Thankful

I was cleaning up from feeding my family lunch today when the thought occured to me, "You should call your brother Stephen." Yes, I should call him and hear about how his Christmas went. Though talking with Steve on the phone is atypical as of recent years, we are quite close. I dialed, thinking of their Christmas spent in Utah. A white Christmas full of snow and magic, family get togethers, gifts of affection. I had seen pictures. I knew it had been a good Christmas for their family in UT, though I missed seeing them here in AZ.

The line immediately went to message. Must be talking to somebody else. This is too bad, I think, but I already know what he would say: "Hey Beck! Yep, we had a great Christmas. The boys loved it, Norah made a great angel in the nativity reenactment over at mom and dads, there's a bit too much snow on the ground for me & Emily, but everyone is really happy." I imagined this all in his calm, soothing voice (on the rare ocassion that Stephen displays any emotion close to anger, he would some how still have a soothing voice). I left a message that I was thinking about him and continued to load this dish washer. I thought nothing of it.

Fast forward to a phone call from Nancy at dinner time: "Have you checked the new post on the family blog yet today?"

No, I hadn't checked the family blog. There was obvious concern in her voice. I immediately knew something was wrong. But if it was really wrong then I wouldn't be hearning about it through a blog, right?

"What's wrong, Nancy? Is everybody all right? Nobody's declaring they have cancer to the world through the family blog, right?"

She wouldn't tell me. Just get on the computer and check, she said. Everybody's alright. But there had been a close call.

I immediatley pull up the new post. This was the picture I found.



That's my brother Stephen's car.

When I was calling him after lunch, this had just happened to him. He had been driving home from a happy skiing excursion, just him and his three boys, ages 9, 7 and 5. Since they moved to Utah a year ago their daddy has taught them that part of enjoying the climate change from AZ is to learn to love skiing. They had had a great morning on the slopes and were headed home when Steve hit a patch of ice that forced him towards oncoming traffic. He jerked his car back to the right to correct, spun 180 degrees and then rolled three times into the snow bank. They landed upside down, suspended from their seatbelts.

The miracle: Nobody was hurt. Hardly a scratch on them.

I thank heavens for seat belts.

And I really thank heaven for their ski-loving guardian angels. Snow Angels. There must have been at least four assigned to them today.