Trick or Treat! Today is Halloween; a day full of frights and fun. As a parent you experience both with your children. I encountered the two one summer when my daughter was sixteen. As a competition cheerleader she practiced many summer mornings. Each daybreak she would dress in the day’s assigned outfit, because if she didn’t have on the correct uniform or was late, she was sentenced to run many laps. 

She had only been driving a few months when an eerie feeling began sticking with me. Call it mother’s intuition, I guess, but I couldn’t shake the thought that she was going to be in a wreck. I expressed my concern to friends, and they always replied, “That’s a normal when you have a new driver.” But, I knew it was more than that. I began praying for God to protect her.

 My fright came when the phone rang that rainy July morning. I said hello and all I heard on the other end was crying. 

Then a male voice came on saying, “Ma’am, your daughter…”

“She’s been in a wreck; hasn’t she? Is she okay?”

“The best we can tell, yes she is. But she won’t get out of the car, and we can’t understand her because she is crying.”

After I learned the location, I jumped in the car asking them to stay until I arrived. I rounded the corner and saw my Durango sitting perpendicular to the road, upright in a ditch. The rain poured as I crossed the road and thanked the boys for their help. Looking at the car, I knew it was totaled. The bottom of the vehicle was pushed up from where it landed full force.

The officer said the SUV hydroplaned, flipped a full 360 degrees, and landed in the ditch. She left the scene with not one single scratch or bruise. God answered my prayer. 

It’s such a fright hearing the words, “Your daughter has been in a wreck,” even if you expected it and prayed for her protection. Seeing the damage made my heart flutter. Parenthood is full of frights, but we have to trust God and remember He has our children in His hands.

What’s the funny? Well, there was a reason she wouldn’t get out of the car. When the fellows left and I opened her door, she was sitting in her panties!  Yep, true story. She had left her assigned shorts at a friend’s house.  She thought it would save time, to just slip on the correct ones when her friend arrived with them. The saying goes, “Make sure you wear clean underwear in case you are in a wreck.” Well, that she did!