Stranded

On Wednesday afternoon, I packed the kids into the car and headed out for a quick trip to the supermarket. Having Beth home all summer is wonderful, but taking all four children along for errands is quite challenging sometimes! Upon arrival at the store, I methodically unloaded the kids, making sure that each one was holding onto another's hand, while I grabbed my purse and closed the car door.

Unfortunately, the door wouldn't close. For some reason, I simply could not get the van's sliding door to shut. I pulled and pulled, but it refused to budge. We have been having some problems with the car's battery and electric system, and the car was due to go into the shop the following morning, so I wondered if the car had somehow "locked" the door in the open position. After watching us struggle with the door for a few minutes, a kind young man walked over to see if we needed some help. He pulled and tugged, carefully checked the runners of the door to see if something was blocking it, and tried a few other tricks. He finally gave up, and suggested that I call AAA for towing.

At this point, I started to get a bit worried. Dan was not due home from work until 9pm that night, so I would need to find a way to get back home, with all four kids. I realized that I would have to remove all four car seats when the towing company came, and then re-install all four seats into someone else's car when they came to rescue us.

I called AAA on my cell phone, but just as the kind man on the other end was asking my location, the phone went dead. The battery needed re-charging, but I didn't have a charger, so now we were truly stranded.

By now, Amy, my resident worry-wart, was starting to get very concerned. She began to cry, sobbing that "we'll never get home! We'll be here at the store until Daddy comes home tonight!!" As this was not helping my stress levels, I ordered her to stop, hefted Brian onto my hip and dragged my sniffling chain of girls into the store.

The woman at the desk looked up with a smile, and gave the standard comment that I hear multiple times each day..."Oh my! Are they all yours?!!"

I quickly cut her off and explained our predicament. As she pointed out the pay phone and changed my dollar bills into quarters, Amy's sobs grew louder. By now, we were attracting quite a crowd, and one complete stranger even offered me the use of her cell phone to call for help.

Before placing the call again, I decided to try the door one more time. I dragged my crew back into the parking lot, and gave the door one last pull.

It closed easily.

The girls cheered. Brian gurgled. And we headed back into the store to do some shopping.

Now, that was a shopping trip to remember.