Lessons From the Car Accident

My husband and daughter were in a car accident today.

Yeah, that is not a fun sentence to type.  They were on the way to the zoo with another SAHD and his 18 mo. old daughter when they T-boned another car.  Everyone had their seatbelts/carseats securely fastened so all the injuries were related to that.  Aellyn has ugly bruises on both her shoulders and a rub-abrasion on her neck.  She is also limping like an old man but the doctor said she is just sore from the impact with the carseat harness.  No broken bones.  No concussion. God bless car seats.

I feel so emotionally drained by the whole day that I can hardly write about it.

Here are some things I learned:

My daughter will rear-face until her knees hit her eyeballs or she reaches the upper weight limit of the seat.  Hopefully by then they’ll come out with another seat that will work till she’s 22.

I need to have my phone with me at all times at work.  I was in a meeting in my own building so I left my cell phone in my office.  It took a small army of people and the better part of an hour to find me.  My parents left work and beat me to my own daughter.

My whole family needs to distribute better In Case of Emergency information.  Pete didn’t know how to get a hold of my dad or most of my coworkers save one.  I work in a frickin’ library – all he needed was the main number.  Oh, and it won’t matter because I’ll have my cell phone on me.

I always tell Pete to cultivate good karma on the highway.  By this I mean when some jerk cuts you off instead of getting mad and calling him a jerk just give him the benefit of the doubt.  You have no idea what his day has been like and why he is in such a hurry.  It might not just be asshattery.

Dear folks I nearly ran off the road in my mad dash home – it isn’t asshattery.  I promise.

Dear EMT folks – when a pre-verbal child is involved in a horrific, car-crushing accident just take her to the ER.  Kthanxbai.

My coworkers rock.  I live an hour from work but, without thought, one of them was going to drive me home.  They all stayed by me (and would have tied me down I think) until they felt I was ok to drive.  (shhh, don’t tell them about the aforementioned “mad dash”.)

After calling my family I called my good friend Dana.  Not only did I know she’d pray for Aellyn but I knew she would mobilize the entirety of North East Ohio’s Kick Ass Moms to help.  And, thanks to facebook, many remote-but-like-minded crunchy mamas helped too.  Neighbors might be strangers these days but that doesn’t mean I don’t have a village.  I felt all the good wishes and prayers of the dozens of women who contacted me via text, email, facebook, and message board.  It meant more to me than I can express.

There is no force in the universe more powerful that this thing called a Mother’s Love.  I could move mountains.  Kill with my bare hands.  Run a marathon.  It does not surprise me at all that the awesome power of this love causes 5 foot tall women to lift cars off of their children.

Oh, wait.  There is a force more powerful – God’s grace.  Thank You.

And what I still need to learn:

Can a car seat that isn’t visibly damaged be used after an accident?

Can a mother age 10 years in 10 seconds?