We turned the corner and there it stood, the entrance to my son’s university. It was move in day and as we passed under the beautiful archway and through the gate, I was feeling a surreal combination of excitement and sadness all at the same time, thinking of what this new stage of life would mean for our son and for our family. He and I had driven together in his car filled to the ceiling with all of his things. First backing out of our driveway, next winding through the neighborhood waving to neighbors as we went, then passing the familiar bridge that had always marked our family’s departures to far off places and great vacation adventures, and finally merging onto the freeway that would take us there. All moments I will never forget.

Eric had planned to drive up later to meet us there. He had to drive up later because, as so often happens even on the most important of days, the needs of our daughter affected our family plans. 3 weeks prior we stumbled into finding out that our daughter’s special ed transportation contract had not been settled before the school year was to begin. And so, the plan we had made for that morning, which was for us to simply help her onto the school van and then head straight to the university together, was no longer a viable option. Instead, Eric would have to drive Abbey the 40 minutes to her transitions program, while Caleb and I went on ahead without him. We felt so torn about it, but there was nothing we could do to change our circumstances, and so we pressed on as we so often do.

The two of us had fun on the drive up, taking videos as we went to document each moment. We drove onto campus, and praise God somehow Eric ended up arriving just short of an hour behind us, and just in time to meet up for all the big things that lay ahead for our son that day. We were greeted by lots of fun university fanfare, and then found ourselves filing through the large event center where our son received his welcome packet complete with parking tag, student ID, and dorm key. We took a few pictures in the stadium and then headed off to his dorm, where we met the first of his three roommates and began the move in process. Eric and Caleb unloaded our two cars and brought all the boxes up the stairs, while I stayed in the dorm to help unpack in the air conditioning. Of course, just our luck it was literally one of the hottest days of the year, a fact that university administrators shared seems to happen every year on move in day.

We each went this way and that. Eric installing things, Caleb finishing bringing boxes upstairs, and me making up his bed and placing things into the spaces that I knew he would later organize when he had the chance. However, having the chance to do a little organizing was clearly not going to happen any time soon, as they were keeping all of us busy that day. We worked on his dorm as fast as we could and then headed off to lunch before the next big meeting. The three of us sat there at our table in the expansive cafeteria hanging over our plates in exhaustion, and grateful for the air-conditioned room.

Then it was off to the races again. This time in a room full of resource tables and students everywhere meeting other students and professors and gathering information. As we stood there chatting with university staff, I began to feel my purse vibrating. I reached inside to pull out my ringing phone and the number on display was the number for our respite worker, who I knew at that very moment was helping to drive our daughter back home from school. She had graciously offered the week before to drive Abbey home for us in addition to providing respite care after, so that Eric and I could stay with our son on move in day and not have to leave early to pick up our daughter. What a gift. So, before I even answered I was on instantaneous high alert as to why we might be getting a call.

“Hi, are you girls, OK?”, I asked, praying that they were.

“Um we’re OK, but the left back tire just blew, and we are on the side of the freeway off ramp”.

My brain just about exploded as well, when I heard the news. “Um Ok so you’re both Ok, but you’re on the side of the freeway, where exactly?”.

As I asked all the important questions, I simultaneously communicated to Caleb that I’d be back and grabbed Eric who was in the middle of another conversation standing 10 feet from me saying simply, “There’s been an emergency”.

Eric’s eyes opened wide as he stared back at me, but he knew from experience with situations like this, not to ask questions in that moment until we could find someplace quiet to talk and think. We rounded the corner and found a quiet spot where I filled him in. Then we both got straight to work. Him calling the Automobile Club for roadside assistance, and me calling the respite worker for the details needed to get them to the right place, as well as checking back in on them periodically as they waited on the offramp for help. What a mess!

I don’t know why these chaotic things happen, but what I do know is that God is always with us in the chaos and in the hard, and He will see us through. He is an expert at working all things together for our good. In this case while our poor respite worker had to deal with the tire issue, God had thankfully spared Eric and I from being the ones stranded on the side of the road on the very day when we were needed to move our son into college. Had one of us been driving our daughter that day, there would’ve been no way for us to return in time for all the festivities and goodbyes. And He had protected our daughter and our respite worker by providing an offramp right in front of them when the tire unexpectedly blew. These were no small things. These were examples of what our family likes to call “Backwards Blessings”. Blessings that often come to us in a completely backwards and unexpected way and yet they are blessings just the same.

In the end despite all the chaos, move in day was an incredibly sweet day filled with lots of precious memories with our son. We are forever grateful for God’s crazy backwards blessings in our life and for His goodness toward our family on this most memorable move in day.