So you know those days where you just have a bad feeling about something but normally they do not come true? Well, my bad feeling became a reality. On friday Anika needed to go and pick Annie up from the airport. We normally take a bus there and back. It is about a 4.5 hour trip. But she was getting in late and the last bus left the time she got in. Another bus would not come until 5am. We didn't think after flying for a whole day Annie would want to sit in an airport for 6 hours, and both Anika and I were not feeling well. So we decided to take a taxi, who was friend of a friend. He first did not want to take us because it was bad weather and he was afraid of the roads. That probably should have been our first clue. He had a very very old car that when we saw it couldn't help but make jokes about how we probably were not going to make it. The trip there was an adventure in itself. He drove from one end of town to the other just to find some specific gas station that ended up being closed. So what should have taken us about 20 minutes or so to get out of town took us an hour. Then he really would not go over about 40 miles an hour. So by this time we are thinking we are never going to get to Kiev pick Annie up. We get to the half way point in 4 hours which is about when we should have been to the airport. We keep driving and then his tire blows so we have to stop and he fixes it. After he gets that in order, it isn't too much longer until the police pull us over for his blinker or who really knows why they do what they do. We finally get to Annie 7 hours later. We set back out for Sumy. He needs to find a tire place because his spare is now gone, mind you its 2 something in the morning. But we find on and sit there for a while. We get going and I am sitting in the front but turning and talking to the girls. But I turn back around facing the front and all of sudden I see this huge maybe 4ft pile of snow/ice that we are going hit. It literally came out of nowhere. We hit it and go sliding across the oncoming traffic lanes. Then I see there are trees and am pretty sure we are going to go sliding into them. But we slide and then flip and roll into a ditch. We landed on the roof and stopped about 10 feet from the tree. I smell so much gas and the driver is yelling to get out, but I cannot find the door handle. All I could think was that we were going to blow up. I saw the windshield was totally shattered but the opening to get out was not that big. So finally I find the door handle and Annie finds the other door handle and we all get out. And what's amazing is that we were not hurt. We of course have some bruises and a few scratches. I think there are so pretty sore necks and backs but nothing major. On our way back home I prayed that angels would protect our car and its as if when we started rolling they picked up the car and set it gently. It could and almost should have been so much worse but it wasn't. Thank you Lord. Also, I think we were meant to meet the taxi driver. He was from the Sumy orphanage(a long time ago because he is now 26) and very interested in church and had a sensitivity to God. He was really nice and we feel awful about his car. We would like to do something to help him. So we are praying about how we might minister to him.We laughed after because we said how we had been praying that since annie had been gone for so long, that we would be unified again. And well there is nothing that bonds you better than a near death experience :)What a scary and cray ordeal. I have never been in an accident like that. I know there were a lot of people praying for us and I am so thankful.
One of our graduates Roman standing with the car right before we left for the airport.
All the guys that pulled over to help. They turned the car back over onto its right side.
The car looks pretty good considering what happened.
We were in the front so we had a lot of oil on us. We had been waiting for about 4 hours by this point for a bus back to sumy.
