Oh deer...

Sunday mornings can be stressful as I get the kiddos ready by myself and try to get Liam's feeding schedule timed just right to accommodate church.  Yesterday morning was actually going rather smoothly and we were on track to make it to church on time when I saw a deer standing on the right shoulder.  I slowed down slightly, being careful not to slam on my brakes on the highway.  The deer stood still on the shoulder until the precise moment that the van (with my three babies in the back) lined up with it.  At that moment the deer foolishly decided to cross the highway.  This resulted in the deer careening with the full length of the passenger side of our van.  Thankfully no one was hurt and Liam slept through the entire incident.  And, two nice men who work in the automotive industry stopped to see if we were okay and pulled the damaged panels of the van together with some industrial springs that they had in their truck.  I was very thankful.  Here are my little troopers, waiting 45 minutes for a police officer to come file the accident report.

 

This morning we brought the van to an auto body shop to get repaired.  I took the opportunity to take some photos of the damage.

As you can see, the damage isn't terrible, but because of the nature of the collision, both bumpers, both doors, and two additional panels of the van were impacted.  The good news is that it will be repaired and we have a rather small deductible.  The bad news is that we may not get our van back for three weeks.  I guess this is how the kids will be traveling for most of the month!