Morris Family in Mexico: The Blessing of a Second Car

It has been a month since we finally purchased a second car here in Mexico for me to drive during the week with the kids. We bought it 11 weeks after moving to Monterrey; so with the two weeks that we were visiting in Oregon, it was a little over two months of me having no vehicle during the work week with three kids at home, in an unfamiliar apartment, in a foreign country. Two months of piling all four of us into tiny uber vehicles if we needed to go anywhere during the day, including the grocery store, which meant that we would also have to load all of our groceries into the trunk of a second uber car after shopping. Hard would be an understatement.

Since purchasing our car, I've been mentally composing this blog and there are two major themes I've landed on: patience and provision.

If there is one thing that Mexico has taught us, it's patience. When we moved here, we assumed that we would have a second vehicle within the first week. Eleven weeks later we got it. Eleven weeks! As I look back at the situation, maybe the overriding feeling should be frustration, but truly more than anything, I just feel grateful. And that's really what we're learning: patience leads to perseverance, hope, character and thankfulness.

I do have to relate a couple (now) hilarious stories of perseverance regarding using uber. First is a story about buying the boys bikes. We had been promising the boys bikes since we first moved here, but we were hoping to wait on that second (and bigger vehicle). Finally, one Saturday we decided to just purchase the bikes and use an uber to get them back to the house. We spent probably at least an hour at an amazing toy store selecting the perfect bikes (you know, one of those experiences as a parent that you're absolutely exhausted and have a headache by the end). At last, the boys proudly wheeled those bikes to the check stand, and lo and behold, one of Ben's co-workers is in line behind us. As we are chatting with her, the cashier interrupts, hands us our credit card and says, "Lo siento, no funciona." (Sorry, it doesn't work). Great: our credit card isn't working. Just what Ben wants to happen while talking to someone from work. Long story short, we were unable to get our credit card to work and had to walk out of the store empty -handed. I'm not exaggerating to say that Josh cried multiple times on the way home: "I want my bike!!" In fact, I was impressed that Sam and Seth didn't cry; I certainly wanted to! Poor kids, poor parents. BAD DAY.

Excitedly picking out those bikes

Two days later, we had the credit card thing figured out and the kids were desperate for the bikes. It was during the work week, so that meant that I needed to take an uber with them to the store, purchase the bikes, and then get a big enough uber for the ride home that would not only fit all four of us, but three bikes too. I ordered an uber XL, and of course the smallest SUV one could imagine showed up at the store. But, as we now often say, Mexico may not be a country where it happens easily or well, but somehow they always make it happen. With a ton of finagling we managed to fit all the bikes into the trunk with half of the middle seat down. This meant Seth and Sam were double-buckled in the other middle seat, and Josh was buckled onto my lap in the passenger seat. Not ideal, not legal in America, but acceptable for Mexico. And fantastic because it meant we could finally get the bikes home!

Seth and Sam sandwiched in the back with the bikes.

I would have never done something this crazy four months ago, but honestly I have gotten a little used to the crazy. And the smiles on the boys' faces when they finally got to ride their bikes at the park was worth all the hassle. (This picture is taken at a park about 10 minutes walk from our apartment. It has a great bike/walking trail as well as play equipment and a trampoline!)

Awkward uber story number two: the week before we bought our car, we went to Walmart to purchase a barbecue. Now, why in the world would we buy a barbecue a few days before we would have a vehicle to appropriately haul it home? Well, we were having a fourth of July party with friends and desperately wanted it to be a real American barbecue (hamburgers, corn on the cob, strawberry shortcake). Of course, the community grill at our apartment had been reserved for a birthday party. Clearly we couldn't have a barbecue without the grill. We found the perfect grill, managed to communicate well enough to purchase the grill, endured the embarrassment of rolling the loud, clamoring thing behind us across the store (like our family doesn't already stick out enough here) and brought the grill to the trunk of our small sedan hoping for a miracle that it would fit into the trunk far enough that we could tie the trunk down and call it good. Failed. That's okay, we knew plan A was doomed. So, plan B: call an uber XL. Now you may remember from the previous fiasco that an "XL" rig in Mexico isn't exactly what we would consider to be large in America. So, of course, a tiny SUV showed up to help us haul our barbecue home. The uber driver opened the trunk, put down the back seats and he and Ben lifted it to the trunk...only to clearly illustrate that it will not fit in this vehicle either. And as they lifted it down, the corner of the leg on Ben's side scratched a 4 inch mark on the car. Fail; major fail. The driver was clearly peeved (why wouldn't he be?) and wasn't in the mood to "try one more time" to get the grill into his vehicle. He drove away with an extra 500 pesos and lots of "lo sientos." By this time, our kids looked like this:

I had to take a picture because we have to try to keep humor in these situations so we don't scream, cry, or totally lose it in front of our kids. We were all hot, tired, and frustrated that what was supposed to be a quick trip for a grill turned into a multiple hour debacle. Plan C: try one more time to get an uber XL that is actually XL. Try not to scratch the vehicle when loading. Plan C: success! Patience and perseverance wins!

The second theme of our car is that of provision. It's a long story of why it took us so long to get a second vehicle. It includes a lot of failed plans, frustration in failed systems, and unmet expectations. But the Lord really provided us the perfect vehicle at the perfect time. Would you believe that we purchased a vehicle from the son of our Spanish tutor while we were in Portland? Isn't that wild? We met the Romero family because Gaile, our Spanish teacher, gave us their number as a good contact in Monterrey. They have two girls, 9 and 5, and are a very kind and fun family. We met them just in time to find out that shortly they would be moving to America, and that they were selling their vehicle. Their car was the size and price that we wanted, and as a bonus, they would help us do all the registering and paperwork at the Mexican DMV. It was an ideal situation. And while the timing really didn't seem ideal, maybe it was in Lord's eyes. Maybe it was all about teaching us patience, perseverance and that in the end, that His timing is perfect.