3rd, oops 4th and Final Accident for Emily

I was so looking forward to coming home and telling you about Emily's third and final accident and then the largest of the trip happened on the way home. But I am getting ahead of myself....

The night before we left Emily was rough housing with her older cousin (age 4), I know big shocker! She ended up falling and hitting her head on the rounded corner of my inlaws coffee table. She didn't want me to take her picture but here is a picture taken from the side about an hour later. Nice indent in the middle of a goose egg. Next morning it was mostly a bruise.

We went to church, had a nice lunch with all of Landon's family and took off for the trip home. We had an uneventful trip up to Yakima, making excellent time! And had a great night's sleep. We got off to an early start hoping for an arrival time in Powell River by dinner time. About 15 minutes out of Yakima, a "brilliant" old man in a white pickup did a u turn and started driving up the wrong side of the free way. We slammed on our brakes and missed the back of his truck as he turned. We said a prayer of thanks and went along our way. We made great time to the border, and the kids were being fantastic. As we waited in line at the border I took Collin out and fed him. He wasn't quite finished when we got to the window but I buckled him back in figuring it was about an hour to the ferry terminal and I would finish then. We drove away with Emily happily watching Madagascar and Collin almost asleep. I was elated, we were going to catch the 1:35 ferry! And then it happened. I saw a white car pulling out from a stop sign but figured he would stop when he saw us coming. When he sped up, I screamed. Jordan turned to look at me.... I looked at Collin and Emily. But Landon's door wasn't hit, I started to relax when boom! Collin and I were screaming, and we were off the road. I realized Emily hadn't made a noise, I looked at her.... and there she was still watching her movie. Landon asked if the other vehicle was still there and then he got out. His first question to the guy was, "Were you looking to kill a family today? Did you know you hit the door of my two year old?" And the guilt trip started. I started calling to Landon to stop because we were all fine. I still didn't see who was driving the car and I was scared that it could be a gang banger and Landon would get shot... yeah I wasn't thinking too straight. Emily started saying softly, "Its okay Collin, Its okay Mommy." Over and over until I started to laugh and cry. Here she was comforting me. I didn't want to get out and see how close Emily was to getting hurt. So Jordan took the first pictures. Quick thinking Jordan got her cell phone out and called 911 and passed me the phone. Eventually two tow trucks showed up and then the craziness started. The other guy fully admitted to be in the wrong. He told us he had run the stop sign because a black car had been chasing him trying to run he and his sister off the road and he was heading to the police station. Both Landon and I saw a black car back up, turn around and take off right after the accident but we hadn't thought anything about it. The boy's mom arrived and took his sister to the hospital (yeah the guy who hit us was maybe 18.) A road construction crew stopped to make sure we were okay. A guy who had first aid stopped to look over us all. The lady that lived next door came out to offer food, shelter, a car ride, anything. We contacted my dad right away since it was his car and we didn't know what to do since neither of us had been in an accident. But Jordan's cell phone ran out of minutes and so we started texting my dad and brother to get her mom to put more minutes on it. Yeah, a gong show! The tow truck called for a van taxi to take us to the towing yard since both vehicles were not driveable. They sent a car. So Landon got in with the tow truck driver and Jordan, the kids and I climbed into the taxi. The tow truck company went way above and beyond their job. While driving to the place, they were calling their dispatch trying to find us a rental so we could get home. Serge (the driver) was telling Landon what to do first and what definitely not to do. He made sure we got the right receipt from the cab company so that we could get reimbursed. I spent the first 45 minutes on the phone with the insurance company. Since the other driver had already called and admitted it was all his fault things went pretty quickly. Problem was there were no rental cars in the Vancouver area were available that would sit five passengers and all our luggage. Yeah, joys of summer. So at 4:30 (4 hours later), Scotty (the first two truck driver at the scene of the accident) approached Landon with an idea. He had heard we couldn't find a way home (expect the offer of my father to drive down in my brother's mini van to pick us up.) Scotty figured that he could bend the metal back so that is wasn't in the wheelwell and make the car safe enough to drive home. So he got to work. He bent the metal back, put the spare on and then took it off when he realized that the weight in the car would be too much for the whole distance. He looked around their scrap yard for anther tire, when he couldn't find one he called a local tire shop and got them to donate a used tire. He drove over the shop, picked up the tire, got it onto our rim (which was unharmed) and back onto our car. He got onto the back bumper and bounced to make sure their was enough clearance from the damage so we wouldn't blow the tire driving up the highway. He took more pictures for the insurance company so there wouldn't be any problems. Told us to have ICBC call him. Seriously FANTASTIC! The other two guys entertained Emily (which wasn't hard when she figured she was at an amusement park in the tow yard.) They bought her cookies, offered to guy us drink, told jokes and just kept our spirits high. The owner of the shop came out to visit with us. The receptionist spent an hour calling everywhere in Vancouver she could think of trying to find us a car. We couldn't have done it without them. We left the two yard at just after 5pm. We arrived at the ferry terminal at 6:15 pm figuring we would catch the 7:30pm ferry home. To our surprise they motioned us to come on the 6:30. YEAH! We got home at 11:30pm. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father and to the angels that worked over time looking after my daughter on this trip. As we find out more about the damage done to the car we realize how lucky we are that Emily was not hurt in any way. My parents received word today that the car is being scrapped and so they will be buying a new car. I know that if we had been in our car we wouldn't have walked away without any injuries. A HUGE thanks to my parents for lending us your car.

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