Been really busy trying not to have a heart attack the last couple of weeks!! I received the parent's most-dreaded phone call on April 29th -- "Your daughter has been involved in a traffic accident. She seems to be doing okay. We are taking her to (local hospital) - please meet her in the ER." OMG!!!!!!!! So I throw down the phone, grab my purse and run out the door and down the back steps before I realize that there are no shoes on my feet! I race back inside, step into my shoes, and am halfway down the steps again before I realize my keys are still in the house. Get the keys and go!! The hospital is about 20 minutes from home -- might as well have been 20 hours!! Ten minutes after five in the afternoon -- yes, LOTS of traffic!! I drive, telling myself - 'do not speed, do not be reckless, just drive and pray!' Last thing I needed was to get stopped for any reason . . . just had to get there . . . trusting God that she would not be badly hurt. Telling myself that they had to take her to get her checked, but it would be okay.

I could not stand it any longer -- I get out the cell phone and call the hospital. They tell me she isn't there!! Did I misunderstand the EMT who called? Am I going to the wrong hospital?? "Calm down" - the voice on the other end of the phone. "When did the accident happen?" "She is probably just not here yet." Okay, keep driving - I will get there soon after she does, or maybe even before.

I do get there just after the ambulance arrives. There is my beautiful 17 year old daughter, strapped to a backboard with her head in a restraint to keep her from moving. I don't see any blood (that has to be good!!) First thing she says is, "I am okay Mom." Talking - recognizing me -- all good -- thank you God!! I don't realize that I am crying until she asks me to please stop (am I embarrassing her ?. . . another good sign!) Seconds after I walk into the ER cubicle with my daughter, three firemen come in -- FIREMEN??? Then they begin to hit me with the details of the accident -- your daughter's car was hit by our fire engine responding to a call. The front airbags deployed, we hit her in her driver's side door, her head broke the glass out of the door window. She has a big bump on the head, etc, etc, . . . the details are swimming in my head -- the only thing I can hear is "your daughter was hit by a fire engine!" How does that happen?? How do you not get hurt? A fire engine is HUGE . . . a Ford Taurus is not. Now I am hearing them say the car is totaled. I don't care!!!! Was anyone else hurt . .no - thank God again!

Okay, X-rays are taken of her neck and upper spine -- all is well. She can come off the backboard and the head brace can be moved. CAT scan is next to be sure there is no bleeding in her head . . . all looks okay there too. She has a concussion, a huge, spongy bump on her forehead, will eventually have two black eyes and a swollen nose - not pretty as usual, but alive, alert, normal!! Unbelievable!!! After 4 hours in the ER, she is released and gets to come home. Headaches follow for a few days, the black eyes come and fade, the bump goes down, and so does the swollen nose. She is cited for failure to yield to an emergency vehicle - not great for your insurance rates, but how fortunate can we be?? She is back to her old self (except for a little reluctance in her driving -- not all bad), and back to school and work.

So now I am back to blogging, and hooking, and needle punching with an entirely new outlook on teenage driving -- I thought I was scared for my kids to be on the roads before -- of course, I am petrified whenever I see her drive away now. She will NOT talk on a cell phone while driving, play the radio loud, or do anything to distract herself from her driving -- those are my orders. They've been given before -- over and over. How do we ever know if they are obeyed? We don't, but we have to keep reiterating and making the consequences known. She says she was not on the phone and did not have the radio loud at the time of the accident. She didn't hear the siren until she was in the intersection, and then as she looked to her passenger side to see where it was coming from, she was struck in the driver's side. Okay, I believe her -- the new car has side air bags as well as front ones -- yes, I had to pay more to get a car equipped with side air bags -- how could I not??

So now you know why I have not been here lately. I think I'll be okay in time . . . parents, hold your kids close, keep them safe, make there be consequences for unsafe driving habits, and hold your breath. You just never know when something can happen on the road. The kids get sick of hearing us drone on about the same things, but I want them to go out of the house with those same instructions ringing in their ears -- repeats are just fine with me. Hug them, kiss them, and make them be safe!! But most of all - love them!! That makes all the difference in the world . . . okay - back to hooking!!