POW!!!!

On October 9th, I came home from work and was watching TV, minding my own business about to go take a bath when... POW!!!! POW! POW! POW! I ran to the front door and looked out the window--- there was a car, and yes I said it out loud! I quickly learned that the front door was jammed shut. I ran out the back door while calling 911, only to quickly run back in to put pants on. At that moment, I thought the house was about to catch on fire. When I made it around to the front yard, I saw a girl in the driver seat and thought she was dead. While on the phone with 911, I start screaming-- SHE'S DEAD!!! By then, my neighbor who was in his front, yes front, yard using the bathroom came running over in his boxers, and my other neighbors came running in their PJs. So you have a bunch of sleepy looking people running around in their PJs with my car fizzing and the other parked in my bathroom. Fire trucks, ambulances and police start swarming. All of the sudden the calm, quiet evening has turned into a red and blue flashing light circus. I called my good friend Patricia. I told her that someone had run into my house and I thought she was dead. She missed the part of me thinking she was dead and thought I was hiding somewhere in my house and there was an intruder. She called Matthew who dropped everything and came running. My sweet friend, Faren, happened to be driving by. She stopped half way in the yard and half way on the street and sprinted out of her car in fear I was hurt. As the paramedics treated the girl, we all stood and watched. Next thing you know, the firemen need to go inside. So Faren, my neighbor and I took them inside. As we rounded the corner into my bedroom, we were greeted with a flood of water. Apparently the popping I heard was the pipes bursting. At some point in the commotion, I called Daddy and told him that a girl ran into my house and hit my car, but I was ok and had to go because my phone was dead. It didn't go over well. Coach Roy was there in less than 5 minutes of my call to Daddy. Toni and Faren threw towels on the ground. I went and got a bottle of water and sat in the kitchen. The sweet police officers came running in the kitchen to get my cooking pots to put my bed in them. Faren and I cleaned out my car. Then we all watched as the tow truck crank the car, back it out of my bathroom and drive it to the road. Shock. Paul and Leigh-Ann and one of Matthew's friends, along with Coach and Matthew nailed a tarp up to the wall. I called Mom and Daddy and went to the Camerons. I did not sleep all night for probably a month. Mom and Daddy showed up the next afternoon to help me figure out what to do next. We bought boxes and packed up the bathroom. The next day, I went back to work because I had a lot of unfinished work. Mom and Daddy took on the car dealership to figure out what to do about that. After lunch, I came home and we continued to clean up the mess. By Friday, we had picked out a new car and gotten clothes for me to stay at the hotel and gotten an estimate and such. By Monday, I was focused on trying to sleep again, focused on getting up and leaving the bed each day. After Thanksgiving (2 months after the accident), I moved out of the hotel and moved into my friend Angela's house because they had moved, but hadn't moved their belongings and needed someone to watch the house. I got my house back from the contractor on December 21st. I took off work that day to spend time moving back in and turning my house back into a home. Patricia and the boys came and helped. We spent most of our time hanging things back on the walls and dusting. The next day I drove to Tennessee to celebrate Christmas with the family. I came back home the day after Christmas to turn around the next day and head to south Louisiana. It took a month to clean out, find things and figure out where things were to go. Now I have a shed full of things to sell and a home again. I'm sure there are more details, but some I have chosen to forget, some I just can't remember.
I learned so much from this whole process. I know people care about me from all of the calls, messages and kind offerings. I know that God is my protector. He stalled me in going to the bathroom to take a bath. 30 - 40 seconds changed the outcome of this story. I know God begs me to trust him every day. He proved himself to me yet again that day. Trusting Him in being my protector, trusting that He holds every situation and everything will be ok and done in His time for His good. At the end of the day, because I have Jesus, IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL. My world my be in complete chaos and nothing is how I like it, but IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL. So, I will leave you with a few lyrics to a song and some photos that I can't figure out how to post chronologically.

Car in house. You can tell she was still accelerating because of how far the tires are dug in the ground. 

My beautiful mums and pansies in a mess. 

There's my cast iron bathtub in crumbles

The bricks were on the outside of the house.

Luckily the house is old and has good bones. The tile used to be made in sheets and there was mesh on the back. So when it fell, it fell in sheets. Thankfully the mesh also helped hold her back.

There it is in the light of day. Sad. 

Sad broken bathtub. 

I couldn't make them go in order. But this is the back of the car. 

The beautiful dumpster my neighbors got to enjoy looking at for 3 months.

Closet got destroyed too. 

Picking exterior paint colors is not as easy as it looks. 

Ready for a shower. Only missing the tub, the wall, the pipes.... 

The new tub! 

So ghetto. 

Pretty new color. Messy front yard. 

Picking matching wood floor. 

Tile in progress.

Fixed walls. New paint. No floor.  

Tile in progress.

Complete. 

Detail and my cute little window. 

Home Sweet Home! 

Jesus' Blood by Delirious

There's a secret I must tell
Of all the love I've found
And it's hidden in my heart
The day you tore my world apart

Hallelujah, King forever, friend and Saviour

Jesus' blood never fails me,
Jesus' blood never fails me,
Jesus' blood, Jesus' blood

And this secret, it will run
To the corners of the earth
Where every woman, every son
Will carry high their chains undone

Hallelujah, King forever, friend and Saviour

Jesus' blood never fails me,
Jesus' blood never fails me,
Jesus' blood never fails me,
Jesus' blood, Jesus' blood

Sing your songs of freedom
Praise the God of heaven
Love that never fails me
Jesus' blood, Jesus' blood

Love!