Christmas will be different this year. Today my Dad took myself and my six siblings to a fantastic 4 hour laser-tag session in Fort Wayne, about an hour from home. We drove in two cars, Dad driving the minivan and Enoch a VW Golf. On the way back I was with Enoch in the Golf and we heard a "bump-bump". It was small and dismissed as ice or snow. About 20 seconds later we heard a loud scraping and the car dropped to three wheels. Enoch carefully pulled the Golf off the road and we called Dad to inform him of our lost wheel. We walked up the road about 300 feet looking for the tire, and Dad turned the van around and walked back to us.
We discovered that the axle had somehow severed at the hub, so the car would have to be towed. My toes were rather cold at this point (it's 13 degrees here) so I headed back to get warm and Enoch and Dad began walking along the road, one on either side. We waited for a few minutes, and then we began to see more and more flashing lights. Enoch came jogging up to grab the cell phone. He told me Dad had been clipped by a semi-truck.
Dad is ok, he probably has a broken arm and some very bad bruising in his leg. My Dad is very resolute, and didn't see any point to having the ambulance cart him somewhere when he wasn't in any immediate danger. Thus we drove him towards Goshen, our Golf on a tow-truck behind us. He decided during the drive that he didn't need to go to the hospital, as they were only going to tell him it was broken or not broken and then send him home. So now I am home, the Golf is in the garage (and every VW parts store in the area will be called on Christmas Eve), and Dad is resting in bed.
I'm very thankful for many things this Christmas. I'm thankful I got to spend a day with all my brothers (as they head all over the world this is becoming less frequent.) I'm thankful the tire didn't hit any other cars. I'm thankful that the Golf didn't lose its wheel during my drive north with Sharon last week. I'm thankful that Dad was far less injured than most who have such an incident. I'm thankful we all got home in the end, and I'm thankful to have a wonderful family through it all.
I know all of you will be praying for the family. Please pray especially for wisdom for my Dad, as he is very staunch in his decisions concerning his own health. I will keep you all updated as the situation develops.
Have a Thankful Christmas.