Mike and I were at home in Colorado, 611 miles away from my old home in Kansas. It was Christmas time and we were busy readying our things for the chance to go back to Hutchinson for the holidays with our family. We had made a quick trip to town in search of a few last presents and were on our way home when it all happened.
Only a quarter of a mile from our house, we saw a man standing along the shoulder of the road, flailing his arms to slow us down and stop. In the field next to him was a car that had obviously been in an accident. The man spoke only Spanish and I understood him to say there had been an accident and to call for help. He handed his cell phone to Mike and motioned me to check on her.
And so we did.
Inside the car was a young woman whose air bag had deployed. She was face down into it and as I called out that help was coming, I saw that her body was very still and I had to wonder if she was yet alive. I ran around to open the passenger side door to check on her and as I slid into the seat, I heard the most wonderful sound ever. It was like music to my ears.
She was moaning in pain.
I talked to her and asked her name. I told her that help was coming and to just stay really still until they got there. I reached over and grabbed her hand and held onto it so she would know that she wasn't alone. Over the phone, the 911 dispatcher asked if I could find out anything about her. Since she wasn't even able to talk, I began to rifle through her purse that was spilled out onto the floor. I found her name, address, and a social security card that belonged to a little girl. I knew then that she was someone's momma. I prayed for her and we waited. Soon the ambulance came for her and we drove on home.
All the rest of the day as we continued to pack the car for our trip home to Reno County, I thought of her. Was she ok? What was her condition? I think the most haunting thing of all to me was that I never saw her face, not once. Late in the afternoon I told Mike that I was calling the hospital to see how she was. I didn't figure that they could tell me much but I explained our situation in the hopes that the hospital switchboard operator could help us.
Turns out, she could.
The nurses in the emergency room explained to the young woman and her mother that we were concerned about her and would like to know if it was permissible with them for us to come up and see her. They were glad to let us visit and so we made the trip into town. Once we got there, we met for the first time the young woman named Candace and the little girl whose social security card was in the wallet.
We were pleasantly surprised to hear that the doctors felt she would be just fine. No broken bones were apparent but plenty of deep bruises from the air bag deploying. It would hurt for a while. Candace was happy to see us and thanked us for stopping to get help for her. I told her I was so glad to see her face and to know that she would be ok. She said to me the sweetest thing, something that I will always remember.
"I recognize you by your voice. Even though I couldn't see who you were, I knew you were a kind person when I heard you speak to me. I wasn't afraid."
We stayed for a short while and then headed out for home.
It was a life changing experience, to be sure.
Every once in a while, that day comes to mind for me. Just yesterday, as a matter of fact, I told Mike that it was surely about the anniversary of that day happening and it was. When that young woman woke up that early morning on the first day of winter in 2013, she had no idea that a deer would run in front of her and cause her to swerve and hit the fence. We had no idea that on the way home from town we would come across the accident.
But we did.
I believe with all of my heart that God puts people in just the right places in time for a specific purpose. There's a real reason for things, if a person just pauses long enough to see it. Even with the world's chaos all about us, there is still a very much needed order to things and a plan for each moment of the day.
It's how I believe.
No use in trying to change my mind.
Sometimes as I look back on my own life, especially the last 3 1/2 years of it, I realize how much my life has changed. There was a time, especially in the first 3 months of being married to Mike, that I questioned my reasoning about leaving Kansas. I wasn't sure I could make it so far away from what I had always called home. Yet I did. In the meantime, God has provided me with so many opportunities to be a blessing to others as well as being blessed personally by them. If I had stayed in Kansas, I would have never met the dear people of Olathe (CO), Petrolia (TX), or Randlett, (OK). That boy from the "land of long ago and far, far, away" would not have become by husband and I more than likely would have found myself alone.
I implore you my dear friends to always look around you and be aware of all the ways that God sends people and situations to you for your own benefit. Sometimes in the business of everyone's lives, we miss those blessings. Please don't miss yours.
I found one of mine in the most unlikely of places.
It was in the middle of a snow covered field, holding hands with a young woman named Candace.
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