A Divine Moment and our time in Veracruz

These past several days were very memorable for a wide variety of reasons. But without a doubt, the moment that has been in our minds almost constantly happened to us around 4 p.m. on Christmas day. We left Mayra's parent's house around 3, with our family and Mayra's mother, sister and nephew, and our friend Alberto. As we were going down a grade on a new, two-lane road, probably about 65-70 mph., a green Explorer came across the middle line headed straight towards us, and fast! I imagine he was going at least 70 mph., probably faster. To avoid hitting him head-on, I swerved right into the shoulder, then left, loosing control of the Astro. The back end came way around to the right, then way around to the left, then we spun totally around, all of this on dry white concrete. Miraculously, the van didn't roll, in spite of the fact that we were traveling at a high rate of speed, were going downhill and were on a dry surface. We ended up on the edge of the road heading the same way, van stalled and still in drive, and amazed. Only my sister-in-law Monica had a small scratch on her nose where her glasses cut her.

We stopped, breathlessly thanked God for saving us all literally, and inspected the van. Not a scratch. The front passenger side tire seemed to be a bit pulled off the rim, so we stopped and got that looked at. All in all, it was amazing that we weren't seriously injured or even killed.

We decided to continue on our trip, and what an experience it was, going across a river on a ferry, going to the beach (and taking a boat to get there), walking through huge orange orchards and drinking fresh squeezed orange juice. Butchering a pig and buying 40 lbs. of fresh oysters, and (almost) eating armadilla meat. We did a bit of fishing too, in an area where the bay and ocean met, to no avail.

All and all, several days we will not soon forget! Thank the Lord! Psalm 16-18, 46, 91