R.I.P. "The Cav"

On Tuesday night I was at the school and Bryan was home putting the kids to bed.  On my way home, I decided to go and get some gas in the car so Bryan wouldn't have to on his way to work the next morning.  As I was cruising through the green light at the intersection right before the gas station, the oncoming car turned left, smack-dab into me.  She was a young driver, only 17, and apparently she didn't see me (??)  She was in an SUV, so needless to say, I suffered the most damage.

I've never been in a wreck before (other than the occasional fender bender, going 5 mph-ish).  It was pretty surreal.  I remember the sound most of all.  The crunching of the metal.  Immediately I knew I was spinning around and my first thoughts were just "I hope I don't hit another car...I hope I don't hit into the stoplight pole."  I knew there was no way to correct out of the spin; I was just waiting and praying that I wouldn't hit anything (or anyone) else; it's a really busy intersection.  When I stopped spinning, I was completely through the intersection, facing the opposite direction I had been driving.  Thankfully I had not hit anything else.  I looked down and wondered if I was hurt, kind of checking around to make sure everything still worked, bent, and moved like it was supposed to.  Then I noticed that all the windows had shattered all over me.  I tried to grab my phone to call Bryan and couldn't find it.  I eventually found it under the passenger back seat.

Within seconds there were 4 or 5 people right outside my window, asking if I was OK.  I went to open the door and they informed me that my door was not about to open anytime soon.  (I still didn't realize how much damage the car had.)  So I crawled over the seat to the passenger door and got out.  I was really emotionally shaken (and physically shaking.)  When I walked around the car to see the smashed up side I was shocked! 

Everyone was so nice to me; someone called the police right away, and there were 2 ladies brushing pieces of glass out of my hair and sweater while we waited for the cops.  Someone went across the street and found the other driver (she only had a broken headlight and a flat tire.  She was really shaken up as well; she was in tears and just kept apologizing to me.  She really did feel terrible.)  

I was just so, so very thankful that I was alone.  I can't even imagine if I had had any of the kids in the backseat of the car with me.  What a blessing that was!  As for injuries, I got a cut and bruise on my right knee (I think I hit it into my car keys in the ignition); my left arm and elbow are super sore; my neck, back, and shoulders are sore and stiff, but that's it!  I was definitely watched over and protected.

The very sad part of all this is that our poor little Chevy Cavalier was totaled.  We bought that car in May of 2004.  It was our newest, nicest car at the time.  We loved our little "Cav" and brought 2 of our kids home from the hospital in it.  It had many, many more miles left in it and we planned to keep it for a very long time.  But alas, it was smashed beyond repair.

Here we are up at the wrecking yard to clean it out.  Right after this we went car shopping...

And, (yay!) we found a great new car last night.  We got a Saturn Aura and we love it.  We did a little research in the past few days about safety and crash-test ratings.  (Come to find out, our Cav had a 1-star side-impact crash rating.  Yep.)  The Saturn that we got has 5-stars on everything (except for a rollover, which still has 4-stars) and many more airbags, so we feel pretty good and safe in it.  Hopefully it will last us many years to come!

We are counting our many blessings.