Blessings and Tender Mercies.

Blessing number one:

This Van!

The pictures don't exactly do it justice and I have to apologize for the size, I had to get them off of facebook but anyway, the Lord blessed us with this van for five days so we could survive hitting a buck or an elk, don't know which one.  All we know is that it was huge and that it totaled our van.

Oh, what is Derek pointing at?

The hair from the beast we hit. 

I know.  It's sad and..... a little gross.

Why do I call this post blessings and mercy?

Let me back up a bit.....

Last month I had a random surgery that ended up not being necessary.

This brought my mom out.  

With her she brought my grandma and this van.  She brought the van because in four days time, we were going to drive to her house with the kids so we could leave them in her and my father's well able hands and take off to Lake Powell.  

We were planning on bringing the van home with us after Lake Powell (my parents were giving us the van) but she brought us the van early because she figured the drive would be easier with the van and also so we wouldn't have to drive in separate cars all the way home from her house (she lives a good nine hours away.)  Let me just say, she is awesome!!

Blessing number two:

Had I not had the surgery my mom would not have come, which means Derek and I would have 

been driving the camry. 

You must understand.  This creature that Derek hit was no small thing.  Derek said it had antlers and it was eye to eye to Derek in the van.  That is big.  

Had we been in the camry the elk or buck most likely would have ended up on top of our car perhaps in the windshield antlers and all......  The camry is close to the ground.

I shudder at the thought.  I really do.  When the Lord makes it clear that you were blessed and that He would not allow something to happen to you so much so that I had a surgery to make sure we were not in that car, it means it was a trial we were not asked to endure at this present time.  It was not right, and it would have been serious.  

I don't mean to sound dramatic, it's just I can feel it in my heart.

Mercy number three:

When we hit the creature we were twenty miles outside of Ceder City.  The car was still running alright.  

Five miles outside the city (when we finally were out of the mountains and we had reception again, our car started to rattle until it officially died and we glided over to the side of the road A very quick and peaceful death.  Poor sweet van.  

Thank you for dying when we had reception again!

Mercy number four:

We were blessed to get the kindest tow truck man ever who gave us a deal and with what we still owed for the tow he just said he would make sure to get our car to the dump and he would settle for whatever the car was worth which wasn't a whole lot because the engine was shot. Sweet good man!  He also took us to Denny's to sit.

Mercy number five:

Derek's cousins happened to be driving to Powell the same day we were (a day late and late in the day).  They were hitting Vegas when we were hitting the elk (sorry I have to try to find humor in all of this,..... and so Derek and I only had to wait at Denny's for a couple of hours rather than spend money on a hotel or something or missing Powell all together for lack of transportation.

Honestly, we got the best case scenario from a bad situation.  We were SO BLESSED!!  So blessed. 

Was it crazy?  Yes.

Was it a super trippy feeling sitting in Denny's thinking we had a car an hour ago and now we don't.... Yes.

But did we feel like the luckiest people on the earth that night.  Yes!

It was a testimony to me of the tender mercies of the Lord.  He has a plan with everything!  There is nothing that He does not know and He takes care of His children!  He does not have us go through more than we can handle, and He lifts our burdens and gives us blessings even during times of surprise and trial.  For this lesson I am thankful and I pray I will never forget it!