"Uh-oh. Car broken."

Yes, it is broken.  Darwin and I have been married for 7.5 years and we've been a 1 car family the entire time.  We've never been in an accident together, and luckily the only accidents we've ever been in have been pretty minor.

Last night we were on our way to my cousin's Eagle court of honor just a few miles away from our house, but the weather was terrible.  It had rained, and then snowed.  The roads were SLICK, and the snow was coming down HARD.  We were only about a quarter mile from our house when we slid into a curb, then up over it into a ditch.  We were stuck!  We destroyed our front passenger tire and Darwin is pretty sure we broke the front axle too, plus probably some additional under carriage damage.  Hopefully we'll find out the extent of the damage when the repair shop calls later today.  Luckily we were all okay, just a little shaken, and obviously bummed we weren't going to make it to the court of honor and that our car was now in need of a tow and repair.

Looking back on the events of last night it's kind of funny to me now that I offered to try to push us out--me, being 7+ months pregnant, in a skirt and boots, no gloves, snow still coming down, completely dark outside, offering to try to push our car over a curb.  Haha!  Comical.  Honestly though, we were EXTREMELY touched by the generous offers from 30+ strangers who stopped and offered their aid.  Unfortunately we were so stuck there was no way we'd get out of it except for a tow truck to pull us out.  We had one car after another stop and ask if we needed help.  I bet if we had all those people there at the same time they could have lifted our car out of the ditch! :) (We still wouldn't have been able to drive it though because of the extent of the damage, especially to the tire.) I had a hard time holding back tears as each person came to offer aid, and surprisingly Darwin only knew one of the people who stopped to offer their help--we were only about a quarter mile from our house so I was surprised we didn't see anyone else we knew.

It totally cracked me up that after our "accents" (how Aurora says accident) she said, "Uh-oh.  Car broken."  We couldn't help but laugh at her observance of our situation.  What a little smarty-pants!  Aurora was an angel though.  She sat so still and quiet as I called our insurance and got things arranged for the tow company to get us out and get everything else taken car of, and as Darwin talked to each person coming to offer their help.

We owe a HUGE thank-you to Papa Deming who skipped a church meeting and braved the awful weather to come rescue me and Aurora and take us home and then go back with Darwin and bring him to their house to pick up their extra car for us to use while ours is getting fixed.  We're so blessed to live so close to Gamma and Papa Deming and for all they do for us.  We love you guys!

We're also grateful for tender mercies, such as knowing we have insurance to help us pay for the damage to our car, that we actually just increased our insurance coverage back in November, and especially that none of us were hurt.  Our accident very well could have been worse than it was, but we were blessed in so many ways.