One year ago, May 14th, 2023, our lives changed in an instant. We had been camping that weekend north of Huntersville, and after breaking camp that morning, we drove to Salisbury to spend Mother’s Day with Hope’s parents. We were on our way home to Gastonia on I-85 South. At around 3pm, a distracted driver (yes, in another Jeep) slammed into the back of our Jeep and sent us into the concrete median at about 70mph. According to the police report, we slid 330 feet before coming to a stop. We stopped sliding right at the sign for mile marker 52.4. The end of that slide started a chain of events that has challenged both Hope and I, but in so many ways, it has also built our faith. A trucker’s dash cam captured the accident, you can view that below.

Before I dig into some of the ways that God has worked through this wreck, there are a couple of details that we need to unpack. As the smoke and airbag dust cleared, and once I heard her voice saying “I think I’m ok! I think I’m ok!”, I told Hope that we needed to get out of the Jeep as quick as possible. I was concerned about it catching fire because of how serious the impact was. It was obvious that Hope was hurt worse than I was, I actually had seen the impact coming about a second before we were hit, which allowed me to brace myself using the steering wheel as leverage as we slammed into the concrete. Hope didn’t have the luxury of being able to prepare, she was still trying to reach for something to hold on to as we slid into the median. The camping equipment that I had strapped to the top of the Jeep was hanging down over Hope’s door because one of the roof racks broke with the impact. Meaning that she would have to climb over the console to get out of the Jeep. As she tried to climb over the console, the pain from her injuries (which turned out to be a cracked sternum, cracked vertebrae, and concussion) began to kick in. In tremendous pain, she managed to climb across. I helped her out of the Jeep and down to the concrete. She laid there on I-85 as we tried to wrap our minds around what had just happened. The other driver was still sitting in her Jeep and hadn’t moved. Thankfully, the traffic behind us had slowed and was moving to the lanes opposite the median.

Immediately, people began to appear around us. I had somehow lost my grip on time in those moments, but it seemed like in an instant, there were people kneeling down beside Hope assessing her injuries. I honestly thought at first that maybe they were first responders. There were three young people, all of them appeared to be under the age of 25, who stopped and began to work on her. They all appeared to have some kind of medical training, and they were such a comfort in the minutes between the wreck and when the actual first responders arrived. In the midst of this chaos, I looked into the background and saw an older couple standing off to the side, both of them wearing church clothes. Turns out they were right behind us when the accident happened. The wife told me later that when it happened, she looked at her husband and said “that’s our assignment for today.” This couple was such a comfort to us as they sent us messages of encouragement and also let us know that their prayer team at church was hard at work praying for us in the aftermath of the wreck.

The days and months that followed were not easy to navigate. Hope’s injuries were extensive, so the physical healing took time. Things for her could have been so much worse, but the concussion was probably the most challenging and took the longest to recover from. On the insurance side, the other driver’s insurance company has been a royal pain to deal with, concerned more about their bottom line than doing what is right. We’re still dealing with lawyers 12 months after the wreck, and there doesn’t appear to be any end in sight. One thing that I didn’t take into account was the mental healing process that comes from experiencing trauma like that. The night of the accident, I had to drive right past the crash scene to get home to get Hope some things. The driver’s side fenders from my Jeep were still laying on the shoulder of I-85. We drive right past the crash scene every time we come back from visiting Hope’s parents. In the months close to the wreck, you could still see the impact marks from our Jeep on the median. And the skid marks were visible for months as well, serving as a reminder of how close we came to tragedy. Our blood pressure still rises when we’re driving on the interstate. A month after the wreck, I nearly had a full blown panic attack while driving home from a trip.

It’s difficult to process how someone else’s bad decision can affect you. But I can tell you this without a shadow of a doubt: we have seen God’s hand move in so many ways through this experience. The people in our lives rallied around us. Our families, folks from work, neighbors, and friends provided support that we didn’t even know we needed. And our church… We felt so much love from our Union Road family. Prayers, text messages, phone calls, food and support that helped us walk this journey. Our faith has been strengthened in ways that it never would have if this hadn’t happened to us. The trajectory of our lives was altered, it has resulted in so many positive things. Things that never would have happened had we not experienced this. It proves the principles of Romans 8:28, that even bad circumstances can result in good if we trust God’s hand. Sometimes that isn’t easy to do when there are so many questions, but when you look back it is clear to see. For that, we have no choice but to be thankful.