Blessed beyond measure

So recently we've had a lot of "adventures" in our life... bumps in the road you might call them. They say things happen in 3's and whoever "they" are... they don't lie.

For us, the first thing happened about a month ago when I attempted a thumb-ectomy while preparing sweet potato fries for dinner one night. I was home alone with the kids and had to wrangle my kids in the car (note: putting a wriggling two year old in a carseat with one hand and holding pressure on a lacerated thumb with the other is just as difficult if not more than you would imagine) I dropped my kids off at the neighbors and drove myself to the ER to get 6 stiches in my thumb. BUT the Glass is half FULL because... well that's easy:

#1: I didn't cut it all the way off!

#2: It was on my left hand

#3: Thank goodness for health insurance!

#4: And thanks good neighbors who take your kids when you show up on their doorstep (because you couldn't find your phone to call and tell them you were coming) and just hand them over!

So then, about 3 days later we hit our next bump in the road... quite literally.. actually it was less of a bump in the road and more like a stalled out car in the road. We were driving along the freeway about 7:30 pm on our way to Cabellas for Clark to spend his birthday money on fly-tying kit. We were just talking away (discussing what I've been learning from the love and logic parenting book I've been reading) when we started noticing cars ahead of us swerving around something. We couldn't tell what they were swerving around until we came upon the obstacle in the road... in the middle of the freeway was a car that had stalled out then was hit by another vehicle knocking out all the power and lights on the car, so all we saw was suddenly a big black munched up car immediately in front of us. Clark swerved to miss it but still we hit it with the front passenger side of our car. I again didn't have my phone with me (because oh yeah, it died... I knew there was something else going on that week) so I couldn't take a photo but I've definitely never seen a wheel as messed up as ours was, I can't even describe it. It ended up damaging the wheel, fender, bumper, axel, and suspension...that's all. I can vividly remember the moment we knew we were going to hit it going 70 miles an hour and bracing myself for impact. Then we hit it, pulled off the side of the road and realized we were all ok. we were all ok. Turns out even the poor woman inside the car who had now been hit twice while stalled out on the freeway was ok. Talk about a miracle. So we just wrecked our car... how is this particular glass half full you ask? Easy:

#1: We all survived without a bump or scratch or anything. Including our two kiddos in the backseat (pretty sure there were angels involved)

#2 while the car didn't fare quite as well, we had awesome friends who came in an instant to pick us up and other friends who took in our car at their bodyshop.

#3: Car Insurance... as much of a pain as it is, sooooo glad to have it!

#4: also it has given clark a chance to re-live his glory days with his former truck (sort-of) he managed to sweet talk the car rental place to upgrade us to a F150 (even silver) for the same price as the Chevy Malibu we were planning on.

Then about 2 weeks later just as we thought things were mellowing out, we had another Boom. I mean BIG BOOM... as in an explosion at the ammunition manufacturing plant where Clark works. I got a phone call from Clark at about 1:00 pm saying not to worry if I heard anything on the news, but there was an explosion and he was ok. Seriously, is this glass still half full? (It's starting to seem like there might be a slow leak someplace) While this accident at the plant has translated into Clark working crazy hours and functioning on minimal amounts of sleep, on the bright side:

#1: No one was killed

#2: Well, I can't think of a number two right now because there are a lot of crappy things that have happened since but I think that number one is a big enough reason to say the glass is still definitely half full.

So.. We've had a lot to think about lately, and at times perhaps feet down or discouraged by these recent events. We've come to the conclusion that in each of these circumstances things could have been gravely worse, and it's a reminder to me to cherish EVERY moment because things happen in a blink of an eye. It's a reminder to me of how precious life is (and thumbs) and how we can't waste anytime feeling anything but love for those around us.

I think it's funny how life work sometimes. I was talking to a friend of mine at the park even before the explosion happened and i'm sure I was ranting about the storm cloud that has been perched over the Hymas household and she said something... she said: "something good is about to happen, it always works that way". And you know what, she was so right....because for each of these recent semi-tragedies, we have been blessed in other ways so much more than we can imagine. This past month has been such a testimony to me that the Lord knows and loves each one of us, and that faith is a test, and when we put it to the test we will be blessed EVERY time.

So here's my shout out of love to everyone out there in the bloggesphere... the Hymas family LOVES YOU!!!