it all started two days ago, on friday. it was supposed to be a day trip to the east side of the state with two goals: to get a much-needed crib for jobot at ikea, and then to visit our dear friends bekah and ryan in ann arbor.
we got out of the house in record time and hit the road, planning to be at ikea by lunch time. two hours in and jobot was sleeping and love was accidentally buying things on the iphone. oops. glad she only spent $1.96, though we didn't really want those digital coloring pages. we changed the settings on the phone so that can't happen again. we were cruising right along...until we weren't. the van stopped shifting gears and the rpms were getting higher and higher. (as a side note, i have always been worried about the transmission in this van even though two mechanics looked at it and said it was just fine. any time the van makes a weird noise, i say something about the transmission, which jeremy - understandably - finds irritating).
so the rpms were getting higher and higher and we were waiting for the van to gear down, which it wasn't doing. so, i said, "jeremy, this is not right. something is wrong with this, this is not what the car is supposed to be doing" and jeremy says, "don't go off on this tangent about the transmission again. we're just going up a hill" (may i add, it was slight incline in the road...not classified as a hill). cue smoke to start pouring out of from under the hood and also pouring into the van through the air vents. it smelled bad. something was really not right.
it was providential that in the minute that all of that happened, we came upon a rest stop and pulled into a parking spot. more smoke pouring out. someone pulled into the space next to us and asked if they could help us. it turned out that they knew about cars. they said it was the transmission...there was no transmission fluid. could just be that a seal broke and all the fluid drained out, or it could be worse.
thank goodness we were at a rest stop with bathrooms. anyway, we called a tow truck with aaa (knew there was a reason we pay for that every year!). they could tow us within a five mile radius for free, so we agreed to just tow it to the town that was (thankfully) only two miles away. the problem was that they didn't have a tow truck that could fit all of us. we called around town for a rental car. all we could find was a car that was available in an hour-and-a-half. so, the plan was that we would unload the van, the kids and i would wait at the rest area while jeremy eventually came back to pick us up with the rental car. it wasn't ideal considering it was 45 degrees outside and there was nowhere to sit inside the rest area...but that was our only option.
amazingly, at that moment, someone pulled into the parking space next to us. it was an older couple. the woman came over to our window and asked if we were having trouble. we explained the situation and she was very nice. then the tow truck came so we unloaded the van and up onto the two truck it went. the woman was still walking around and kindly offered to drive the kids and i to the rental car place! so, we loaded up the car seats and soon the kids and i were being dropped off there (the woman even gave me a big hug goodbye) and jeremy was at the mechanic. conveniently, there was a bucket of candy inside the office, so love enjoyed her first tootsie pop while i did paperwork. the rental car arrived earlier than anticipated and we headed off to the mechanic to pick up jeremy. we decided to just continue on with our day and wait to hear about the van. by this time, it was early afternoon and we were hungry so we stopped for lunch. as we were about to leave the parking lot after lunch, we got the call from the mechanic.
it was the worst case scenario...our transmission was shot. the quote to fix it: $2800. i kinda felt like i wanted to throw up. we started driving. we couldn't decide what to do. we ended up sitting in a parking lot and both kids were screaming in the back seat. then love decided she had to poop...it was crazy. we called our mechanic and asked for his advice. we decided to have the van towed home and fixed here. but we decided not to do anything until monday and try to enjoy the rest of the day.
so we headed to ikea. it wasn't a leisurely trip, but we fulfilled one of our goals - we got the crib. our wonderful friends in ann arbor offered to let us stay at their house overnight, and we thought that was best considering everything. after a quick stop to pick up a few toiletries, we headed to their house. shortly after we walked in the door, jeremy had a beer and i had a much-needed glass of wine in hand (thanks guys!). we enjoyed a relaxing evening of conversation, pizza, kid craziness, and staying up later than usual. it was such fun and we are so thankful for their friendship and their hospitality. after a rough night of sleep thanks to our children (i have officially self-diagnosed love with a made-up sleep disorder called "unfamiliar surroundings weird-somnia"), we enjoyed a bit more time with friends and headed out to make it home in time to drop off the rental car by noon. the trip back was less eventful than the way there, jeremy shared his starbucks gift card with me and bought me a chai and we had good conversation as we drove along. oh, and love didn't buy anything else, so that was a bonus as well.
what a saga. but, you know what? the weird thing is...these days weren't horrible. we were encouraged because we didn't have a huge fight, which certainly would have happened at past times in our marriage (we must actually be learning something!). we enjoyed being together, and we were amazed at the ways we saw God taking care of us and providing for us amidst the craziness. we thanked him all throughout the days. we enjoyed visiting with friends, jobot now has a crib, and we made it home safe and sound, thankful it was only a transmission and not a car accident or serious health problem.
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