Saving Your Child's Life

Sunday morning I had the scariest mommy moment yet!!!

Coby was running late and I was on Praise Team, so I grabbed Sky and we were off to church, leaving Daddy to meet us there as soon as he could. We got about halfway there and Skyler all at once began SCREAMING at the top of her lungs. I glanced back at her to see a look of utter terror on her face. She was inching back as far as she could in her car seat and had her little legs pulled up as close to her body as she possibly could.

The rational mom I am thought, "Oh, there must be a bug on the seat." But her screaming only accelerated.

Little did I know...

As I pulled to a stop, I began praying. This was unusual behavior for her. She generally loves the car, and whatever she saw gripped her with fear. She would not look away for anything. I put the Tahoe in park, ran around and quickly opened her door to discover

A SPIDER THE SIZE OF GOLIATH DANGLING IN FRONT OF MY BABY'S FACE!!!!

OK, so I am exaggerating a little. It was only about the size of a silver dollar. But, if you know anything about me at all, you know I am deathly afraid of spiders in any form. Regardless, the moment was at hand that I had to battle the enemy alone and save my distraught daughter's life (I think it was a garden spider, that's all).

My mind was racing. I quickly grabbed a shoe from the floor board, and jumping hysterically from one three-inch heeled foot to the other, I tried to thwack that sucker to the ground. I missed, he dangled, I tried to hit him again, and finally I succeeded in directing him to the top of the passenger seat. THWACK!!!! I thought I got him, but he wasn't on the top of the seat anymore, so he must have dropped to the seat itself--or into Skyler's bag which was sitting open in the front seat. I opened the front door and noticed a web gleaming in the morning sun. It ran from the floor board to my purse, up the diaper bag, and over the seat. I must have let him in when I opened the door at the house. But now, I thought he was back in the bag.

I proceded to empty Sky's bag carefully, shaking out each article of clothing or loose item, and then I finally dumped the whole thing out. No spider. This makes any person nervous, especially one that is afraid of spiders more than death itself. But this is my child. I MUST protect her at all costs, so I continue the search. I look all over the floor board, the seat, everywhere. No spider. Finally, as I am getting ready to close the doors and proceed to church, I LOOK UP.

AHHHHH!!!!!! I scream. Bad move, because then Skyler starts screaming. Then the spider starts running frantically and decides to descend once again IN FRONT OF SKYLER'S FACE!!!! Oh, Lord! Help me!! Send Coby here NOW!!! No such luck, but I did think to grab the diaper changing pad that was still laying on the ground and try to hit the beast outside the car. This under any normal circumstance with any calm individual would have worked, but not with me. I couldn't hit it, and even though my body was freaking out, I was trying to keep as quiet as I could so Skyler wouldn't be any more traumatized than she was already.

With this last ditch effort not working, I knew the inevitable was about to happen. I was going to have to do SOMETHING to get that spider away from my child. With all the strength I could muster, I grabbed at the spider WITH MY BARE HAND and threw as far and as hard as I could.

All was still. The wind blew calmly and I think I heard the faint sound of an old western theme song in the background.

Skyler said, "Mommy, where'd the spider go?" I reassured her that he missed his mommy and daddy and so I put him back in the grass so he could go home to eat his dinner. I had saved her, but I have to tell you, we have both woken up in the night with dreams of spiders since then. We are now trying to reinforce that spiders are our friend and that Mr. Spider just got lost.

It was quite the event...and the good news is, I beat a spider and I still made it to church in time.