Tender Mercy 4: The Portland Miracle

This tender mercy comes from Kira, one of my closest friend's. She and her mother were in Portland a couple of weekends ago, and while there got caught in an absolutely terrifying situation: on the road with three lanes worth of cars coming at them head-on. What they did next turned out to be their tender mercy. Here is Kira's story :)

Last weekend my mom and I drove to Portland, Oregon for my grandpa’s celebration of life. He actually passed away almost two months ago, but was cremated and didn’t want a service. Leading up to the trip we prepared the car….got the tires rotated, oil changed, new brakes, rotors and a new radiator since the old one had a slow leak. The car was prepped and ready to go! 
On Friday when we started making the 12 hour drive I was continuously praying that we would be safe and not have any car troubles. The last thing you want on a trip is car troubles. It was a long day. Driving for a day straight is exhausting! Finally around 7:30pm we arrived in Portland safe. 
We hadn’t booked a hotel beforehand (I forgot), and were trying to find someplace to stay. I had been trying to find someplace on my smart phone while driving throughout the day, but didn’t have any luck. I would usually get frustrated and stop looking. By this point, it was dark and we were tired. We wanted to stay somewhere close to Lake Oswego (where my step-grandma lives) and we missed the exit on the highway, so we took the next available exit. At the bottom of the exit ramp, we turned left and there was a Fred Meyer. My mom was driving, so I told her to pull into the parking lot so I could figure out where we were going. 
If you have ever been to Portland you know that it is an interesting city. All of the buildings are set back from the road and there are medians everywhere. There are three lanes going one way, a huge median with trees and flowers growing in it and then three lanes going the other way on the other side of the median. 
We were in Portland and still didn’t have a place to stay, so we called my step-grandma to ask for suggestions. She immediately told us to stay with her, but we didn’t really want to intrude and just wanted to crash that night from the long drive. She told us the name of a street (Kruse Way) where a lot of hotels were located, so we started to drive and see what we could find. I hadn’t found Kruse Way on my smartphone map yet, and my mom started driving. I wasn’t paying much attention because I was looking for Kruse Way. 
My mom got to the exit for Fred Meyer (the same one we entered from) and turned LEFT out of the exit. As soon as she turned and there was a median on my right side I said “Mom, we are going the wrong direction, turn around!”  We were in the inside lane right next to the median and going the wrong direction. My mom was confused and didn’t think she was going the wrong way, so she slowly kept driving. That’s when it happened, the scariest moment of my life! 
All of a sudden the light from the highway exit turned green to all the cars turning LEFT from the exit ramp and they were heading straight towards us. 

Since we were in the inside lane there was NOTHING we could do except sit there and honk the car horn. The first two cars flew by us on the left side, and then a delivery truck was coming at us HEAD ON and VERY FAST. We were honking and screaming and I just knew we were going to get hit. Somehow, MIRACULOUSLY the delivery truck driver honked and barely missed us! I just knew he would at least clip our car since he was going so fast, but he didn’t!  Right after the delivery truck passed we tried to make a U turn and get out of the way, but there were still cars coming in the other two lanes and we were unable to make a U turn until they passed. Once we were making the U turn I noticed that our HEADLIGHTS WERE OFF! My mom had turned them off when we parked in Fred Meyer and hadn’t turned them back on. That makes the story that much MORE MIRACULOUS! The fact that we thought we were doing all we could to make the delivery driver see us by honking our horn was immaterial. It was DARK and we didn’t have our HEADLIGHTS on! The fact that the delivery truck driver saw us in enough time to miss us is INCOMPREHNSIBLE. 

I know with surety that Heavenly Father was watching out for us and protecting us! My prayer that we would be safe was answered! To this day, I can’t comprehend how the delivery truck missed us, but I am grateful and know that we are blessed! 
No matter what we pray for big or small, Heavenly Father is aware and eager to answer our prayers in His time. I’m so grateful for the power of prayer and these tender mercies that help us remember the things that really matter in life.