A God Story

So you know how you can look back on a situation and are blown away by how God protected and provided in amazing ways?  Well we had one of those today...

We woke up and headed to Florida.  We are spending the night at Chris' cousin's house in Jacksonville for the night, and it was a long boring drive.

About 15 minutes away {8pm} from her house we were switching highways/freeways {you know, the sharp almost circle turns?} when we heard a weird sound on the car.  At first I thought we had a flat, but when we got on the straight away the sound stopped. So we drove on.  A couple minutes later we were supposed to take a flyover/overpass to another freeway when Chris accidentally got in the wrong lane and we ended up exiting the freeway.  As we slowed down, the sound came back, the car locked up and we were at a stand still.  We had a flat BUT the car wouldn't drive forward at all...even with the flat.

We called Chris' cousin, Rene {who's house was only 10 minutes away, and she is a retired cop!} and told her where we were at.  She said to lock the doors {we weren't in a safe area} and she was on her way.  I called AAA signed up to become a member {we hadn't renewed our membership} and they sent a tow truck out.  Because I mentioned we had 3 kids and we weren't in a safe area the tow truck driver showed up with 20 minutes!  There weren't any lights around so he towed us to a gas station to just look at the problem.  The kids and I drove with Rene and we followed the tow truck.

They pulled the flat tire off and discovered that a bolt from the brake pad had backed itself out and the break pad was falling forward {which wouldn't let us drive forward}.  Praise GOD it's an easy fix, because we were thinking the car was toast!  Chris got on the phone and found an auto parts store that was open and had the bolt.  He told them his wife was coming and to sell me a wrench for it as well. We made it to the auto parts store 4 minutes before it closed, got the bolt and wrench and headed back to the gas station.

The tow truck guy hung around while Chris replaced the bolt and put our FULL SIZE spare on!

We got in the car and drove away.  Now granted, we got to Rene's late, and maybe got a few more grey hairs, but MAN GOD IS GOOD y'all {and yes, this NEEDS a y'all}!

Yes, we will need a new tire {we will actually have to replace all of them - boo!} but are SO thankful for how God protected us....

・We COULD have been far away from Rene's house.

・We COULD have been flying down the freeway at 80 mph and probably would have flipped the car.

・Chris had mistakenly gotten off the freeway so we were on a street instead of a major overpass.

・AAA got there within 20 minutes. 

・God protected us in an unsafe neighborhood.

・The guy COULD have just towed us to a shop and dropped us off, instead he towed us to a well lit gas station where he let Chris figured out the problem.

・An auto parts place was open, had the bolt we needed and we got there 4 minutes before it closed.

・The bolt backed itself out {which is bizarre} instead of breaking off which would have required someone drilling it out.

・We had a full size spare so we can drive back home on it.

・AND Chris was able to fix it quickly!

I am so grateful for God's protection for us tonight!!!