Carbecue!

I never thought that my almost six year old Mercedes Benz would ever catch on fire but that's what happened on Friday night. Hailey and I had just gotten out of the car five minutes before to head into her swim lessons. Tom was following about 5 minutes behind because somehow we forgot her swim bag with her towel and goggles in it. I was waiting for him inside by the door when I notice him park and then get out of his car and start running to the door. Jeez, I thought, it's not that important that she has her goggles in time for swim class, she's already got one of their spare pairs on. But, no sooner did I open the door did he blurt out, "Your car is on fire!" 

"What?" I said. I peeked my head out the door to see the entire hood of my car engulfed in flames! We ran back inside to tell the swim school to call 911 which they did and then I watched in horror as my car went up in flames. No warning. No gas smell. Nothing out of the ordinary when I parked it. Poof, it was just gone - along with my favorite hat and my good pair of gloves and a few other incidentals that we can replace too, but the shock of what happened kept my adrenaline pumping for more than 24 hours. 

No idea how it started or what happened. I guess we'll find that out this week when the insurance company investigates. The kids were traumatized. Hailey had to get out of the pool because they made the swim place evacuate (way to cause a scene! Now I'm going to have to switch my swim lesson time so no one knows me!) and she asked me what happened as she stared at the flashing fire truck and police lights. "A car was on fire," I said. "Not our car," she said. "Yes, I said, it was our car." She immediately fell apart saying she loved that car and that we needed to get exactly the same one (not sure how I felt about getting another Mercedes in that moment) but I understood her attachment to the car. We had it since she was 1.5 years old and likely that's the only car she remembers. Peyton was at her own swim team training less than 5 minutes away so I used Tom's car to go pick her up while Tom dealt with the firemen/police. She was surprised to see me pick her up in Tom's car since I had just dropped her off an hour earlier and told her I'd be back to get her. She was a little freaked out when I told her too not wanting to even stay in Tom's car while I got out and consulted with him when we got back to the parking lot where the carbecue occurred. She settled down a bit later that evening and was fine though. Hailey was emotionally drained and collapsed in bed later that night exhausted. Austen was at home the whole time and was only getting bits and pieces of the story through brief phone conversations and texts. He was concerned, I think, and felt better once we all got home. 

The important thing is that no one was hurt and no other cars were damaged (I had parked at the far end of the lot with space in between me and other cars). Even though I was so mad that I left Hailey's bag at home by mistake, it was divine intervention that he was there and saw it happened and could help deal with the aftermath. We're still reeling a bit from it all but we are reminded once again how blessed we truly are (Hailey said she was wearing her Maddox shirt that day and he was surely looking out for us!) and that this is a small thing in comparison to so many hardships that people have had to endure. We are truly blessed and were reminded of that this weekend.

The firemen gave Hailey a hat for Sparky