A beautiful reminder...

Brandon and I had our "Mary and Joseph" moment about a month ago. We wrapped up the VA DTS lecture phase in Richmond and packed up our lil' car to drive from Virginia to Texas for the Christmas holiday. The night before we left, a rather large winter storm hit Virginia. But on the Saturday morning we got ready to leave, we even checked the traffic weather advisories and saw that it would be a slow trek, but that the roads were still clear and safe. The advisories lied.

3 hours into the trip (on what would have normally taken us 1 hour) we hit a standstill on the highway that lasted for more than 4 hours. The snow kept falling and it was making the roads very difficult to drive on. After a full day of driving, we were in the thick of it near Roanoke Virginia... and the car began to act up, overheating and we realized that even if the traffic was creeping, we weren't going to make it very far. We tried to take refuge at an exit... but the exit was closed with police and firemen not allowing anyone to get off. We had to beg them to allow us to just park our car for the night. We were escorted to a gas station, and passed tons of 18-wheelers stuck in the snow left and right! It was absolute chaos.

We realized that we would be staying at the gas station for the night... but then the attendant, a woman, offered to mop a portion of the floor, put down cardboard boxes, and give us a place to lay down to sleep. She even bought me a snuggie! Then her husband came over and woke us up to invite us to their home... they lived within a mile of the station and they offered us a warm bed to sleep in. So we went with them around 1am to their beautiful home, and were able to sleep in a very nice and warm bed. Then in the morning they even cooked us a full bacon, egg, and pancake breakfast! What a blessing! We were dropped back off at the gas station in the morning, and we saw that even though many truckers were still digging out of the snow, the highway traffic was flowing smoothly.

It was a beautiful reminder that God will always take care of us and provide for us. Just when our night began to look bleak, God sent 2 people to show us mercy and to care for us. God will never forsake us, never leave us, and will always take care of us!