blessings and raindrops.

I have a grateful and a heavy heart today. I’m feeling such mixed emotions as I experience abundant blessings while another family in my area is in the midst of a tumultuous storm full of rain and sorrow.

I am immensely grateful to be home safely. Dave and I feel abundantly blessed as we praise God for His protection and favor on our family.

I will share more from our vacation soon but I had to share this today. Reminders of how fragile and precious our lives are tend to shake me to my core. And, this time is no different.

We had an extremely scary drive home from our trip when Dave completely lost steering on his truck on the interstate. I don’t know all of the technical terms but I do know that the pole {I think it’s called a drag link} that holds the tires together and connects them to the steering wheel, came out of the driver’s side tire when we were going 75 miles per hour. Dave could not turn the tires and had no control over steering the car.

He remained incredibly calm in the situation and I have no doubt that God’s hand directed our car off of the interstate and allowed us to safely maneuver to the Firestone building directly off the exit. There is no other explanation. Dave and the mechanics who surveyed the car agreed that we should not have made it off of that exit. The car had to be pulled with a cable wench onto a tow truck and taken to the Dodge dealership about twenty miles away.

The boys and I took a cab to a hotel while Dave waited for the tow truck to arrive. We had stopped in a pretty dangerous area of town and the wonderful and helpful folks at the Firestone building advised us to quickly get the boys and I to another area of town before nightfall. We didn’t hesitate and left immediately.

I was anxious waiting for Dave to arrive but the boys kept me occupied. They thought it was just another adventure and loved spending time in a hotel. The highlights: jumping on the bed and talking on the landline phones. They each grabbed a phone immediately and called “Nana and Papa at the beach in Florida.”

We were able to rent a car yesterday morning and drive the seven hours home. Dave and I will make the seven hour trip back to Jackson to return the rental car and pick up his truck {hopefully} later this week. I’m not looking forward to another fourteen hours in the car but it is our only option.

As I waited for Dave to return with the rental car yesterday morning, I opened my Bible to find words of encouragement in Isaiah 1: 1-4, “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I gave Egypt, Ethiopia, and Seba as a ransom for your freedom… because you are precious to me. You are honored, and I love you.”

This verse first caught my eye earlier this week because of the reference to Ethiopia. I read about how God gave these nations to Persia in exchange for returning the Jews to their homeland. I highlighted the verse and planned to go back and study it further.

However, when I read it again yesterday morning, what really stood out to me were these words: “you are precious to me. You are honored, and I love you.” 

We are covered in His love. We are precious to our Father.

And, while I am so thankful for God’s love and protection, I am also feeling incredibly heavy-hearted for all of my friends who lost a dear friend in a car accident on Saturday night. I learned about Matt Turner’s passing from a friend on Sunday morning and have felt so broken-hearted for his wife and little girl. Since first hearing the news, I’ve read countless facebook messages and blog posts from friends who were close with his family. I didn’t know him or his wife, Julee, personally but I am in prayer for her and all of his family and friends.

You can read more about ways to pray for and encourage the Turner family on Kelly’s blog here.

Would you all please join me in lifting up the Turner family in your prayers?

Blessings to you all this week!