Life is Funny (and sometimes a pain in the butt)

So, this past week has been one heck of a week.

First, last Tuesday (did I spell that right? for some reason, I've never been able to spell tuesday or restaurant - which I ALWAYS spell resteraunt, I don't know why I can't learn) I was driving my car down Independence Avenue. I was on my way to take my wonderful mother out for her birthday, when without warning all the lights on my dashboard came on. I quickly looked at the thermometer - it wasn't overheating. But then, bam, my car went dead. It was rush hour, and the streets were teaming. I couldn't find the button to turn on the hazards. Horns were honking all around me. I finally found the hazard button and jumped out when there was a lull in the traffic. My phone was dead (I'm terrible about that...but no more). I had no AAA. Thankfully, a wonderful woman named Linda from NYC stopped and let me use her phone.

A cop came and pushed my car to the side of the road. While I was waiting on the tow-truck, I thought that it would be an excellent time to clean out my car. So I started taking trash out and putting it in the trash can on the sidewalk. Passing cars thought I had just pulled over, illegally, blocking an entire lane during rush-hour, to clean out my car, and they honked and swore at me. I can totally understand that - I still let a few choice words fly when I'm in the heat of the battle that is driving in DC.

Eventually, my mom and the tow-truck guy rescued me. The next day, the mechanic told me that nothing was wrong with my car. He had driven it to Bethesda and back, no problem.

wonderful.

THEN, yesterday, I was walking to church, crossing H street at 8th (in Chinatown), when the 40 mph winds we had that day took my glasses off my face and blew them into the street, where a car ran them over. I am blind as a bat, so I couldn't see anything, but a couple of women heard my calls for help and located my busted frames and my (incredibly) whole lenses. I thanked them profusely and walked to the church, in a blur of colors. This was my only pair of glasses, and I had no contacts, so I walked around holding the front part of my glasses up to my face. (I got new contacts today)

So, it's been an intense week. I'm grateful, though, because through this all, I never felt overwhelmed or really angry. That shows a lot of growth for me. A year ago either one of these incidents would have had me sobbing, throwing my hands in the air, and sitting on the sidewalk, ready to give up. I really believe that God had these 2 things happen to me so that he could show me how much I've grown.

Plus, I met 3 really nice people through all of this. I'm learning that (most... I think) people really do come through when they see another person in need. In a city that is going a million miles an hour, where everyone appears so self-sufficient and in control, it can be easy to forget that people need people, and that alot of people who you may think just want to be left alone really do respond well to being needed.

On another note - please pray for Elijah and Elias, twin teenage boys who are going through enormous family crises right now. I have seen real blessings in the lives of many of the children who I've asked for prayer for on this site, and I've been convinced that it is prayer that is, in large part, responsible for these blessings.