Don’t
you hate it when you can’t keep your eyes open?
Literally! I was driving my son
to practice and my daughter to rehearsal and my eyes wanted to roll back in my
head while I was behind the wheel. Upon
arriving back home, I brewed a full pot of coffee and began slurping it down;
so picking up the kids after their activities would be a safer drive…and it
was. Thank God for coffee!
There’s
nothing scarier than the prospect of crashing with your kids in the car.
I
remember one time I actually fell asleep behind the wheel. My children were little and we had recently
moved to Kansas City. I was experiencing
post-partum depression and was medicated, not to mention I was exhausted from
the move. It was around three o’clock and
the afternoon sun was bright and hot. I
was on my way home from the grocery store; and both kids were strapped into
their car seats in the back of my suburban.
I turned onto a four lane street with a large, grassy median and the sun
shone directly into my eyes. I blinked slowly and tried to keep my eyelids from
drooping further. The next thing I
remember, the driver’s side tires were up over the median and I was heading for
a tree. I jolted awake and yanked the
wheel to the right, missing the tree and sending my car back into the
street. Thankfully, there were no other cars on the road at the time. My heart was racing with
adrenaline infused fear, as I glanced back at my kids. They were sleeping peacefully, just
like I had been a split second earlier.
I don't know what jolted me awake in the nick of time, but I give credit to God, who probably sent my guardian angel to shake me back to coherency. It took
me several weeks before I trusted myself to drive with the kids in the car
again. To say the experience shook me,
is putting it lightly. I was
horrified. It made me realize how
quickly an accident can happen and that in one moment life can be snatched
away.
The moral of the story is.... I don't feel bad about my coffee addiction. The way I see it, it just might save my life. ~
I had almost the exact same thing happen, Susan, when my kids were babies. My youngest had colic, and I was exhausted - woke up going down the wrong side of a 4 lane highway (with the kids in the car). We're lucky we're all still here!
ReplyDeleteThat's awful!! It's so scary how fast it can happen and I think new moms are especially vulnerable simply because they are exhausted.
ReplyDelete