we had a smashing drive home

I just got home. The kids and I walked around a lake over the noon hour and walked through some park gardens.

Since the road around the lake is a one way, I went a different way home and found myself having to go around detours and through construction areas.

In one of the construction areas in single lane traffic, there was a fire hose spraying into the street. As I veered around it, I must have been looking down at the water. For when I looked up, traffic was stopped, and I rear-ended the man in front of me at a slow speed.

My front right side of my bumper, headlight, and turn signal were smashed down near my tire. His back left corner bumper was smashed in. No one got hurt. Henri asked me why we were turning into a parking lot (to get out of traffic).

I've never been in an accident that I caused before, and I wanted to make sure that I did everything right. We've been left hanging before by someone who hit Johnny's car. 911 told me they wouldn't send anyone out and just to exchange information. I called my insurance company, and they were fine with that.

The other man didn't speak English very well, but he was nice and hung around while I waited to give him a claim number from my insurance company.

I thought I could drive my car to the auto body shop my insurance told me to go to, but if I turned the wheel to the right, the tire hit the bumper. The auto body shop told me they would tow it, so I called Johnny to pick me up.

While I was on the phone with either 911, Johnny, the insurance company, the auto body shop, and the tow truck company, Henri and Cosette sat in their car seats at first; then Henri let themselves out and they crawled around the car (breaking my sunglasses--2 broken in one week). Then Henri talked and talked wanting to know what was going on. Finally, Henri informed me that he had to go use a bathroom now! The kind employees of the nearby paint store, led us into their backroom to find a restroom.

All in all, it put me home two hours later than I had hoped I'd be. Cosette was pretty tired since we were cutting into her nap.

Cosette is napping now, and Henri is crafting construction paper in his room. I praise God that he kept us safe and the man I hit safe. Although this will be a financial sting in the side (so sorry my Honey), I count it all joy and praise God for our country and the business systems set in place to help everything go smoothly so that both cars can be fixed.