Surprise!

Today started out as a regular day: I was the first one up --I love the first hour, when everyone else is asleep and I can read the Scriptures while eating my own bowl of cereal, without having to share my breakfast with anyone. The house is quiet until 9 am, when Eve's voice calls out for me to unzip her tent so she can burst out with all of the energy of a 2-year-old.

Eve rules our world (meaning our schedule) all morning: today we went for a walk that took us park-hopping, that is, we went to three different parks (they are really close to each other) because the previous one was always "too wet" --it had rained all night and the slides were still covered with rain drops; but we had to go to all three of them, to conclude that they were all wet. So we went home to change Eve's wet pants and watch Little Einstein while I was getting ready for work.

Meanwhile Levi was at the dentist :( He had 3 cavities to take care of today. We are reserving the failed root canal for later, when money will grow on trees (as some of you know, I am an ambitious gardener). Levi ran home so that I could be at work on time, and I went off to take the bus to work. Nothing exciting so far...

After work, I had made an appointment for a hair cut, and although I had warned Levi of my intention of getting my hair cut, he did not know when I would have it done. An hour and $30 later, I took the bus home, feeling sassy (as I always do when I get my hair cut much shorter) and smiling at the thought of Levi's face when I would walk through the door.

He looked quite surprised alright. He said: "I was not expecting it to be that short." What I did not know is that I was in for a surprise myself: since we had moved, we still needed to clean our former living quarters, and Levi was trying to convince me to go over there this evening; however, the prospect of having to walk there and back as we had previously done several times did not appeal to me. Levi insisted, saying that a walk would do us good, but still I excused myself and told him that I would rather stay home.

He then asked me: "What if we went in our new car?"
I looked up: "what? you're kidding, right? are you serious?"
Smilingly, he turned to Eve: "Boubou, where's the car?"
So we went to the kitchen window and looked out. Eve pointed toward the street. There were three cars, two of which were vans. We had looked at a 1989 Honda online, last night, but it was nowhere to be seen. Confused, I turned to Levi: "where is it?"
He replied: "It's the green van, right there!"

I was so shocked, tears welled my eyes. Incredulous, I looked at him and kept saying: "are you serious?" I was so overwhelmed: the fact is that we had been riding the bus for the past couple of months...and I enjoy the privilege of having public transportation, except for it was getting really hard for me to leave 30 min early to make sure I would get the bus (when going to work) and I was always running /sprinting after work so as not to miss the 7:05pm bus, as the next one would only come 30 min later. Once I got off the bus, I had to walk several hundred yards to reach my office building, etc. And two days ago, I had a melt down as I was feeling sorry for myself for being physically exhausted and feeling terrible about asking ward friends for rides to the store when our food was running low, dreading the 1 mile walk to Smith's.

So, I am proud to announce that we are now the owners of our first van, a green Plymouth Voyager 1996, and that my husband amazed me by having it all registered before dusk. And if any of you need a ride (to the store or anywhere at all), don't hesitate to ask! It will be our pleasure.