to take us home.  The eggs didn’t survive the crash.

So. Now we need a new car as the insurance company deemed it a total loss. I also need knew car seats, which insurance will cover. I’m going on Friday to the chiropractor with the boys for an exam, also covered by insurance. What insurance does not cover is the time, energy, and stress involved to do all this.I will say though, that everyone involved has been overwhelmingly gracious and kind.

I went to the tow lot to pull out some more belongings from the car and found a little wooden cross lying between the boys’ seats. I almost started crying again at the thought of my God being there in the car with us the whole time. Not that the wooden trinket was in any way a good luck charm that I should hang in the rear view mirror, but it was a symbolic reminder of the loving God who is in charge over all in good times or bad. And, should you think that the car itself protected us, consider this, ” Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.” psalm 20:7

I don’t remember exactly how the idea to build a castle evolved. Before we knew it though, we were in the garage painting into the early hours of the night trying to finish this project for Kaelem’s birthday. Here it is in our basement. I apologize that the lighting down there is so horrid.  There isn’t a roof, so I envision the kids using this as a puppet theater later on. Hopefully it will uphold to that point!

The door/gate with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. We sprinkled pearly glitter on it while the white paint was wet and then put a coat of polyurethane on top to seal in the glitter. On the sides of the door are  foundation walls of stones with the names of the twelve apostles.

The door is really the main attraction for Kaelem. The first thing he did when we brought it inside was move in all his toys. He’s already storing up treasures in heaven.

But the window is fun too.

A view of the window from the inside. We covered the wall in gold wrapping paper and hung a rainbow ribbon curtain. I would love for the whole interior to be gold, but it was really hard to line it all up and keep it smooth. Plus, we didn’t know how durable it would be. Anyway, for now it looks good.

A camp chair throne.

There’s an armory on the opposite wall. And (not pictured) a poster of a bookcase holding the books of the Bible.

The theme at VBS this year is “The King, the Kingdom, and The Key.” I love how this castle will tie in to what he’ll be learning at VBS in a few weeks.

Another milestone this week, Quincy’s 10 month mark.  He’s really just all over the place at home. I can’t put him down and turn my head without him putting something he shouldn’t in his mouth, or reaching for something, or pulling something down on himself. So, when my eye is on him, he plays in the living room with the gate blocking the stairs. When I’m busy in the kitchen or what-not, he plays in the portable crib set up in the living room. There’s more room in the basement for him to crawl around. Inevitablly though, he’ll head straight for the flashy green buttons on the audio receiver. I haven’t given him books to look at by himself as I did with Kaelem because he eats them. We’ll try again in another month. He still makes all kinds of squinty faces, which is too cute. Lately, we’ve heard him at a few more sounds to his repertoire. It’ll be a relief though when he starts to sign for “more” at the table instead of screaming. At one dinner, we were all (including Kaelem) making the “more” sign to him and he just cocked his little head and grinned. I can only imagine how goofy he must have thought we looked.

Although I’m late in posting, we celebrated Kaelem’s 3rd birthday on Wednesday. We did not have a cook-out as in years past, but instead celebrated together as a family. Jed only had the morning off work, so we started the day with birthday cake and presents. We then went to The Original Pancake House for real breakfast. At the restaurant we ran into his Sunday school teacher who wished him a happy birthday. The library was right next door, so we went in to find a book he’d been wanting to recheck, “Counting Kisses” by Karen Katz. He was so excited about finding the book again as it wasn’t available when we had checked earlier. After that, I took him to the mall to pick out a new hat which was to be a gift from Quincy. Kaelem loves hats, especially Quincy’s.

He received three presents from us for being three years old. One, a set of Bible story picture books by N.D. Wilson, colored wooden beads for making bracelets (he really just loves accessories of any kind), and a castle. When you see the castle you will understand why he didn’t have a kid party or homemade birthday cake. Jed built it as a playhouse for the basement. The idea was to decorate it after the vision of the New Jerusalem city in Revelation 21 with pearly gate, foundations in stone, armor of God, books of the Bible, etc. I promise to post a picture of the finished project.

I let him play in the castle that afternoon until it was time for church. Church was at the park that evening, so he had even more fun. He also receieved many compliments on his new hat!

Quincy’s new word, “Up”.

It’s really glorious weather here. You should really come visit. Plus, we have a couple upcoming birthdays to celebrate. We went outside just to go outside before naptime. I had to keep pulling the grass out of Quincy’s mouth. That boy…everything goes in his mouth. I’ve found all kinds of things in there. Meanwhile, Kaelem perched up on the rocks and to watch the neighbors work in their yard.

This is the last of our week of pictures. Maybe we’ll do it again sometime. I like that it forces me to use the camera more.

Next, we’ll do video clips.

Church today. After the service Kaelem gets a treat from daddy’s office if he stayed dry. Shown in the picture is a typical scenario from our days: Kaelem tries to take Quincy’s toys and Quincy tries to take Kaelem’s food. Brothers.

I have a pot and need to fill it. Any ideas? I don’t know why, but I’m really intimidated by gardening of any kind.

Here’s a view of the finished window from yesterday.

We’re in the process of installing two new bedroom windows this  weekend. We ran into a few snags, but the boys’ window is now up. I can see why the pros make the big bucks.

Found this link on cbd.com.

Categories: Bibles: Slightly Imperfect