thankful

I'm back from our little vacation to the Ozarks....letting out a huge sigh-of-relief here.  I don't know what is was about this trip--we never did anything that should exhaust me so--but when I got arrived home on Wednesday, I just felt extremely ill.  McDonald's Mocha Frappe, I'm going to blame that partially on you.

Technically, now should be the time for writing parts two and three of our little adventure, but I feel like I need to cut in here and let y'all know about a little big thing that happened just a day after I posted on Sunday.

Time is such a funny thing.  On Sunday, I had no idea that I would actually like going upside-down at the Silver Dollar City roller coaster.  On Sunday, I had no idea that CJ and I would get stuck in the branches of a tree while attempting to use a double kayak (quite epic).  And, on Sunday, I never would have guessed that we'd get into a nasty little car accident the next night.

Because that's exactly what happened.  We were driving into Branson for dinner, the road was twisty, and Dad stopped to let the person ahead of us turn into one of the many "most extreme zipline ever" places.  The young driver behind wasn't paying any attention, and, before he could step on his breaks, he had rammed our bike rack, which accordingly crashed into the back windshield.  Which shattered.  Epicly.  In fact, it's pretty much nonexistent right now.



hellooo, glass-less back windshield.

It took me a minute to realize exactly what had happened.  There was the initial crash, an exclamation from my dad, and then I turned around and saw that we had no back window.  Then I freaked out, asked urgently if everyone was okay, and got a blessed "yes".  Relief followed, though not without phone calls, apologies from the dude who'd hit us, waiting, a bit of worrying, and a very delayed dinner.  (Which was delicious, by the way.  Oh goodness, I love fancy Mexican places.)

We managed to carry on with our trip: Silver Dollar City was done a day early so we didn't have to be packed up, Dad had to get our car cleaned out, and him and I spent some time duct taping plastic onto it before our trip home.  No one was really injured; for some of us, our necks got out of whack, but they're healing and being treated.  Stephen was asleep throughout the entire thing.

So where am I going with this?  I guess it's just that I'm thankful.  Incredibly thankful and blessed.  I think that every once in a while, God decides that it's time to remind me that He's completely in charge no matter what. Sometimes it's in little ways, like making it rain yesterday, resulting in co-op Field Day being canceled; and sometimes it's in bigger ways: like a car accident in the middle of vacation, or definitely what happened last summer on vacation.

Through it all, He's in control.  I can't change that, and what's more, I don't want to--ever.

Happy Friday, friends.

{ps - have you noticed my new blog button?  i saw my old one on a blog the other day, and nearly died from "oh goodness, it's so ugly!"  please, please, if you have my old button on your blog, replace it with this one...or, even if you didn't, you're extremely welcome to take it, friend!  it's on my sidebar.  >>}