lemonade

About a month ago, my cousin had a series of posts on her facebook about making lemonade out of lemons. I'm not sure what she was going through, but I know she was trying to make the best out of it.

Here's my lemonade:

On Thursday morning after swimming at the hotel, we decided to tour the Galleria Mall in Houston before heading home. We spent a few hours there, including a great lunch at the Rainforest Cafe (thanks Grandma!).

We then headed home. We decided to go home a different way than we came. We usually use state Hwy 6 and go through a lot of small towns on our way home, but we decided to use Interstate 45. One big difference is that when you get off of I-45, there is an almost 100 mile drive directly west on Hwy 7. We got to our turnoff at about 8pm. We had just had a big dinner and were ready for the long drive home. Several miles onto Hwy 7, our van starts acting funny, then as we are going up a hill the transmission just goes out. Completely. My husband pulled off to the side and turned the car off. He tried several times to restart the car and get the van into gear. It wouldn't go. It just revved the engine as if it were in neutral. So, it's about 8:20 pm, and we are in the middle of nowhere. Literally. There is nothing behind us and nothing in front of us to tell us where we are.

As the song suggests, I'm going to count my blessings one-by-one:
1. We had cell phones and good cell service.
2. My mother is a card-carrying member of AAA.
3. AAA will tow you up to 100 miles for free.
4. According to the GPS on my mom's iPhone, we were 71 miles from home (so within the 100 mile zone!).
5. It was dusk and slightly breezy, so it was totally bearable heat.
6. The van stopped exactly in front of an old "historic" church that had steps and a bright light on the front. After we worked out the details with AAA for towing, we sat on the steps under the bright light. It felt very safe.
7. Although it was a 2-hour wait for the tow truck, the kids were in great spirits and we used the time to sing and tell stories.
8. When the tow truck and the extra SUV arrived (remember--there were seven of us on this trip), the men were very kind and understanding.
9. We got home safely a little after midnight. The kids enjoyed their ride in the nice SUV and watched Bolt on the built-in TV.
10. Did I mention that the 2 hour wait was after dark and therefore the blazing sun had gone down? Well, I'm counting that one twice!
11. Rebekah had the faith to suggest we have a family prayer and her prayer was answered.

So there you have it. There are so many "what-ifs" that could have made our car trouble so much worse. Of course, I wouldn't choose for our transmission to go out, but since it did, I'm glad it happened when and where it did. I know it could have been so much worse.