Just your average Friday night. We ran by Shoe Choo Train to get new shoes for the kids and then opted for a run through Dairy Queen instead of going inside a restaurant. The kids were tired and hungry, and a no clean-up dinner sounded great to us.
Okay, so far, so good! We're in the drive thru and the DQ speaker person can't hear our order for all the siren-screaming police cars going by. Oh, wonder what's going on? We get our order, pull over to make sure the kids fists are loaded with "finch fies", and that Mollie has her "wheat tea", and then head off for our short trek back home. Barney is keeping the kids entertained in the back as they enjoy their dinner on the run.
We notice on Lakeland Drive that all the police cars are heading back our way again, so we pull over and give them plenty of room to get by us. Must be something big going on somewhere, we commented. Wanting to avoid all the commotion ahead of us on Lakeland Drive, we turned off at the shortcut by University Christian School and noticed that their first football game of the season was about to get underway. What a fun time of the year.
We're just enjoying our family time on this Friday night and laughing at both our kids now holding a grill cheese sandwich with both hands, and are really into their Barney video. We're commenting on how cute they are, and how much we love them, and then things get scary. I see something going on ahead, and tell Curt to watch out, "we're in trouble", I remember saying.
Ahead I see a truck coming out of the park by Flowood school and he's cutting through the grass. FAST. There is no one behind us. I'm instantly on guard and pulling out of his way, as he comes towards us......suddenly in our lane! He is so close to us, his window is down, we can see him clearly, he looks so calm, so normal? He is in a high speed chase from the Flowood Police, the Rankin County Sherriffs Department, the Brandon Police, and the Mississippi Highway Patrol, and he looks calm and normal riding around on a Friday night?.....in our lane!......what? How did we end up here? In a bank robbers path? He's got a gun! He flies past us with so many police cars tailing him! What just happened? On our little peaceful Friday night.
Curt and I just sit on the side of the road in silence for a minute. We're both processing what just happened. We realize the magnitude of the situation, and are overwhelmed with thankfulness for God's protection over our little family.
We look back at the children, and they're still singing and dancing with Barney to "Where Is Thumbkin"? They never even knew something was up. That's another thing to be thankful for!
As we drive up into the garage, I look at Curt and say what my mom used to always say when we were back home safely, "Thank you Lord, one more time"! And I really meant it.