Saturday, January 22, 2011

It started off as a lovely day…

It started off as a perfect Saturday. I got up and went to Bible study with a fantastic group of women who I am certainly enjoying getting to know better. They are so welcoming and seem to actually be interested in what I have to contribute to the group. They don’t even seem to mind hanging out when we’re done and listening to me vent - I swear they must be saints! Seriously, I am so honored to have been welcomed into their circle and I look forward to diving deeper into my own faith with them on these Saturday mornings.

After Bible study I got a text from one of my best and oldest friends, Jessy! We have known each other since kindergarten. She is 8 1/2 months pregnant and she suggested we have a girls day to go get lunch, get pedicures, then hang out at her place to organize baby stuff. Fabulous! We enjoyed lunch at Chick-Fil-A, got wonderful pedicures which included leg massages and then practiced swaddling, looked at all of the baby clothes she has acquired and ooed and awwwwed at all of the other cute baby stuff she has. I even showed her all about Shutterfly so she can easily make and share photo albums with her extended family after the baby is born!

IMAG0139

Sorry about the blurry picture. I used my phone to take it.

After I got home Dave and I decided to take the night off from healthy cooking (mostly because I forgot to start the all day crock pot meal earlier this morning) and go out for Chinese food at my favorite Chinese food restaurant with the best crab rangoons I’ve ever had. Yuuuummmmmm!

Then my great day was over.

We were on our way home from the restaurant and only a couple blocks from home when we saw a woman hanging from a car on a side street then she went flying off the side and landed in the middle of the street, face down. The car drove off. We pulled over and I jumped out of the car to see if she was all right. A couple of other neighbors came out to help also. We got her out of the street, picked up her smashed glasses and the windshield wiper that she had been hanging from off of the street. She was hysterical and had clearly been drinking. She tried to tell us that her husband pushed her out of the car and drove off with their two-year-old daughter and we can’t call the cops because she had been drinking because her husband’s step-father made her. Apparently she had also had a previous domestic violence case against her and she begged us not to call 911 so her daughter wouldn’t be taken away from her, or something like that. Sounded like a crazy situation. Long story short, we were able to get her cell phone from her and call her grandparents to come and pick her up and take her to a safe place. While we were waiting for her grandparents to show up we encouraged her to take charge of her life and to seek help and counseling to help herself and her family. I don’t know if she’ll do anything about her situation, but I hope this was a wake up call for her to get herself out of whatever situation she is in and to make a better life for her and her daughter. Her grandparents finally came to pick her up and, thank goodness, they seemed to have sound heads on their shoulders. We all gave them our phone numbers in case they decided to involve the police so we could speak as witnesses to what we saw. It was a crazy night. A crazy, scary night.

I am so grateful for my wonderful family and friends. I am grateful that my husband and I have a strong relationship and that he would never try to throw me from a moving vehicle and leave me in the middle of the road. I am grateful that my friends and their spouses would never do that to one another. I am grateful that there are still good people in the world who stopped to help this woman. I will never forget this night and the horrible thing I saw. And I will never forget how a group of strangers worked together to help someone and encourage her to do better for herself.

I hope this woman gets her act together and puts herself in a better situation. Please, pray for her and her family.

2 comments:

  1. We've really enjoyed getting to know you better too! I'm sorry I wasn't there yesterday, maybe we can talk weddings next bible study? What a scary experience, it's hard knowing things like that happen and it does make you realize how blessed you are in your own life. Good for you guys to stop and help her.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sarah, I don't know how long you've had this blog but I just found you and I'm glad I did! We are so enjoying having you at bible study! Thanks for putting up with us and our occasional crazy sister fights. ;-)
    What a crazy, scary thing to witness. I agree with everything Courtney said. It makes you grateful for all of the good things in your life and the healthy relationships. I admire you for stopping to help her too.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts!