Today may have been in contention for the worst birthday ever!  It started OK.  I had a lie-in as my friend's daughter was not feeling well so she didn't need me to babysit anymore.  Steve got up with Rose - who I could hear talking his ear off!  He made breakfast.  I went out to celebrate a friend's birthday-cum-despedida.  I got home, piddled around, got me and the kids ready to go swimming and that's when it all went horribly wrong.
Steve ran up to school and we were meeting him at the pool.  As I pulled across the junction at Valley Golf I hit a small boy running across the road to the corner shop. I believe it was my fault.  He collapsed in front of the car, his father picked him up and put him on the bonnet and he promptly slid off and hit the other side of his head on the road.  They put him in the car, fetched his mother and I drove up to school to get Steve as I knew I needed him to be there when we got to the hospital.  Our kids were frightened by the mother's wailing.  When we got to the hospital, Steve put on a clean T-shirt and went inside to deal with bills etc. I took the kids to my friend's house and got dressed (I was in my swimming stuff) and collected money and phones and headed back to the hospital.  Steve wouldn't let me in the hospital in case the family got funny and dealt with all that side.  I dealt with the police who confiscated my licence (until the boy was released from hospital) and were attempting to impound the car.  The father signed a release form so the car was not impounded.  The boy's external check was OK - except for bad concussion - and his CAT scan was clear.  I am very grateful.  God was gracious to the boy and myself.
It did lead to an interesting conversation on the way home with the kids.  We prayed for the boy and Rose said, "Don't tell Melissa what happened." We then had a discussion on how it is wrong to hide mistakes, failures and sins. Which is really the reason I decided to blog about this accident even though I would have probably preferred not to.  The consequences of my actions today were serious and this may be one birthday I do feel older and hopefully, a little wiser too.