The Whole (Long) Story

For those of you that want the short story: A very nice woman ran a red light and hit us. We are all fine.

For those of you that want the whole story (really, just for me so I don't forget): El Guapo met us for dinner at IHOP (kids eat free night!) after work. He had bishopric meeting about 45 minutes later so we decided to run over to switch out our movies at Blockbuster. We took my van (Ford Windstar) and left his car (the "Hooptie") at IHOP.
We were in the right lane going straight through a green light. El Guapo was driving. I saw a white SUV coming pretty fast and braced myself. I saw the car slow down a little bit and thought we were fine, but then it sped up again, I braced myself again and waited for the impact, I knew it would not be too bad, but it was still a bit scary. We checked on the boys and they were all fine but Dusty was silent and staring. We asked him if he was okay, he still just stared and I noticed he was pale. I know what you are thinking. Pale? How can that boy get any more pale? Well, he was, I didn't realize how much color he has in his face until that moment. He is actually quite pink normally. :) He turned out to be fine. He was just scared. He was the only one in the very back seat and, I imagine, saw his short life flash before his eyes.
Luckily a police officer was right behind us and pulled over with us. We (me, El Guapo, the woman that hit us, and the officer) all got out of our cars. The woman that his us, Bethanne, was very apologetic. The police officer asked us if everyone was okay. We said we were and the the officer asked if there was anyone else in the cars. We told him we had our three kids in the car. Bethanne said, "You had BABIES in the car!?!" She was distraught.
I went to check on the boys to be sure that Dusty wasn't in there crying, wanting me to hold him. He was not crying, I think he was still in shock, but he did want me to hold him. I was a little hesitant to let him out of the car because I didn't want to make Bethanne feel worse by seeing the kids. But, I wanted to hold Dusty, so I did. Ned wanted to see the damage so I let him out too.
Just as I thought, it upset Bethanne. She immediately started crying and saying, "Your babies! I am so sorry. You had babies in the car!" Obviously this woman was remorseful, and needed to know that I forgave her. I walked over with Dusty on my hip and hugged Bethanne. I cried too. No one cries alone around me. It's my rule. I reassured her that we were fine. She said, "But you had kids in the car!" She rubbed Dusty's back as we hugged.
Bethanne told us that she was so deep in thought that she had noticed the red light but it just didn't register in her mind. Haven't we all done something like that before?
As the officer did his work we all chatted as if we were watching our kids' soccer game or something. We talked about her three kids and what she is going to do with her time now that all of them will be in school all day this year. She wants to "do something good, like volunteer." Did I mention she was nice? She already volunteers at a local hospital after a softball game she plays each week. She goes to hold crack babies. Yeah, she's really nice! She told me later that she felt that she really needed a hug at that moment when she saw the kids and that she felt like the Lord provided that for her through me.
When everything was done we said our goodbyes and Bethanne started to cry again. I gave her another hug and we all left.
I am so grateful that we were all safe. I am grateful that she took responsibility for her actions and did not drive away. I am grateful that the police officer was right there so we could get things worked out so quickly. I am grateful for the immediate feelings of forgiveness and for a husband that felt the same way. I am grateful to have met a very nice woman with such a love for service. She is a great example.
It is amazing that I walked away from the experience on a high. It's funny how things sometimes work that way.