The 4th of July

Howdy my foxtastic friends! 🤠🦊

Well, it is that time of year! Hot weather, ice cream cones and watching fireworks.
4th of July!!

I’ve always enjoyed 4th of July since I was a little kid. Fireworks never really scared me and I always got to see friends. 😄💖
But I also have other reasons to celebrate 4th of July other then the freedom of the US and fireworks.

Let me tell you a true story of something that happened many years ago today that completely changed my life…

My family moved from town to a beautiful woodland realm here in OK when I was 10.
That summer was the happiest of my life.
We were camping out in tents, played in the sun all day every day, worked on getting ready to start building our new home and making new friends.

That year flew by with so many epic and amazing memories. I’ve told my parents that I believe that year was the happiest time of my childhood. It was as if I was living in a perfect world of our own full of sunshine and magic.
It was truly a blessing. It strengthened my spirit, and it really shaped my character in many ways. 😌💛

That Christmas we found out Mom was going to have another baby! We were so excited.

The year 2014 was upon us!
We were making head way on our house and little baby was growing more and more every week! It was an amazing phase in my life.
Then June came about.
I was 11, my siblings were 7, 5, 3 and baby was due soon!
We were all heading home from our weekly shopping trip in our big 12 passenger van and I sat behind Mom while dad drove. The little kids were all asleep after a long day in the car.
Mom, Dad and I were all laughing at our own silly conversation. We were talking about toes.
Yup. Strange topic I know, but it had somehow come up and I was teasing Mom about her ability to grab objects with her toes. She was laughing and looking down at her bare feet over her swollen belly. I looked up at dad at the wheel to see if he was laughing. He was not. He had just in that moment sat up straight in his seat, grabbed the steering wheel with both hands and was staring straight ahead.
I looked up and in just a half of a second saw a pickup truck fish tailing straight for us.
Dad told me years later that I screamed…I don’t remember screaming, but I do remember the sounds of the giant white van around me crunch and my vision going all white and my ears filling with a very loud ringing.
I only had sense enough to notice Dad climbing over me to get out of the van and run at the young man that had just stumbled out of his truck, holding his bloody nose.
“WHAT WHERE YOU DOING?” my Dad bellowed, “I’VE GOT A CAR FULL OF KIDS AND A PREGNANT WIFE AND YOU’RE DRIVING LIKE A FREAK’N FOOL!”
By that time I had also climbed out of the van and trying to shake the stars from my vision. My little brother, who had been asleep when we were hit, was crying in the back seat, “What was that mommy? What is it?”
The truck had hit the passenger side of the van squarely trapping my Mom inside.
I grabbed the emergency bag from the back and helped my brothers and sisters out of the car. A white car stopped and a lady rushed over to us to see if she could help. She ended up going to her house to get us ice packs for the seat belt bruises on our chests and arms.
My dad had called a neighbor to come get the kids and I. We were leaving with them as soon as the fire department was arriving with the Claws of Life to cut mom out of the car.

The next couple of days are blurry in my memory, but somehow we ended up back at home. Mom was okay, except for a broken leg. Baby was also okay.

The weeks passed and July came about. We didn’t go see any fire works that year. We were physically and emotionally exhausted.
But early in the morning on July 4th Mom went into labor…9 weeks to early.
I woke up to the sound of Mom crying, “David! Blood!” and hobbling across the house without her crutches.
I got out of bed and walked into the living room where she stood screaming for Dad to call her Midwife.
I didn’t feel shaky. I just stood there and said quietly, “It’s okay Mommy.”
“NO IT’S NOT!!” she screamed back.
“Honey, our neighbor is coming over to stay with you guys,” dad said as he helped Mom out the door to the rental van.
I cleaned up as much of the blood as I could then made a bed in the living room for our friend then went back to bed and went straight back to sleep.
I woke up the next day to my little brother shaking me awake, “A kitten Hero! Our friend brought a Kitten!”
I walked outside to find our neighbor in the garden with all my siblings around him. They were passing around a tiny kitten.
“Your dad called and said you are to come home with me until he can come get you.”
I didn’t ask any questions and we all piled into his van (without car seats for the kids, which made me very nervous) and drove to his house.
It was only when we were walking through this front door and all his sons were saying, “Hi Hero!” when I realized I was only in a tank top and shorts. (a little TMI here, but this was super awkward because even at 11 I was rather busty)
I hid behind my friend who had happened to come to hug me. “Can I borrow a shirt?” I whispered.
A week later, after being bounced around from family to family, Dad came and picked us up and took us to a hotel in OKC where we lived while Mom and Baby where in the Hospital.
After 6 weeks in the NICU my little sister was finally able to come home!

So you see, 4th of July is a very special time for me. It’s kind of a thanksgiving to me as well as a celebration of my little Sister’s birthday. 😊💖

I always think of my very favorite Bible verse:
Jeremiah 29: 11
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”

I hope this story makes you think about how fragile life is and how big our God is!
I think a reason I love fireworks so much is that they remind me of the thunder of God’s voice from the Mountain and just how mighty and good He is.

Have an epic and blessed 4th of July peeps!
I promise to post something a bit more lighthearted very soon! 😅

Peace out!✌🦊