So we were on our way home...

from church and Devon almost killed himself. I was driving the van with the kids and Troy was in his truck in front of me. (we drive separate since Troy has early meetings). Devon says from the back of the van that he's choking. My first thought is "Cameron, leave Devon alone. " So I glance in my mirror and can't really see much of him. I'm not really panicked because this sort of thing happens all the time. And it's usually a result of Cameron inflicting pain or the boys fighting. Anyways, I'm still driving, I really don't want to pull over on the highway, there's not much of a shoulder. He started getting louder saying he couldn't breathe..he was choking...So I pulled over figuring I'd have to climb back there and fix whatever they were doing back there. When I got to him, I saw that he had wrapped his seat belt around his neck, and he had done it so that it would not be undone unless his head could fit through the loop. He had pulled the seat belt out as far as it would go, and looped it around. You know how when you pull it out, it retracks and there is no slack? Well, every time he moved, it got a little tighter. I couldn't loosen it at all. I was starting to realize the seriousness of the situation. I was trying to stay calm, since Devon was already in hysterics. I hoped Troy saw that I wasn't behind him and would pull over. I didn't know what to do, it was so tight his face was starting to turn blue and his eyes were bulging. He kept saying he was going to die and I kept telling him he was going to be fine. I felt sooo helpless! I was watching him choke to death. I decided I just had to drive home as fast as I could, we were about 10 minutes away. As I got back onto the highway I saw that Troy had pulled over. I pulled over and ran over to tell him what was going on. He ran over and tried to pull the seatbelt off the side of the car, of course it wouldn't budge, seatbelts are made to be strong for a reason. Devon was really close to passing out. He quickly realized the severity of the situation and we were starting to panic. A truck was coming down the highway (which is not a highly traveled highway), Troy and I threw ourselves in front of the truck and he pulled over. We ran over and asked the guy if he had a knife or something. Fortunalty he had a tool box and pulled out a knife. We ran over, cut the seatbelt and got him untangled. Whew! Did that really just happen? We are so glad that nice man had a knife..that is one good thing about this area! Everyone has a truck with tools. Well, except us. We're all a little shaken by the whole thing. Devon is fine, although he has bruise marks and seatbelt cuts on his neck. I don't think any of the kids will be doing that again! We are so grateful our desparate prayers were answered. Now we have to get a new seatbelt. I'm sure that's not cheap. But at least we have Devon.