The short story is that, after an amazing time in New York with family and friends during the holidays, we have arrived in Charlotte. However, the extended story is much more complicated, so you might want to sit down and get something to drink. I will try to streamline the story, but it’s hard to find shortcuts in this one.
Over the weekend of the 16th of January, I had a soccer coaches’ convention in Philadelphia. After the convention, I left with the Charlotte Eagles Men’s General Manager, Tom Engstrom, around 8 o’clock in the morning on Saturday, attempting to meet Caitlin and her parents in Charlotte by 5 o’clock that night (in order to get our key from the apartment office).
Meanwhile, Caitlin, her parents, and two dogs (our dog, Charlie, and Cindy’s dog, Jordy) left Syracuse around 4 o’clock on Saturday morning in a pickup truck, loaned to us from good friends of ours, in order to make the trip to Charlotte, which would normally take around 12 hours. This time, however, they were pulling a U-Haul trailer up and down the hill country of Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Tom and I were making pretty good time and were on pace to make it to Charlotte without much problem, planning on getting in before 5. It was about 4:30 when I received a text message from Caitlin saying that they were near the NC/VA border and that, when they had stopped, they had found some pink liquid coming out from under the truck. My first thought was transmission fluid, and I was worried.
I did not find out right away, but what had happened was that, while Caitlin was driving, it had been about time to fill up on gas and stop for some food. She and her parents decided to look for a Chick-Fil-A, and found one with the GPS. They accidentally missed the exit, so they took the next one. At that exit, as Caitlin was pulling the truck up to the gas pump, she pulled it too far forward and had to back up a little to reach the pump. After doing this, they were able to see a puddle that had formed where the truck had been, and then saw the ominous pink liquid dripping from underneath.
From here, they saw a Wal-Mart across the street and drove over to pick up some transmission fluid. Because all they could see was a small drip, they hoped it was a minor leak that they could monitor themselves. As they pulled up, they saw service station on the side of the Wal-Mart and figured it would better to go in and ask for advice. Of course, the service station did not work on transmission problems. As Caitlin’s father, Rick, was leaving, a man asked if he needed help with a transmission problem? He had been getting new tires at the service station and had overheard Rick in the service center. He had also just happened to work at a transmission shop right off the exit that they had first missed. Right there in the Wal-Mart parking lot, he slid under the truck, spotted a blown seal, and said that he could take a better look at it back at his shop. So off they went.
At this point, he had told Caitlin and her parents that it would take at least until Monday morning to fix it because they would have to take the whole transmission down to fix it. So now, they are about 3 hours away from Charlotte with no way to tow all of our things. What do we do? Trust that this little shop could fix it? They were in the middle of nowhere in rural Virginia, with no other transmission shops for miles and miles. Should they rent a truck? Should they stay in a hotel and wait? Should I go and get them? Should I bring them
to our empty apartment without any of our things? These moments were a little bit heartbreaking because it was impossible to know what the best option would be, and it seemed like nothing was working quite the way it should. Caitlin and her parents had no idea who to trust in the situation, but they did trust that God would provide the answer.
They decided that they really did not have any other option than to leave the truck there to be fixed and find some other way to get back on the road or find a hotel. Then, they found out that just 4 days earlier, the owner of the transmission shop (and the father of the kind man who had helped them at Wal-Mart) had started renting U-Haul trucks. Then, because they already had the U-Haul trailer with insurance, the owner worked out a deal for them - only a flat fee of $57.80 (that is, with no mileage fee) for the rental of their smallest truck for the three days until the truck would be fixed. It was an amazing deal! Working with a U-Haul newbie, we are still unsure about whether or not he charged us correctly, but the fact remains that it was an amazing deal.
However, then, the owner said that his credit card machine was down and that he needed cash. This might not have been a problem had they not been hours away from home without easy access to cash or even an ATM. Normally, they would not have that much cash on hand,
but when Rick checked his wallet, he found exactly 57 dollars even. That was it! Then, they had to scrounge around for the other 80 cents, but came up with exactly what they needed. How unbelievable was that! Praise God! So off they went with Caitlin sitting on the floor of the truck between the seats with Charlie on her lap. I can’t imagine that it was very comfortable, but they did it. They arrived at the apartment at 9:30 that night.
Meanwhile, I had arrived at the apartment a bit after 5 o’clock that night and was able to get the key and sign the papers that needed to be signed. Another situation occurred, however, the moment I walked up to the manager’s office at the apartment complex, as the manager on duty was running out the door because of a situation with a tenant. She came back a bit later and told me that she had just found that one of the tenants was dead in his apartment. The police and ambulance had just gotten there. I found out that the man had died earlier that day, and when his son could not get ahold of him, the assistant manager entered the man’s apartment, found the man, and went into shock. She came back to the office shaking and very distressed. While I did not know her, I know God had put me there to help her through that moment.
After all of that, when Caitlin and her parents arrived, we brought in two blankets, a couple of pillows, and some clothes, and then we slept on the floor that night because it was too late to unpack without disturbing the neighbors. (Oh, the new world of apartment living!) It did, however, work out well that they were able to get the covered truck from U-Haul because it had started to rain around 5 o’clock that night, just when we would have been unloading, and continued throughout the night. In the morning, we went outside to start unpacking, and we discovered that the truck had a flat tire! Yet another issue! We continued unloading and finished it before 3 o’clock that Sunday afternoon, just as it started raining again. It wasn’t until 6at night that we were able to get someone out to change the tire. Then, on Monday, we got word from the transmission shop that the truck would not be ready until Tuesday afternoon, instead of Monday.
So, Tuesday morning, Caitlin’s parents left in order to get to the shop by noon to pick up the truck. When they arrived, they found out that they had encountered some problems and that it would not be ready until Tuesday night. So they hung around the shop (in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do) until they received yet more bad news - the truck would not be ready until Wednesday afternoon because of some more issues. At this point, they got a hotel room, brought Cindy’s dog, Jordy, into the room wrapped up like a baby, and tried to sleep, worrying about whether they would ever get home. Finally, they were actually able to head out around 4:30 in the afternoon on Wednesday and got back home to Liverpool at 3:30 in the morning on Thursday.
Caitlin and I found it so incredibly difficult that we could do nothing to help them. For me, it seemed like nothing had really happened to me in the midst all of the craziness, while my in-laws had encountered so many trials in the journey that they had made to help me. We couldn’t help but feel like everything had just plain gone wrong. Even when Rick and Cindy finally got home, the truck was still having problems and would have to be re-fixed. Since we have been here in North Carolina, our tub leaked into the apartment below us and ruined their ceiling; our dog has destroyed a good-sized piece of carpet, made several huge messes in the house, and ripped up the window shades trying to look for us; and our new bed frame had a defective part and broke. I hope that I don’t sound like I’m complaining; I tell you all of this not to complain, but to say that, even though the devil might be trying to bring us down, our strength is in the Lord. I know that because of all of you, who have been praying for us, you have kept us safe and made sure we had our eyes fixed on our Lord. So many times throughout the story, if just one little thing had been different, it could have ended in a much different way. God was there with us, carrying us though it. We continue to covet your prayers for God’s provision and protection
over us, for Caitlin’s job search, and for all that He has planned for us in this scary, new place! Please keep us up to date on your prayer requests, too, so that we can truly be partnered with you in prayer!
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