Lois' Version of Events

I was at work and at about 10:30 AM I get a call from Nigel. He starts off with...

"First of all, everyone is OK."

This does not bode well. He then tells me that a car has hit our condo and that the kids are VERY upset.

I leave work and head home. That's when I see the car in the wall. I went upstairs to get my insurance agent (very convenient to have her so close by) and to see how my kids were doing. My other upstairs neighbors had taken my kids in and fed them breakfast. They were still very upset.

I never did see the lady who was driving the car, but the ambulance was still there, so I figured she couldn't have been too hurt. The police and fire departments were traipsing though my house all morning (which was a complete mess -- especially since the night before Alice-Grace had gotten a phone book out of the recycling bin and ripped out every page and tossed it all over the living room).

My insurance agent and neighborhood watch chair was busy making lots of phone calls. Within minutes, they had the building inspector out there and two men started clearing the loose brick and building a new wall.

Then we realized that we didn't know where the cat was. We spent the rest of the day trying to find her (my kids were very upset about the missing cat). We didn't find her until about 9:00 PM -- turns out she was hiding in our bedroom closet the whole time.

In the meantime, my bedroom is all torn apart to make room for the workers and insulation is everywhere (not good for Nigel's scarred lungs).

It's been amazing all the small miracles that have taken place. The woman was not hurt (as far as we know), none of us were hurt, nothing in the bedroom was damaged (except for the wall), the car managed to hit in between two support beams, there was no plumbing in that wall, no window there to shatter glass everywhere, etc.

Most of all, we're so thankful for everyone who came to our aid. Our neighbor who was first on the scene and called 911, our other neighbors who took care of and fed our kids (and are letting us borrow their air mattress), our insurance agent, our neighborhood watch chair, the men who patched our hole because they knew it was going to rain that night, a dear friend who brought us homemade donuts to show that not all "holes" are bad, our friends who are letting us stay in their apartment while we wait for the wall to be fixed, etc.

Thank you, everyone!