Miracle Tree

          About 3 o'clock this morning I was woken up by a loud sound. I sat up in bed and thought, "What the heck WAS that?" But since it didn't appear to have woken anyone else in the house, I assumed it was only in a dream, so I laid down and went back to sleep.
          5:15 rolled around and Sean's alarm went off. He hit the snooze a couple of times before jumping out of bed in a panic. While Sean got ready for work, I rode the line between sleep and awake until he came in the bedroom to kiss me goodbye. Typical morning so far.
         And then a shift. Just as I was drifting back into sleep, Sean walked back into the bedroom, woke me up, and VERY calmly said, "Babe, I need you to get up and get dressed. Don't freak out when I tell you this, ok?... ya know that tree in the front yard that we thought was dead?... it fell on the car."
          Despite his efforts to make sure I didn't freak out, I inicially jumped out of bed with, "You've got to be kidding me?!"
          Honestly, I wasn't upset about our new car being damaged really. I was just pissed off that I had fun plans today with the kids and my mom that would now have to go on hold because I was going to spend the whole day dealing with phone calls to our insurance company, cleaning up the huge mess, getting the car to the dealership for repairs (if they can even fix it) and getting a rental.
         We knew Sean couldn't afford to miss a day at work, but he assured me that he would make the phone calls to our insurance company as soon as he got to work. He also said to just have my mom pick us up and go on and have fun today, and he would let me know when I needed to get the rental. That lightened my load and I admitted he was right. No sense in letting this mess up my plans.
         So now I am just waiting for Sean to call me in a couple of hours to tell me what to do first, and as I sit here and think about the whole situation, it really is amusing.
          I'm actually kinda happy and excited and part of me just wants to laugh. Not because this has driven me to insanity, but because in the past, every time something seemingly bad has happened (that is, it appeared on the surface to be unfortunate), it actually benefited us in the long run and we ended up coming out way ahead.
          It isn't a total shocker. Obviously, we knew the tree was on it's last leg. Every time the wind has blown hard over the last year, small limbs have broken off that tree. You can look at it and tell it's dead, but we just hadn't gotten out there and chopped it down yet. Usually when a dead tree comes down, it's because it breaks in half or splits down the middle. We weren't ever worried about that with this tree though because it isn't top heavy, it isn't very tall, and the trunk itself looked pretty solid. Main thing we were concerned with was a limb falling off and landing on someone, but considering we rarely do anything in that part of the yard, we didn't make an issue of it.
          Here's the funny part. We have been hoping and praying for rain in our area for some time, and we were finally blessed with 2 days of constant showers, which seemed to saturate our yard pretty decently. Apparently the ground was so soft where that dead tree was standing that it was actually uprooted and the ENTIRE tree (yes, roots and all) toppled over. What are the chances of that happening? Any normal dead tree that looks like that one, wouldn't have fallen over until chopped down. As I said, it wasn't tall and wasn't top heavy because hurricane Ike had already wiped out all of the large branches and most of the small ones. We never ever suspected that the ground wouldn't hold the large roots of the tree, but there it was clear as day when we woke up this morning.
          The tree could have fallen in any direction. In fact, based on the shape of the tree, it would have made more sense for it to fall a different way, but instead, it came right down on top of our new car, smashing in the back part of the roof and shattering the rear windshield. So there is glass all over my driveway and yard, as well as thousands of splintered tree parts and a massive rut in the ground where the tree roots use to be. And can't miss the tree itself laying across my front yard. That should be fun to clean up. But hey, a little work never killed anyone. In fact, this is just what i need to get my butt in gear doing the landscaping I've been wanting to do.
          Anyway, it's just too perfect how it happened. As if someone or something purposefully made it happen. And quite frankly, I believe that whole heartedly. I believe we needed this to happen. I don't know why yet, but I believe something awesome is going to come out of all this.
          No, this is not wishful thinking because I'm just trying to be positive when I really want to get my panties in a twist. I mean, I truly do KNOW that this is going to benefit us. I just can't look at this situation as something negative because I know it's not. The past has proven to me that my faith in our security, well being and blessings ensures that we will always be benefited from everything that happens in our life. So while other people are going, "Man, that sucks. I'm so sorry," I'm thinking the whole time, "I'm not!" I'm just anxious to see how this pans out for us.
          I can deal with a little inconvenience of having to clean up and remove the tree and get a rental car while our car is being fixed. Or who knows, maybe they can't fix it, and our gap insurance will pay it off, leaving us the opportunity to get an even better car. It wouldn't surprise me one bit.
         I have come to expect all the best things out of life. Things that most people view as road blocks are always detour signs for us that lead us down the shorter, more scenic route. I'm really beginning to enjoy it. It may seem coincidental to others, but I don't believe in coincidence and I don't believe in luck. I believe in knowing without a doubt that your life holds blessings and greatness and your faith manifests what you believe. I guess you could say the powers that be in the universe knows what we need and want and did what was necessary to bring it into our life in the quickest way possible.
        A tree falling on our new car a bad thing? Please... I bet we just hit the jackpot.