Load the Car with Angels...

So first off, was anyone else kept awake by that crazy storm we had last night?  I must've been up for about an hour...AND when I went outside this morning, I noticed that our glass patio table with the umbrella and all had been blown over onto it's side...that thing is not light.  And the lamest thing of all is that we've had this STUPID newspaper sitting on our roof since winter and wouldn't you know THAT didn't get blown off in the storm...pssshhh.
Anyway, as I was laying in bed listening to the crazy thunder go on and on, I decided to go online and 1) look if we were under some kind of weather advisory (we were but just thunderstorm...I wasn't going to get all hot and bothered unless it was a tornado advisory) and 2) I decided to check for any articles on the star tribune about this guy that was hit in Lakeville a few weeks back.  I never wrote about it then because I was a little emotional about the subject...I had taken the kids to the park (I didn't even want to go in the first place...I should have just stayed home!) and during the course of it, a car hit a man and his wife on their motorcycle...they flew through the air and landed on the pavement...the woman got up right away but after about 15 minutes, an HCMC helicopter landed on the road and airlifted the guy away.  I held back tears the whole way home (the helicopter landing 20 feet away from us really did me in) and scoured the Internet the next few days trying to find out if the man had survived.  A few days ago, I finally got my chance to find out when I was pulled over for turning right on red (I apparently didn't stop before turning...who knew you even had to stop???) and I asked to cop if he knew anything about it...he did and he informed me the guy had died.  Turns out he was only 40 and he died 3 hours after being airlifted to HCMC.  I HATE crap like this.  I do the whole "what if" thing...what if he'd just waited a few more minutes before leaving...or if he'd just stayed at home in the first place...what if the 17 year old who hit him had been paying attention??  And then, I upset myself further by thinking about that person waking up for the day putting on their socks and shoes, not knowing that 8 hours later they're going to be hit by a car and die...it makes me sick just typing it out.  DEATH + ME do not go together well...I obviously have some kind of issues.  Anyway, back to my point...as I was laying in bed last night thinking about God (anytime it thunderstorms, in my head it seems like God is mad, which is weird too I'm sure...I'm just all kinds of messed up people!  You have no idea...really) and the man who died...I was thinking about how I need to start saying a little prayer every single time I get into the car...and how I need to say it out loud and it needs to be the same exact prayer...and that I need to have the kids say it with me because 11 years from now when Ayris starts driving and 13 years from now when Asher starts driving, my hope is that it will be BURNED into their memory and they'll just automatically say it each time they get into their cars themselves (honestly, I'm still not at a point where I'm even going to allow them to drive ever...but I imagine it will happen at some point)...so today, I asked Ayris if she remembered when the accident happened at the park...yes she did...and I told her that the guy died and explained how dangerous riding/driving in cars can be and how I'd like to start saying a little prayer each time we get in the car and could she help me to remember...well she sure could...so then I asked her what we should say that would remind God to protect us and keep the angels with us in the car at all times...to which she said we should say "Load the Car with Angels" because we need a lot of angels so they can protect all of us in the car.  I'm already envisioning us standing in the Target parking lot holding the door open for this line of angels that need to get in the car...while people wonder why the door is open and we're waving our angels into the car...our invisible angels. 

One of the things I often wonder about is if prayer can make a difference in the outcome of our deaths.  If everything is already set in stone with our birth and death, then can praying a prayer of safety for myself and my children alter the course of an accident that could have been had?  Or is it merely something that will give me piece of mind each time I get into the car?  I guess for now, I'm just going to have faith that my family will live long and healthy lives.

That's all for now...I have pictures to edit and then I'll get another post up =)