Shock & Awe Stories

I suppose a little procrastination never hurt anyone...I'm more inclined to think of it as patience lately. Like "I have great patience in waiting for the kitchen fairy to come do my pots and pans." She didn't show. I've actually procrastinated writing this post for over a year...last year I wanted to do it around the same time to coincide with the anniversary of the first "shock & awe story" of my life but missed it! Today I thought I'd break my blogging procrastination habit and hit the date...whoop!

So....get on already and read my little newspaper clipping from 1994....


It's a great "get-to-know-you" story! In fact, if you know me in real life, you probably have heard me tell it..."It was a black cow on a black-top road on a black summer night..." and now it's been 17 years. Talk about a traumatic experience. But I can't help but think there were angels protecting Jodi and I that night. They used the word "collide" in the newspaper story, but we actually slammed into the side of that cow traveling at 55 mph...with no airbags in my 2 week old new-to-me snazzy little red cavalier.

The front end was smashed all the way to the windshield and the cow had flown over the top of the car and into the opposite ditch. There was fur caught all along the top of the driver's side door frame and a perfect dent around the lock which somehow prevented me from getting out...I crawled out the window. Jodi was bruised by the seat belt and I think hurt her elbow a little. Just amazing. Even more amazing was the fact that we were driving 55 on Norwich Road! Usually I flew down that 3 mile strip at 75 mph+ but it was harvest and we kept passing wheat trucks so I was going the speed limit. It took me a long time to drive confidently at night again on those country roads...actually, I still don't like to do it.

One of my friends had posted this story (abbreviated due to my memory) from the Joplin tornado relief (of course I can't find it now): During the storm a father held his little girl tight as the tornado ripped through wherever they were. He had a wound on his back from debris but otherwise they were okay. His little girl looked up and said "but Daddy, didn't you see the butterfly people?". Thank you Jesus! Isn't that awesome?! I think they were with us that night so many years ago too.

Now I have more stories, but most are not mine to tell, they belong to my friends...I'll give you the gist of them here to make your skin crawl if nothing else:

• When next-door neighbor Kim absentmindedly reached under her lawnmower to clear some clogged grass--mangled fingers!
• Molly was making a nice healthy green smoothie...but when pushing down the spinach the blender sucked down her hand---uuhh, mangled fingers again!
• Maya's miraculous survival of a deadly car accident.
• In high school when one classmate knocked another into the gym floor and it knocked out her front teeth...or at least they had to be replaced.
• And, of course, Zane's birth story...that's the second one for the record book of my life, the first for his.

So if you want a great conversation starter, just think through your life and find a good shock and awe story! It usually starts a chain reaction and it's pretty amazing how many bizarre happening have occurred to the people you know...and even more phenomenal how God's hand guides even the worst of situations to be good in our lives. Have fun :) !