I wanted to document a story that happened to me about 2 years ago for the sake of the safety of anyone else who can benefit from it.
I was driving down 90th South heading toward I-15 in a borrowed 4-runner that was Jason's Uncles. He had me drive it for a couple of days, early one morning I went to return it to him, with little Brooklyn in the backseat and a pregnant belly with baby #2 on the way.
As I was driving I noticed a big, red diesel was playing cat and mouse with me on the road- I would slow down to let him pass me in the second lane, but then he would slow down to stay right in line with me. So, naturally I sped up to get far enough in front of him that other cars would fill in the gap, ultimately separating me from him. But- he did not let me get away...he kept right in line with me. There were a decent amount of other cars on the road, so I was hoping that if anything happened, there would be plenty of witnesses!
As luck would have it, I came to a red light. I was too far behind to step on the gas and get through it, so as a law-abiding citizen, I stopped. Well, so did the red psycho diesel driver next to me. The next thing I know, the diesel driver is getting out of his vehicle and walking over to me. I just thought in my mind 'maybe something is wrong with this car and Uncle Mark just never told me about it and this nice man is simply coming to inform me of it.' Then, something told me that was not it. The man started pounding on my window asking me to let him in. I felt safe enough because I had all my doors locked.
I looked at little Brooklyn through the mirror and saw she was sound asleep and hoping she would stay that way because I was freaking out inside of my mind. I meant to roll the window down just a crack so I could understand what this guy was saying to me. I thought he needed directions or something so I decided a crack in the window would be okay...but out of panic and not being familiar enough with this vehicle that wasn't my own, I accidentally pressed the unlock button which unlocked all my doors. The man immediately took advantage of that and opened up my car door and got inside! He was saying things to me but because I was panicking all his words were just noise and babble to me, not making any sense whatsoever.
For any of you who know me, you know that when I get scared I fight...and I fight hard. Some of you have even tried scaring me and became the brunt of a brutal kick to the face, slapped, or kicked in the chest to the point you couldn't breathe for a second. My husband has probably received more kicks than anybody thanks to his sneaky spiffs he tries to pull on me. (Sorry honey, but really, you saw it coming!)
I saw the man look in the backseat, realizing that a baby was in the car he became somewhat shocked himself...then my motherly instincts started kicking in.
Although my mind went blank out of horror for what this man was planning on doing to me, I yelled in a voice that was not my own "get out of my car!" I shoved him with some unknown force and pushed him out of my car. Then, he looked in one last time at me and then backed away, slammed the door, and went back to his diesel.
When it was all over and my doors were locked at last- I finally knew I was safe and that miraculously everything was okay. A situation that could have gone very differently went very right instead. Tears flooded my eyes as I sat there crying uncontrollably. I finally put the car in drive and proceeded to my destination.
I guess the moral of this story is that I am grateful for my husband who always encourages me to keep my doors locked, the angels who sent the man away from me and my little girl that day, and the ability to "fight" that God instilled within a rather normally quiet and witheld little me.
These are Julie's homemade sugar cookies- let me just say they are the best I have ever had!! This is my Easter basket treat that I save all the room for.
