Dude, Where's My Car?
Tuesday, May 24, 2011 at 6:06PM I woke up a little late this morning, so I rushed to get Christian up and dressed, and grabbed something for him to eat in the car. I stood at the door waiting for him to get his shoes on and decided to get Eliana in her seat and come back to shut the door after Christian was on his way to the car.
The car. Where was the car? I had parked it out front when I got home last night, but it was no longer there. I figured Mike had taken it out to run a late errand and then parked in the driveway in back. I hurried around the house, hauling Eliana in her jammies, only to discover that the car was not in the back with the truck. Nope. Just the truck back there.
Um, where was the car? My heart began racing; I burst back into the house, encouraging Christian to get his shoes on a little faster, and asked Mike if he had done something with the car. He had no idea what I was talking about and I said,"I think someone took our car."
That got everybody's attention.
I was very close to flipping out at this point, but it still remained that we had to get Christian to school, and pick up a friend who works at the church on the way. I couldn't take Eliana now, since her carseat was in the van, and when I got in the truck the gas tank light was on.
This was a big-time Monday on a Tuesday.
Mike encouraged me to stay calm, and assured me that everything would be all right. How does he do that?!
As we pulled out of our driveway Christian had processed all of the information and burst into tears. He cried,"Some robbers took our car and we're never gonna see it again!" While I wanted to do the exact same thing, I checked myself before I wrecked myself and took a deep breath and told him we didn't know what was going to happen.
Once I got home and Mike and I decided that we definitely had not taken the car into the shop for its inspection and forgotten about that talked about the situation, he called the police to report our stolen vehicle. I think within the hour an officer showed up at our house to get the info necessary to file the report! He was so kind and helpful.
After the police officer left we spent a couple of minutes rethinking the logistics of our day, since we were now sharing a vehicle and the day included the following: getting Mike to work, attending a play that Christian's class was putting on, getting Eliana to school, getting the van inspected (oh, wait, that one we could cross off the list!), going to the eyeglass store to get Michaela's new glasses tweaked, eating ice cream, making my way through a significant amount of laundry, picking the kids up from school, getting Mike home from work, and acquiring a rental car. I count it a major blessing that many of the things we had to do all occured in the same building (Mike's job and the kids' school stuff). We only had two minutes to decide what our plan of action would be, because Christian's play was starting in a half hour and Eliana was still in jammies and Michaela wasn't even up yet.
We managed to get to the play just as it was starting (Christian did a GREAT job, as did all of his classmates) and then I went to a friend's house (the one who's leaving for Africa soon) until Eliana had to go to school. Since they are leaving in a little over a week it was a very nice opportunity to get a visit in (silver lining!) before we are separated by half a continent and an ocean.
In the midst of working on the stuff that he has to get done this week (which is A TON) Mike took care of calling the insurance company, talking to a representative, and figuring out the rental car. This only took up a few extra (hundred thousand trillion) minutes of his time, of which he has much to spare.
Once Eliana was in class Michaela and I took the truck and ran our errands (this included the tweaking of the glasses and the ice cream eating) (getting your car stolen justifies ice cream therapy), dropped off some leftovers (from lunch, not from ice cream) at home and then headed back to the school to pick up the other two.
I was going to leave and just return later to pick up Mike, but then we found out that the rental car place had a van for us sooner rather than later so I took him over to pick that up; I drove off in the van, and he took the truck and returned to work.
Our evening ended with a violent thunderstorm and tornado watch. I crowded with the kids in our back hallway where there are no windows and a lot of walls. The kids valiantly saved two baby dolls, all of the American Girl dolls, the Ninjago Lego guys (and their spinner), as well as their (the kids', not the Lego guys') iPods. We also had one book, three flashlights, my cell phone, and, of course, the laptop. The kids were quite worried (and if I'm honest I have to say,"ME TOO!") but things ended up just fine. We still have a roof over our heads.
And that is more than some can say tonight, after similar and worse storms have devastated the South, again. Having one's car stolen is an ordeal...but no one's life was in danger. I have a giant pile of laundry on my bed, along with three children squished in...but I have a bed on which those things can lie. All throughout the day I repeatedly had the thought,"This is not the worst that could happen to me." We are all here and healthy, our home is intact, we have clean clothes, food, and water. At the end of this crazy day I am grateful. I am grateful for so many things. And right now that is trumping the bad feelings that I have had because of the car.
Pray for those who have lost so much. So much more than we have lost...I will be thinking of them tonight.
Reader Comments (10)
I am so happy you and yours were safe in all the storms. We live about an hour away from Joplin and are so grateful to be safe. Hope everything works out with your car!
A stolen van is a MAJOR BUMMER. The logistics involved in dealing with all of that - ai yi yi! I think you need ice cream with Kahlua sauce. Or maybe just the sauce. ;)
Good perspective though. You don't have to look very far to realize things could always be worse.
I like how ice cream was on the to-do list. I hope the insurance/finding a new van process goes smoothly. And I'm glad that you were able to keep a positive perspective on everything.
I love your spirit of gratitude and joy even in the midst of all this!
No way! Your car was stolen...from your HOUSE?! What a mess, but you handled beautifully and with a positive perspective!
I am so sorry. What a day! You seem to be having a good attitude about it. I am glad you are safe and I hope you get a new van quickly!
Oh my goodness! That's crazy!
Let's look at the positive-- now you don't have to clean out the van ;)
Sorry to hear it.
THIS perspective is awesome. Good for you for seeing peace amidst the chaos.
So sorry about the van....
Dude, where's my Christina?
Whoa! It's all so surreal when that happens. What make and model as it?
I love how you saw the truth in it all. Perfect.