Both a Blessing and a Curse

So, here's a pic of Chels and the little purple BarneyMobile Neon that she drives. The kids were on a 2 hour delay this morning due to the bitterly cold freezing temps, the high winds, and patchy-icy road conditions. Chels drives to school everyday and takes Linds with her. So, they leave around 8:55 a.m. and head off to school, after I had gotten her frozen car doors opened, started and warmed up the car, kissed them both goodbye, and warned Chels to be extra-cautious as the roads had patchy spots of ice on them. She gives the customary acknowledgement and... off they go to school.

Well, as most of you know, I am a Firefighter/EMT in our township which is both a blessing and a curse in knowing what tragic things are going on in the community, and... about 5 minutes after Chels and Linds had pulled out of the driveway, my pager goes off for a two vehicle auto accident at the intersection of Temperance and Jackman Roads with at least two victims. My pulse quickens and my mind starts racing... "didn't Linds tell me one time that they ALWAYS go up Temperance Road to go to school", "they didn't give any vehicle descriptions of the vehicles involved in the accident when they dispatched us, did they?!?", "how many victims did they say there were... two?!?", "Oh my gosh! What if this is Chels and Linds". My heart instantly is racing faster than it ever does even after the hardest of runs and uncontrollably so as adrenaline is pulsed throughout my body and my breaths are ever-increasing.

I snatch up wallet and cell phone in case I should need to call their mother from the scene, put my hat and coat on, and head to the garage to head to the fire station. It's like everything is in slow motion, my actions, the garage door going up, getting to the end of our road, the vehicle in front of me that won't get out of the way. Finally, I get to the station and bolt to my gear rack as I'm shouting to my house officer that Chels and Linds just left for school 5 minutes before this call came in and he shouts back that his son, Justin, had just left as well, and goes the same way to school. I snatch my gear off the rack as others are filing in and donning theirs' and heading to appartus to respond to this call. I jump aboard our rescue unit and gear up enroute to the scene.

As we approach the scene I'm nervously straining to see out of the windshield from the back of the rig and can see that it is not exactly at the intersection we were dispatched to, but a side street intersection west of it! No purple Neon! WHEW!!! I collect myself, thank God for sparing my girls and Justin, we arrive on scene, and I begin to attend to one of the victims pinned in her vehicle in the bitter cold with another firefighter, shifting my relieved concern from my own kids, to someone else's now.

Thanks, Lord, for protecting my girls this morning.