The next thing I know her school day and my day as an elementary school teacher was over and I was sitting in the front office of my school waiting on the Gwinnett County Police. They had called and asked that I be told not to leave. Our pastor had also called and told the secretary that he was on his way. I did not know what happened. The minutes that I waited and prayed seemed to last forever, but they were not forever. The image of the police officers and Kristin's dad walking through that door to tell me that our sweet, smiling, witty Kristin was gone will last forever. Her father had arrived home earlier to find officers in our front yard waiting to tell him the news. Her brother Wesley had been notified and was returning home from college.

As parents, we worry about our teen drivers but really deep inside we think IT WON'T HAPPEN TO US! It certainly will not happen at 4:00 in the afternoon on a weekday. IT certainly will not happen to a child that never missed her curfew, always called when she arrived, always tried to do the right thing, and always tried to make the right decisions. It certainly will not happen to a teen with good Christian values and a bright future ahead of her.

Being the responsible teen that Kristin had proven to be, she had come home from school that day and was going to her babysitting job. A torrential downpour began. Was she trying to get to the bus stop before the boys did? Was she driving too fast? Was she distracted? Was the road construction at fault? We may never know! What we do know is that God's Plans are not necessarily our plans! We also know that our lives and the lives of the rest of Kristin's family, her friends, and the six families she babysat for will never be the same.

Would years of driving experience have given Kristin the knowledge to prevent her car from hydroplaning into the path of a truck? we may never know but we do know that IT CAN HAPPEN TO US! We also know that Kristin did not get to graduate with her classmates or attend college the next fall. We also know she only attended one of her high school proms and now she is dancing with Jesus!