A Night to Remember

Saturday morning we loaded up our van and headed out to spend the day with my mom and Jake and his family, who were also visiting. We had a great day...we spent the morning at Grandma and Grandpa's and Uncle Matt, Aunt Rhonda and Lindsey all came up to visit with the kids (and maybe us adults too). After staying there for a couple hours, we went to check out Lindsey and Travis' remodeled house. Wow, they did a fantastic job redoing the house and it looks great! My mom had to work in the morning, so we met her at her house when she got off work. We had a great afternoon doing an egg hunt and just watching the kids play together. We all wanted to take mom out for dinner at the Beef House, since we won't be with her this Sunday (Mother's Day). Just after we ordered, Kaden decided to start screaming!! Kristoffer and I took turns with him outside so the other could eat in peace. After dinner we said good bye to everyone and changed the boys into their pjs and started our journey home.

I slept most of the time, but woke up just as we were getting onto I-69...and that is when our evening took a dramatic turn. I woke up, because Kristoffer slammed on the brakes. As I woke up I saw us run over something, I couldn't tell what it was, but he said that the car in front of us lost something from the top of their car and he tried to avoid hitting it but couldn't. Thinking that we had just run over it, we continued on. We were still able to go posted speeds and didn't hear any sounds coming from the van. About 10 minutes later, I looked in the side mirror, because I thought someone was flashing their headlights at us. The next 10-15 minutes happened so fast that I'm not sure how it all happened...the flashes we thought we saw were actually flames coming from under our van. Kristoffer pulled over on the side of the road and I jumped out before he could do anything and tried to open the back door but couldn't (the van wasn't in park yet, so it wouldn't open...I didn't know that at the time, so I went into panic mode). Kristoffer and I both went into turbo speed and were climbing over the seats unbuckling the boys as quickly as we could. I pulled Kaden over the front seat and got him out, while Kristoffer reached over and unbuckled Karter. The flames were really high on Karter's side, so Kristoffer tried the back door on my side again and pulled Karter out on that side. We clung to our babies and ran from the van...no sooner had we walked away from our van when the whole thing was engulfed in flames. The smoke was so thick coming from the van that it instantly stopped traffic going north bound and slowed traffic headed south. We didn't have time to grab our wallets or my cell phone, but luckily Kristoffer had his in his pocket. He called 911 and then called his mom (panicked!) and told her she was going to have to come get us. The people who pulled over behind us were so kind and helped the boys and I into the back of one of the cars and covered the boys up with coats and gave us bottles of water. As panicked/shocked/scared as I was, I was able to hold it together for the boys and I give a lot of credit to the amazing people that were there comforting and keeping our mind off what what could have and just did happen.

Kristoffer was waiting outside for the firemen, and as they were arriving he snapped this photo with his phone. It is terrible quality, but our van is on the right and the firetruck is pulling up on the left.

After the flames were put out and traffic started to move, we got into the back of a police car and the boys were loving that! We had to wait for a tow truck to come get the remains of the van. Up until this point I really hadn't been able to see the van, because it was blocked by 2 of the fire trucks, but as they pulled away and I saw what was left it really started to sink in. God was watching over our family that night and protected us in so many ways, thanks to Him all of us made it out safely!!! After everything was cleaned up, we rode in the police car to meet Kim and Terry at a gas station. When we got home Kristoffer called the insurance company to get the ball rolling on our claim.

Kristoffer and I spent much of yesterday afternoon on the phone replacing all of the items that were in our wallet and making a list of all the items we lost. Today I spoke with our insurance trying to get things figured out. We have to file an auto and home owners claim, and should know in the next few days how things are going to work out. We are fortunate enough that we live with Kim and Terry, so this week Terry and I are sharing her vehicle until Kristoffer and I can go shopping this weekend. We are hoping to spend Saturday afternoon picking out our new vehicle.

When we were driving home with Kim and Terry , Karter (and Kaden) had plenty to say about what had just happened. He was so cute, and kept saying that everything was "toasted" (he came up with that term himself). Today he let Terry video tape his version of the story...