Kashmira’s mom taught her that if ever anything really scary happens, and you are still alive, it is really best to break the news with, “we’re ok”…_
That said, while crossing the street on the way home from a marvelous dinner with our dear friends Paul and Delia who are visiting from America, Iven and Kashmira manged to both get hit by a_bus_at the same time. Yes, that’s right, a big, scary, Bangkok_bus, the kind that you look at and think, “I wonder what would happen if I got hit by that_bus… boy I sure I hope I never find out!”_
The story goes something like this… Kashmira took out our camera to take pictures of sleeping dogs who seemed to be having dog dreams. She took said pictures (see attached) and we continued on our way. With camera in hand Kashmira was simply enjoying the lovely crisp evening as we walked home. For some reason, unbeknownsed to either of us, Kashmira, while in the middle of an empty street (right at the bottom of Sanam Luang in front of the Grand Palace for those of you who know a little bit about Bangkok) thought it might be nice to take a picture of said “empty” street. Iven, puzzled at what was piquing _Kashmira’s interest, turned to look up the street, and Kashmira, appreciating Iven’s interest in her photography, smiled back at him. **SMACK**_And that’s the last picture that camera will ever take…_
So we managed to get ourselves both hit by a_bus_at the same time while almost taking a picture of an “empty road” while crossing the street earlier this evening (10:02pm). We were looking up the street and the number 34 came around a corner (so it wasn’t full speed) and hit us from behind. We really didn’t realize what was happening until a very freaked out_bus_driver was running around trying to help us get up off the ground, trying to get us to take his_bus_(which seemed to now have a newly cracked windshield) to the hospital… which didn’t seem like a very good idea, since we were pretty confused, and pretty scared too, because Kashmira was bleeding from the head and we had just got hit by a_bus… so we took a cab to the nearest hospital (7 minutes away) which happens to be the big government training hospital… and Kashmira kept asking Iven, “what happened,” and Iven kept saying, “we got hit by a_bus,” and Kashmira kept saying, “I’m gonna be ok, now what happened?”, “you got hit by a_bus!” …”Iven, I’m gonna be ok”._
By the time we got to the hospital Iven was pretty worried about Kashmira, because she just kept asking the same questions over and over and over, and not remembering his answers, and was bleeding from the head and elbow! So we called a couple of people to get prayer support started, and began wading our way into our most positive experience with a hospital yet! It was kind of confusing (both Iven and Kashmira had been hit in the head… Kashmira was a lot worse for wear – Iven is much more thickheaded) trying to fill out forms in Thai, so pretty soon we just gave up and told them we had just been hit by a_bus_and needed to see a doctor. _Initially there were something like 8 doctors (medical students?) listening to our story (it was a quiet night in the ER – except for the soccer game on TV in the background) and after not too much time we had 1 doctor and 4 doctors-in-training laughing at us and doing our best to convince Kashmira and Iven that Kashmira was not going to die, along with Kashmira continuing to say, “Iven, I’m gonna be ok, I’m not gonna die.”_One CAT scan, one x-ray, four stitches (2 in Kashmira’s forehead, 2 in her elbow), 4.5 hours, and 4950 baht ($145) later, we have confirmed that nothing is broken, there is no internal bleeding, Kashmira’s memory will be just fine, and a 23-yr-old soon-to-be doctor can do a pretty good job stitching up an elbow. All in all Iven feels like he got punched in the face, Kashmira feels like she got punched in the face and stomped on the elbow, will have scars on her elbow and forehead; and both of them feel like they got hit by a_bus. (Remarkably today is the coldest day we have yet experienced in Bankok, so providentially we were wearing long sleeves for pretty much the first time ever here, and Kashmira had on a hat, which we think really helped to cushion the blow)._
And both of us have a new most embarrassing moment._
Thanks for reading this, praying for us, and loving us. And thanks be to God for keeping us alive, and making sure that all of our wounds are simply superficial. Really, all things considered we have had a delightful evening so far as our spirits our concerned, and we attribute all of our joy and peace to your prayers.