A Lesson In Gratitude While Stranded On The Side Of the Freeway On Easter

Smoke billowed from our truck, with our travel trailer behind it and I found myself clinging to my three babies on the side of the narrow shoulder of the freeway. Shrieking, crying and desperate for me to bring them comfort, their terrified eyes and hearts seemed to grab for any source of calm I could bring them. This was not how we envisioned our Spring Break camping trip looking. Let me rewind for you... 

We planned months ago to spend spring break away, camping on the Columbia River, soaking in family time and breathing fresh air. We made our reservations and counted the days until we all had vacation time together. Peach Beach, a campground just south of Goldendale and right on the border of Washington and Oregon was waiting for us. Our last real vacation as a family was back in March of 2019 when we traveled to Ireland for the trip of a lifetime. I was newly pregnant with our third daughter and we created more memories on that trip than on all of the family vacations we have had combined. With a new baby in town and COVID impacting our world shortly after her birth, a getaway was something we have been missing. We marked our calendar months ago and decided that synching up my hubby’s vacation with our girls’ school vacation was a perfect opportunity to get outside and camp as a family. My in-laws and sister and brother in law would join us and we would relish in laughter, board games, nature, the beauty of our surroundings and far too much food. The blissful dreams I had of what was to come for spring break kept me floating through some really hard weeks prior to it. 

At last, it was time to head out. We spent days prepping and packing the trailer and ensuring every last sock was packed and every gauge checked. We woke up at 6am on Easter Sunday to hit the road by 8. Coffee in hand and the frantic run around of leaving on a family vacation with a crew of five left me sweating as we finally pulled out of the drive, but we did it. We were headed for a week of fun and memories. 

I pulled out my phone and casually began sending out a few Happy Easter messages to family and friends that we wouldn’t get to see that day to do a usual celebration. A tug on my heart told me that I needed to ensure our focus was not only on a fun getaway, but that we spent some real time being mindful of what Easter really means. In that split second, I looked out the passenger side mirror as my husband exclaimed something that left me reeling. The truck was making a terrible sound and smoke seemed to be billowing out of our vehicle. I couldn’t tell where it was coming from or what was happening but my gut said it wasn’t good. Uncertainty quickly turned to fear and my thoughts quickly sped up to “ Please God let us be ok”. My hubby did an impeccable job of pulling over as calmly and cooly as he could, while my heart did flip flops. In the back seat, our girls screamed, terrified. As soon as the truck stopped, I grabbed the oldest two, who were closest to me and Craig grabbed our baby. We did everything we could to get us all out of the car and away from it, unsure of what was to come. We pulled over just at the beginning of an off-ramp and were dangerously close to exiting vehicles on a terribly busy exit ramp that junctions into a highway entry. Not an ideal place to be holding three terrified children and on the phone with 911 and vehicles rushing by, but there we were.

As I rambled through all of the questions the dispatch operator asked, with three babies clinging to me through sobs of terror, I did all I could to keep my cool. Even in this moment of unknown, I felt such a pull to focus on gratitude no matter what. In the midst of fear, I still knew it had to be front and center. Standing there with them in my arms, I was so grateful just to be holding them. To have safely made it out of the vehicle. In this split second and in the midst of such fright, a miracle happened. First one person, then two, then five…stopped to help us. On Easter Sunday, there we stood on the shoulder of the freeway with cars speeding by and one by one, people stopped to offer a hand. A kind woman took off her coat and wrapped it around my daughter who was freezing after we had jumped out of the truck so quickly. Another man and his daughter offered to let us sit in their tuck to be safely off the road in a warm car. A third person saw us while traveling Northbound (we were going Southbound) and turned around to come help us and then another did the same. As I stood next to my babies, now piled in a warm car, I looked back at my husband who was surrounded by 4 strangers who were there for no reason but to help. They stood with him, examining the truck and determining it was not a fire but steam from something that had burst under the hood. One of them towed our truck off of the freeway for us to a Les Schwab that was just off the exit. Another who had pulled off the freeway going Northbound had stopped at a nearby apartment complex and grabbed a fire extinguisher in case we needed it. This kind man and his girlfriend towed our trailer behind their own truck to the Les Schwab as well. And in this instant I didn’t know yet, but they would tow it all 30 miles back home for us, simply to help us.

It all happened so fast and left me reeling in a puddle of tears. What began as a fearful knot in the back of my throat at the sight of smoke, quickly turned to tears of gratitude. Overwhelming gratitude. From the onset of everything, I knew in my heart we had to be strong for our children. To tell them it was all going to be okay, even if we didn’t know how. And then, there we were - on Easter Sunday - on a day that is all about God’s promise of hope, life and love, we experienced it firsthand. I haven’t stopped thanking God for his provision that day, For the angels who put a pause on their plans, stopped their cars and helped us when they didn’t need to. For the blessing of the kindness of strangers. For the man who flagged traffic around us to keep us safe. For the dispatch worker who kept me calm on the phone and routed help to us. For the officer and fire truck that arrived in minutes. For the fact that this happened only 30 miles from home. For the fact that it was not a full blown fire that demolished everything. For the tow-truck driver, working on a holiday, who towed our truck to our mechanic. For the fact that we were near an off-ramp when it all happened. For the fact that there we all stood, on the side of the road together, safe. For my mama who picked us up to take us safely home and for the kind stranger who followed us the whole way, pulling our trailer home.

We spent the drive back home in a state of shock and full-on conversation about gratitude and how many blessings we saw that day. My mind fell back to the moment I had heard the tug to keep the real meaning of Easter front and center in our conversation as we traveled, a split second before I looked out the window to see smoke billowing from the truck. It was as if God was gently reminding me that in the haste of all of the prep and packing and the excitement of the promise of vacation, to not forget what Easter really is about and to know He is always there. And then he was - in the form of strangers on the side of the road. Filled with the kind of goodness and love we all need in this world. 

We arrived back home, emotionally exhausted and still counting our blessings. After all that had happened, we decided to not let fear squash our family time. After a rest, some food, many deep breaths and grateful prayers, we unloaded the trailer and packed everything into our SUV. We hit the road again, this time with gratitude front and center of our conversation the whole way to the WA/OR border and into the arms of our family who were waiting for us. Though our stay would be in a hotel near the campground rather than in our trailer, it didn’t matter. We spent the week thankful, so grateful for this time and sure to not lose sight of life’s blessings. There was a new meaning to watching our girls enjoy time with their cousins, soaking up every moment of precious family fun. 

We go through hard things in this life and there is no avoiding it, but this week was such a good lesson for me in practicing gratitude in the easy and the hard. A mindset focused around abundance is one that will get you through the hard seasons much more smoothly. If you are going through something difficult, I encourage you to try to shift what may easily be a negative view to the positive. It doesn’t mean that everything will work out as you would like it, but it will certainly help with slowly swinging the pendulum to the positive. Do it regularly and you may just find yourself living with a mindset focused on gratitude every single day. Even in the toughest situations, you may naturally find it easier to find a glimmer of hope.