In the past two years, our family has been greatly blessed by people who have come into our lives and rescued us at various times.
One such is Carmel and her family. Her son and Beth went to kinder together. Last year, they were in different classes so we didn't see a lot of each other. But this year, Joey and Beth are classmates again. And so I have the joy of greeting this lovely lady every school day.
Why do I call her friend?
When we just moved to Hoppers Crossing in Oct 07, I didn't have a drivers' licence, and Beth had two more months of kinder before the summer hols. Where we formerly lived in Werribee, we were able to walk to kinder, but after we moved, I was stuck.
Carmel lives quite close to the kinder, yet she offered to come and pick Beth up and send her to school...every kinder day!
I cannot tell you how huge a help that was, especially with J being under a year old then. I am still looking for ways to repay her kindness. In the meantime, I can pay it forward by looking out for other moms.
Another good friend is Yvonne and her hubby Steve.
CA and I had planned to attend a seminar yesterday, and we were supposed to drop off the kids at their place after dinner.
But when it was time to pick J up from daycare, the car wouldn't start!
We've had problems with the remote transponder key for our Holden Commodore (aka "lao pok chia") for a very long time. The connection for the key is extremely sensitive. If it's not positioned exactly so, the red light won't come on, which means you won't be able to lock/unlock/start the car. The original intention was a good one. It was a form of security alarm, to prevent someone from stealing the car (though who would steal a 17 y.o. HC I don't know). But because there's a problem with the immobilizer as well, it means our ability to get about hangs by a thread because we can't manually override the alarm function and use the key to unlock the car.
Very complicated I know, and I'm probably not explaining it very well.
Anyway...so last night Beth and I started walking from home to fetch J, a journey I estimated would take us a good half hour. It got colder as we walked, and I wondered if Beth would make it. She was being very brave, but also very stubborn, not wanting to take a jumper along or put on her runners.
We were approaching HXUCA when the remote key flashed red (I was fiddling with it, hoping that I could 'trick' it into responding). So we headed home and tried to start the car again.
No luck.
We even went up the road to see if our newest neighbour was in and might give us a ride, but for some mysterious reason, they hadn't moved in yet. (Yesterday was supposed to be their move-in day.)
As it was 6 pm by now, I dialled Yvonne and she immediately offered to come and pick us up so we could go and get J. After that, she sent me home, taking the girls with her and inquiring about J's food preferences.
I hadn't been home very long when the phone rang.
"Steve says he can send you and Calvin to the seminar and fetch you after it ends. It's getting cold."
Miraculously, CA was able to get the car started after numerous thumb-aching attempts, and we made it to and from the seminar safely. (It took another 5 minutes of twiddling in the carpark afterwards before we were able to drive to Yvonne's to pick up the kids.)
To cut a very long tale short, RACV sent someone to have a look at the car. It's working fine for now, and CA has taken the precaution of using a postie band to bind the key together very tightly so that the connection stays. We might just get a locksmith to deactivate the alarm so the car can be manually locked/unlocked. So much for gadgets that are meant to make life easier!
Moral of the story: One car is good; two are better!
But seriously, thank you God for our friends, who never hesitate to help us when we're stuck.
And thank you Carmel and Yvonne, for making room for us in your lives! God bless you abundantly.
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