An Update from The Crash

Remember the car that crashed into our house?  For those of you who don't know, yes, you read that right.  A car crashed into the side of our house.  You can read it here.

Well, the repairs are finally done.  It was completed last Monday.

The contractors did a fabulous job.  John Porter of Porter Construction, along with his guys, Pat, Jeff, and Danny... were beyond great.  Most of the work was done from the outside with no inconvenience to us who were living on the inside the entire time since the crash.  They accommodated my husband's work schedule and worked around us and with us when they had to come into our place.  Jeff was so helpful and answered all my questions about everything.  Now, I have a new love for Lowe's and the hardware department of each store we visit.  To say it was an interesting experience to see our place being repaired and parts of it rebuilt would be an understatement.

We are all doing fine.  No more nightmares but we still get a little jumpy when we hear loud noises or hear people speeding outside our window.  It has been slow going for me to allow the girls back outside our patio to play again.  I feel like I should let them go back to life as usual and have their play area back but I am also afraid that "what if" this happens again and this time they are all outside as they usually are even before the accident happened.

Our place is a bad area for accidents.  This one that involved our house was a freak accident.  It's a miracle that no one was injured.  I ask that you please continue to pray for us to continue to overcome our fear of living here and for the safety of our area.  Also, please pray for the driver who crashed into our house.  The last time she visited I mentioned to her that we were having a hard time sleeping, I was having nightmares, and our little girls were refusing to sleep alone or in their beds because they were scared from the crash.  Since that day, she has not returned to visit.  Her husband came by to check on us another time after that and said she has sought out help for herself because she is having a hard time dealing with what she caused to happen.  She feel asleep at the wheel after a long drive home, not realizing how tired she really was.

I'm happy we have our place back and are able to move furniture back to where it was and have our full living space back.  

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The Crash

This is an old photo from the listing when we bought our place.

BEFORE...

Have you seen the movie "CRASH"?  The one with Sandra Bullock?  This movie was on my mind the entire time on this day.

On Thursday, March 22, 2012 a car crashed into the side of our house while we were home and standing only 5 feet away.  If the driver had not turned her wheel to the right to avoid hitting the house, she would have slammed right into me, my husband, and our two youngest daughters.

The driver, a 72 year old woman who was in the car alone, fell asleep at the wheel.  Cut across the wrong side of the road, up the curb onto the hill then woke up, thought she pressed the brake but hit the gas instead.  Witnesses say she was accelerating at around 40 mph.  

We were standing in the house and heard a strange loud noise.  We both looked up and as we both shouted, "what is that noise"?! The car slammed into the side of our house while we were looking out the sliding glass door.  It was so loud and happened so fast.

This was my fear from the moment we bought this place.  We are on the corner and there is no barrier between us and the road.  Yes, some said to me the trees and hill will help keep cars away if there was an accident.  I told them that would not matter and no little sparse trees or hill is going to keep away a vehicle that gets into a crash right outside our house.

We were both in shock.  The driver kept yelling "is everyone okay"???!!!  A neighbor ran over and through the debris stuck his head near the window full of broken glass yelling out if we were okay.  My husband told me to call 911 and the same thing happened to me on this day that happened the day of Dakota's accident.  I could not figure out how to use our magic jack phone to call the police and Rudy kept trying to walk me through it but I was frozen.

The first thing that popped into my head after the "I knew this was going to happen one day, I just knew it"!  Was "great, we don't have any personal insurance, how are we going to pay for  this"??!!!

This is what we saw when we finally got outside.

AFTER...

See the crack in the wall up above in the center of the photo?  We were standing on the other side of the wall right where the shadow hits towards the corner.  I am still freaked out that the driver woke up just in time and purposely turned her wheel to avoid hitting the house dead on.

  

 INSIDE...

STILL WAITING FOR INSURANCE ADJUSTERS, ESTIMATES, AND BIDS...

Thankfully, NO ONE was hurt.  

I eventually went over to find the driver (sitting in a car of someone who she cut off before hitting the hill) to see if she was okay.  She was so thankful that the first voice she heard was mine yelling out to her if she was okay.  She said my voice was such a huge comfort to her at that moment.  We ended up talking together for the rest of the ordeal while the car was being towed.  My mom ended up giving her a ride to a rent-a-car place along with her husband and sister-in-law.

I found out later that we know the driver's husband.  We used to go to the same church years ago.  They were so grateful for our response to the entire crash and that we were so nice and kind to them.  Believe me, everyone was in shock not only at the crash but at our response.  Neighbors were more upset than we were.  There is no way to explain how someone would hold something like this against someone.  She fell asleep because she was more tired than she thought and she drove home after a meeting about 25 miles.  She did nothing malicious to cause this "accident".  The one thing to remember is that God protected us; all of us.  Not only that but we lived on the same street for a while and we did not know they lived near us.

The driver and her husband have been visiting us, checking on us on how we are doing, on the progress of the house, they gave an adorable children's book to our daughters from their publishing business, and we are all so grateful that we know one another and the crash brought us together.

This is where that movie CRASH comes in.  We are all intertwined somehow.  The things we do impact others and we cross paths even though we don't know it and are not aware of it.  Sometimes these things happen to wake us up.  God uses each of us to teach us lessons, to bless us, to teach others lessons, to comfort others, to have compassion, etc.

What would have been your reaction to this, even if it had involved tragedy?

xoxo, Salena