Christmas Lights

We decorated the house last week with Christmas lights and the tree. I love the star lights; they were at Big Lots and pretty inexpensive. Someone keeps messing with the controls, though. They have about 8 different blinking options, and I have them on steady on. Twice they were steady on when I've come home, and then hours later I've looked out the window to see that my front porch has become a disco party. I have my suspects. It just weirds me out that we haven't heard the culprits on the porch when they've come to change them...



We also put up the tree. I took this picture right after I took the pictures outside in the cold, so the lens fogged up and gave that soft focus look. Between that, the paneling, and the shag, it looks like the ghost of Christmas past. Matt and I were considering Photoshopping pictures of us as children into it and sending it out as a Christmas card. Over the past week, the tree has also developed a distinct lean to the right.We'll l have to fix it before my family's fake Christmas tomorrow.

Totalled

So, last Friday night I was on my way home from work. Nearly home, in fact - don't they say that the majority of accidents occur closer to home? I was minding my own business, thinking about what I needed to do when I got home, when it hit me.

Or rather, she hit me. With her car.

It wasn't icy or even rainy, and she wasn't drunk or anything like that. It was just one of those things where someone gets distracted at exactly the worst moment. She was turning into Dunkin Donuts, and did it right as I was driving past the entrance, and so she drove into my front end. The airbags went off, the driver's side door wouldn't open, and a lot of little pieces of my car wound up all over Eddy Road. And her car was just as bad. Turns out that the woman who hit me is a member of Ste. Marie, and so was the lady who stopped and let us use her cell phone (it's always when you you really need, when it's the moment you say that you get a cell phone for, that is the most likely moment for the battery to die, isn't it?). So it was a fairly amicable accident, all things considered.

At first, I was really annoyed. I mean, I was soooooo close to having this car paid off, and I had been thinking about all the things I would do with the money. I had had dreams of new carpeting and painting walls. But that's going to be delayed apparently. And I was annoyed about having to deal with the hassle of renting a car, making all kinds of calls, and now finding a new car, and all the time that takes up.

But as the week has gone by, I've been thinking about things and learning some things. First of all, my friend Bill said something which was not intended to be about me, but I think God wanted me to hear it. Bill said that sometimes God allows things to happen because He wants us to remember that we always rely on Him. So when we begin getting too big, too full of ourselves, He permits things which He knows will make us turn to Him and lean on Him and recognize that He is the giver of all good gifts. And so I think God is reminding me of this in a very gentle way.

The second thing is that the woman who hit me is in a much worse position by this accident. She's been unemployed for the past year, and the unemployment benefits run out in January. Also, her insurance company totalled her car, and she has no way to get another. Now, Matt and I will get by. We'll get another car, and we'll deal with still having a car payment. We are by no means ruined by this accident.

But we both are worried now for this woman, and praying for her. So I want to ask all 6 or so people who read this to pray for Ann as well. Pray that somehow, whether it's by finding another job for her, or help from her family, or the generosity of people who know her, that she is able to get through this time. ad marjorem gloriam dei, right?