I've been a terrible blogger as of late. Not feeling the need to write if I didn't have any pictures to post along with the message, putting off updates in case they would soon be invalid and I would need to issue a redaction... so many excuses.
Beginning of November Tyler flew to Pittsburgh to interview at Chattham University. He loved it. He raved about it. The school, the city, the rivers and bridges. This was the place for us. But all I could do was picture myself in a tiny 7th floor apartment with 3 kids- trapped in the middle of a giant city. I was scared but I've since found some positives and am looking forward to this possibility more than I thought I would.
December 5th Tyler flew out to interview in Maine. We had been dreaming of going to PA school in Maine since we started looking for schools and applying. Our lives are so centered here in the West and we love it, but we figured that if we were going to have to leave and go out East for school, we might as well go as far as possible and have an adventure! Plus I've always dreamed of having 3 little girls and taking them for walks on the beach. Tyler loved the school and the interview went fairly well but we soon found out that he has been placed on the waiting list. Somewhere.
We talked about it on the drive back from Christmas. Maine was the dream, it would have been easy. But despite the romance and appeal of Portland I find myself with misgivings and forbiddings when I picture Maine these days. Perhaps it's my irrational fear of the ocean and sharks- but Pittsburg is feeling a lot more like home in my thoughts and that is where we are aiming our lives for now.
January 1st marks 3 months exactly until my due date. I've been so nervous lately because it seems so many women close to me are having miscarriages, some early- some late in their pregnancies. As I see pictures of baby funerals and shed tears for those whose hopes have been crushed I find myself so grateful for this opportunity, and so nervous that I might also lose my child.
On our way to Montana we were driving over some terrible roads. We had just begun listening to the Les Miserables soundtrack and in the midst of the son Red and Black, our car started to spin. It was dramatic and so quick but agonizingly slow at the same time. We were driving about 60 on a built up road when the back of the car slid right and then left and then I knew we were in trouble. I looked back at the girls and told them as calmly as I could that we were probably going to wreck and to hold on to something. I then braced myself against Tyler's headrest and the handhold above my window- suddenly realizing how open and unprotected I was in the passenger's seat. As the car spun around backwards and we whipped around to the side and started to slide off the road I just kept thinking "This can't happen. WE CAN NOT FLIP." At that speed and with the side of the road being as steep as it was, It was a miracle we didn't. The car hit the snow sideways and it must have been deep enough, and slowed us quick enough that we just slid down the hill, nothing more dramatic than hitting a small snowbank in a parking lot. We had Angels watching over us. I went from being paralyzed with the intense fear of knowing that I would lose at least one child in a rollover, to laughing with Tyler as we found ourselves stuck in the snow miles from civilization. I've never been so relieved- and therefore it seemed almost comical that our tires were so bald that it was impossible to climb the hill back to the road. I can't quite describe how we got back. We had no traction and the snow was so deep that even driving alongside the road was near impossible. As I stood on the road halfheartedly trying to flag someone down for help (knowing inside there was nothing anyone could do for us if they stopped, and the chances of them crashing into me or the ditch were greater than a successful stop anyway) Tyler backed the car up and then rammed it forward over and over, making progress of a foot or two at a time. All our hopes rested on him being able to get the car over what had at first looked like a side road off the highway, but what turned out to be some kind of buried pipeline I'm guessing. Alex did not like this at all. She was frantic about the entire turn of events and would much rather have been standing with Mommy- freezing on the icy road- instead of sitting in the car while Daddy rammed it into a hill over and over trying to get OVER! Our salvation ended up being someone else's misfortune. It seemed as though the day before another car had met a similar fate to ours, going off the road just over the hill from us. We drove in their tracks until they met up with the road once again and barely made it up the steep embankment. Les Miserables was turned off and we drove quite anxiously the rest of the way to Grandma's house. I turned around to talk to the kids about our little adventure after we were safe and found Alex clinging with one hand to the car seat and the other to the windowsill. She was the most shaken by our little detour!
Christmas was great and I'm hoping to post pictures soon- but I had to write about our little miracle before it left my mind!
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