The Day of the Tire

Picture 1: Afternoon nap today.
Picture 2: Waking up this morning, sprawled out on bed. Not much room for Dad.
Picture 3: Nico keeping a watchful eye on the tire being fixed.
Picture 4: Just 1/3 of the diapers that you all helped us deliver. There were two more huge stacks like this one. We can't thank all the people enough that chipped in. What a blessing it was to be the delivery boy!


Quite a day yesterday. It was our Gotcha Day as they call it, when we were able to take Lucy out of the orphanage for good. And what a day it was, for more than just that reason.

The day started out quite normal, got up and did my thing with Lucy in the morning. Nothing real new there. Just played, had a bite to eat with her and then took some pictures around the grounds to keep as memories. I also was able to persuade the caregivers and nannies to allow me to take a picture of them. This took some real persuasion, but I finally got them to do it. It was a good one too, glad they obliged.

Headed back to the hotel, by way of the grocery store where I wanted to pick up a few things. I wanted to pick up a few items of food for Lucy and then also wanted to grab some toys that I could bring with to the big city so she would have stuff to play with. Cab driver as always was great. One time this past week I wanted to go to a local store to by a few small blow up pools for the orphanage as it has been so so hot here. He not only took me there, but walked me upstairs to the shop and told them what I wanted. Really a great guy. Just goes to show that the other ignorant driver we had previous missed out on all the fares for the last many days because of his sideways view of the world.

I waited then at the hotel for about 4 hours as Nico was coming to get me at the hotel first and then we would go to the orphanage to get Lucy. He arrived about 430 and tells me that he had to get one of his tires fixed. Apparently he was with another family before leaving to come and get me and he hit the curb and busted open the tire. He and Joel Golden did a quick change to the spare and then he got the broken one fixed and put back on. So I loaded up, asked him to stop at the hotel so that we could pick up another round of diapers for the orphanage with the money that Dena has raised on the Chip In. That woman Dena and how God works through her and her friends on Facebook just lights my heart up. She is such an incredible wife and has changed my life in so many ways seeing her heed to Gods small whispers. She really is so special to me. Everyday I thank God that he gave me the opportunity to live life with her and make me a better man for being with her.

So we pick up $400 worth of diapers and load them in. Nico pulls out of the parking lot and misjudges the curb a bit and BOOM, there goes the tire again. The same one from earlier. So we both jump out and do our best NASCAR pit stop work and change the tire back to the spare he had, while parked on the main street of town. We did it pretty quick and were on our way, dirty and sweaty to pick up Lucy.

We got to the orphanage, signed some papers, brought up the diapers and then were off to see Lucy and take her away for good. The caregivers on duty were very nice and actually wanted to do a quick bath with her and put her new clothes I brought with on her. I was going to jump in and take care of it, but they insisted and I think it was there way of saying goodbye to her so I didn't get in the way. So they took her in, gave her a quick sponge bath and then put on her new little one piece jumper that was from a box of Ragen's old stuff. So it wasn't really new, but it was new to her. It fit perfect and we got some pictures and then hoped in the car. Away we went.

Nico wanted to try to stop and see if we could fix the tire again, just in case we blew out another tire. It would be bad to have a flat in the middle of no where and not have a spare. I whole heartedly agreed. So we stopped and 30 min later, we had the fixed tire back on the van and the spare in the back again.

We were humming along the road and it was quite bumpy. This road for some reason is just a mess. Imagine in the US when they are fixing a road and they strip off the top layer of asphalt and there is the really bumpy, hole filled under layer that is just a nightmare to drive on. Well, that is the first hour of this road from our small city to the big city. About 20 min in, we hit a big hole and BANG! Yep, you guessed it, again, the tire that we just fixed blew out. Thankfully that spare was still in great condition and so Nico and I manned our stations to get to work. It literally took us no more than 7-10 min to make it happen. Forget NASCAR, we are going FORMULA ONE baby! Back in the care we went and off to the big city.

We arrived about 9pm in the big city and got settled in to our apt quickly. Lucy was supposed to go down at 9pm, so I cleaned her up, gave her some juice and off to bed we went. I laid with her for a bit and she was very restless. Just like Ragen is. Finally I thought I caught a whiff of a smell that is all to familiar, yep, my first poop duty with Lucy. And of course it was no little simple one. This kid goes all out to spoil me on my first duty with a load that would make an adult proud!

Back to bed we went and about 45 min later she finally konked out. She slept great though all night long. Again, she is restless to some degree, but no different than Ragen is at night. I think getting her Tonsils and Adnoids out will really help her get much more restful sleep.

What a day. I saw it as a great adventure and was so thrilled that I was blessed to be a part of it. Would had it been easier and less sweaty and dirty to not have the interesting twists? Sure, but not nearly as memorable!

Rob