"Growing in Cuteness and Love"

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Never a dull moment

Well, we left early this morning for our 4 hour drive home from Chenzhou back to Changsha.  About 2 hours into the drive we were passing a truck and something exploded from the undercarriage (Scott's description...Bailey will write his rendition after) and hit our 2 side windows of our van in 3 places.  The glass shattered although it stayed intact and scared the daylights out of Addy and Bailey who were both sitting against that side of the van.  The truck pulled over and we kept on driving (what else do you do in the middle of the country in China...call for roadside assistance?).  We cleared the kids away from that side and distracted Addy who was not happy about the whole thing with an i-pod.  We drove on at a slower speed and eventually the back window that was hanging on by a thread blew out (mostly out the back) and once the glass was cleared out of the van we drove on.  The trip (that was getting longer at such slow speeds) was getting bumpy and Scott suggested we stop and knock out the front window as it was going to go eventually too.  At that point we were driving with no side windows (almost a blessing in a way as it was really hot in there).  We had about another hour to go and had just passed a toll booth.  Suddenly our van started bumping.  Flat tire!  Our driver calmly got out his tire changing tools and with the whole family inside, jacked it up and put on his spare.  We were finally on our way and even slower now without two side windows and a spare tire on.  Our driver got off at an old industrial village to get some air in the spare tire which was too low.  We pulled over to a shop (or what they called a shop) to get the air and when we pulled back out we were sitting in dead stop traffic.  The vehicles (cars, vans, buses, scooter, and anything with wheels..or not) tried to get through to nowhere.  Everyone would turn their vehicles off, get out and try to see what was happening and then when people moved a foot (because they were able to squeeze in between another vehicle) everyone would rush to get back into their vehicles and move up one more spot.  This continued for about an hour until our driver (who was very wise) managed to squeeze up onto the sidewalk (our van with 2 windows missing and flat tire) and drove past the backlog of vehicles.  We went up and down back streets (the kind where cars go whatever way they want to) until we finally started merging onto a highway.  I noticed the 'Do Not Enter' sign and realized that we were getting on the highway from the exit ramp.  But what can be said as we did get on, drove past the village that was still backlogged and started on our way.  Our driver pulled over for a quick 10 seconds, rolled the flat tire to a friend in a shop at the side of the rode telling him to fix it and off we went to our hotel.  After over 6 hours on the road we arrived back safe and sound.  God was looking over us today!  The kids all have their own renditions of the events of the day (from explosions to shrapnel falling all over) but this is my story.  Here is the sequence of pictures.  We are back at our beautiful hotel in Changsha where the kids have cooled off in the pool and leave tomorrow morning to fly out to Shanghai.  

Eleven more days until we see our little Anya for the first time and she joins our family!!!

2 comments:

  1. All I can say is WOW! I'm glad that you are all okay!

    Blessings,
    Laurie

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  2. Hi Lisa and family. I have been following your trip with your blog and your mom. Sounds like it has been very eventful. The best part yet to come... enjoy and travel safe.
    Best wishes to all. Lyn Jauncey
    PS
    Your mom can't wipe the smile off her face she is so excited to join you shortly.

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