Bonnets For The Shop / Thankfulness Mixed With Sadness

I finished sewing the bonnets for the shop orders & got them coffee stained last night. They will soon be dry & ready to make their trip to the shop. I am hoping the shop keepers are happy with them & they sell fast. I have enjoyed making them. Seeing the fabric pieces all sewed together making a bonnet.

I had quite a scare Friday night. Laken had went to work early that day. Lucas went to hang out with her boyfriend after school & wait for Laken to get off work. Laken was not home at the time she should have been. Watching out the windows for headlights to come back the lane & praying as the minutes passed by. The snow was falling the ground was covered. The phone rang. The caller id was Lakens number. When I answered it was Lucas. He said that Laken & he were going to be late. I was confused as to why he was calling from Lakens phone when he was just out the road at Lakens boyfriends house. I asked what was going on. Lucas told me Lakens boyfriend had been in an accident with two of their other friends. They had tryed to avoid hitting a large rock in the roadway & started sliding on the snow covered roadway while missing hitting some trees. The vehicle flipped onto its side. Laken & Lucas were going to help them. I knew Laken would be in no shape to drive. I said I would meet them & I would drive. Lucas insisted they were almost to the accident. More waiting & worrying. Finally Laken called & she was crying. She could not find the accident. Someone else brought her boyfriend home & she was at her boyfriends house. She did not want to drive anymore & wanted me to come get my truck. She said knowing her boyfriend & friends could have been killed & remembering back to her own wreak last June was to much. I had to ask was Lucas in the wreck? The answer was no but he could have been. Lucas went with Laken's boyfriend & the other friends to meet Laken after work & follow her home. Laken had asked Lucas if he wanted to get something to eat with her at McDonald's. Lucas got in the truck with Laken & when they were done eating Laken took her normal route home & their friends & her boyfriend took another route. I have much to be thankful for. Lucas was not in the wreck & their friends are all ok. This is not the first phone call of this type I have gotten. Last June I got the call Laken had rolled my jeep & was being taken to the hospital. I had shared this in a post last June. Fourteen years ago I received the phone call that my son Atlee could not be found & he could be one of the unidentified victims involved in an accident. The car had hit a utility pole snapping it in half & then struck several trees before coming to rest on its roof trapping the victims inside the car. I went right away to look for Atlee. I was told by the fireman that three were killed & another was seriously injured. None of them were Atlee but he thought at the time of using the jaws of life & air bags to remove the victims from the car one was Atlee but discovered it was Atlee's best friend. Atlee & his best friend looked some what alike. No one knew where Atlee was still. I found him the next day. He & another friend was in the car but got out after an argument. They had refused to ride with the others. I was thankful my son was not in the car & was physically ok. In the days that came & three funerals it really took a toll on Atlee.

Atlees best friend had wrote this poem just a few weeks before his death. I have kept his poem all these years & it has been a reminder of the sad loss of him & a reminder that God spared my Atlee.

The Judge
It's time to face the final words. Looking at all the people makes me scared. I saw a big glare and I just stared: like a statue in the sky. The glare was the judges eyes meeting mine. Then he said Life without parole. Then I woke up, (Just a dream) Then I said to myself It's time to change.

This boy was only 17 years old. I have always believed God was reaching out to this boy through his poem. He looked somewhat like my son Atlee but had baby blue eyes & could look me straight in the eye & lie while laughing. I will never understand why. I cared for this young boy & wanted to help him. Since then I have seen my Atlee grow in to a good young man & loving father. Some people stand still in time & are always young in our memories. In the past three years there has been three other very young teens from my children's school who have lost their lives in tragic accidents. The last one being just twelve days ago. Crosses with their names stuffed animals solar lights & flowers mark the roadways at the locations of each their accidents. It weighs on my heart at their loss. The pain there families & friends have gone through since their loss. There lives being so short. Something I can not understand. I continue to tell my children they need to be ready at all times. We never know when God will take us & we need to be sure of were we will spend eternity.I pray they understand just how important this is & open their hearts to God.

I give thanks to God my children have all been spared & are still with me.

Blessings Til Next Time!
Lara