Katie Phelps

Earlier this week on Wednesday, I was having a pretty good day. Things are work were going well. I was getting the things done that I needed, there were no fires that I needed to put out. Overall, it was a great day: until I drove home.

I live 7.9 miles away from work. So it never takes me very long. It takes me a minute to jump on the freeway, a couple of minutes going south, then a couple of minutes after I get off the freeway to get to my house. But on Wednesday, I was on the freeway from 5:15, when I left work, until 6:05.

As I was driving along, suddenly all lanes of traffic stopped. Stopped. I had my car in park for 10 minutes while I sat on the freeway. As I listened to the radio, I finally heard that there had been an accident and that highway patrol was only letting the two left lanes go through. So I got into the farthest left lane that wasn’t the carpool lane (I was alone and don’t know if because there is an accident if I was able to go into that lane or not. A lot of other people who shouldn’t have been in that lane got into it. Does anybody know if the rules for the carpool lane change because of an accident?) So I was crawling along in the left lane, when a semi in the middle lane decided that he wanted in my lane. Since I wasn’t going anywhere anyway, I held back to make room for him. Just as I did that, a semi came up next to me in the carpool lane. I guess he noticed that there was a big gap in front of me and decided he wanted in that gap too. So the semi in the middle lane is beginning to make his way into the lane in front of me and suddenly the semi in the carpool lane swerves into my lane. The key to understand though, is that neither of these trucks were far enough in front of me to actually fit in the space I had left. So while both of the truck parts of their vehicles were getting over, had they tried to get over, their trailers were going to make a sandwich out of me. (and I love my little carolla, but I’m pretty sure that in a match with two semis vs. a carolla, the semis would have won.) Now I’m sure what I should have done was honk my horn to let them know they were about to squish me and run right into each other. But the only thing I could do was put my hands over my mouth and brace myself for the accident I was sure was going to come.

Luckily though, the semi in the carpool lane must have noticed that he was about to be smashed by the other semi, and smash me in the process, because he swerved back into the carpool lane and went on his way. The other semi moved up enough, that he could finally get over without killing me and then moved over again into the carpool lane. All the while, I am still sitting in my car with my hands over my mouth and my foot firmly on the brake. I finally realized the danger was gone, moved forward to fill the semi-sized gap between me and the car in front of me and began to bawl.

I called my mom and told her what happened and cried some more (I had never been so close to being in an accident before — especially one that I was watching it about to happen and couldn’t do anything about it). By the time that I made it home, I had finished crying, but my whole body was shaking. And to make the evening even worse, Bryan was at school and wouldn’t be home until 8:45. So I decided to wrap up in a blanket, watch tv and just try to forget what happened to freak me out.

That’s when my miracle happened. (well, I guess it was my second miracle for the day, because I did make it safely home)

As I was sitting and watching tv, my doorbell rang. I wasn’t expecting anyone and opened the door and no one was there, but there was a green bowl on my door step with a note. I brought the bowl full of goodies in side and read the note.

Here are a few things I thought you’d enjoy eating when you watch LOST. Love, S.S.

And inside the bowl were goodies with the DHARMA logo taped on them. (If you love LOST as much as I do, you know exactly what logo I am talking about) Now this wasn’t a big thing, but this simple act meant so much to me that evening. It took my mind off of what had happened earlier to freak me out so much and helped me remember that the Lord is always watching over me, protects me, and will comfort me when I need it most. I am sure this sister had no idea that the exact day she dropped that on my door step was the day I would need something like that so much. But she was truly acting as an angel for the Lord that day.

Thank you, to whoever you are. That simple act of kindness made my day more than you know.