Russian Adoption Diary: Lemons, Gerbils, and Diseases

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Lemons, Gerbils, and Diseases

In the previous post, I mentioned that my lack of posting last week was due to an overwhelming set of circumstances. Some of the things we went through last week, I am not at liberty to post about. However, I thought I'd hit a few highlights that I can post about. :-)

Problem #1 LEMON

It all started with my dh selling his truck. He has always loved his pickup, but he commutes about 45 miles one way to work every day and the truck was not very gas efficient. He decided to get a fuel efficient car to save some money. The second person who looked at his truck decided to buy it. He showed up on Monday morning with his money and left with the truck. Well, the Big Red Van has a flat, so that left us with one vehicle, my van. All of my kiddos had dental checkups, so my hubby toted along with us, dropped us off and went car shopping.

A few hours later, when our appointments were finished(only 1 small cavity between them all), he picked us up. He said he had found his car, but then had accidentally backed it into a pole on the lot. It had a small scrape they were cleaning up. We were taking him to pick it up. Well, on the way there, the guy who bought the truck called and was very upset. He had driven less than 30 miles and the truck was busted, it needed a new engine. He was accusing my dh of selling him a lemon and lying to him. He was demanding full repayment. Well, for one, we had never had one problem with the truck. It had been serviced recently and was in tip-top shape. Secondly, he had already spent the money on a little car. We really don't know what happened. We wonder if the guy hot-rodded it because it has one of those loud engines on it. Anyway, long story short, it needs a $2500 repair and we have agreed to pay half. Ugh!!

Problem #2 BIRTHDAY PRESENT GONE AWRY

Tuesday, last week, was E and Z's birthday. They have wanted a pet for a long time. Their daddy refuses because we haven't had the best of luck with pets. Anyway, I finally talked him into letting me get them gerbils for their birthday. They were absolutely thrilled. It was the best birthday present they had ever received, or so I thought.

On Thursday evening, D called me at work, which is highly unusual. It's not easy for me to take calls while coaching. Anyway, he was at wrestling practice and was calling to tell me to go by a store on the way home and get medicine for ringworm. El and L were covered in it. I, of course, was shocked and asked where in the world they had got it. He said that it was probably off a wrestling mat. I cringed and said I would pick up some medicine.

After coming home, he told me he had a new theory- the gerbils. I wasn't sure whether gerbils could carry ringworm so I did some internet research and found out that they can. The next day was crazy because our gym was hosting a meet that ran Friday night and all day Saturday. I was getting stuff ready, in addition to teaching school, etc. About noon, I was on the telephone with the award company asking where our awards were and E came in with her gerbil sitting on her hand. Now, if you know anything about gerbils, they don't sit still on an open palm. She was crying. It was dying.

I immediately called the pet store and they said to bring it in. I couldn't take it to the branch that was 5 minutes from my house, I had to take it to the one that was 40 minutes away. I had to be at work early to help with the meet, so I stuffed some lunch in my kids while I took a quick shower and we loaded the gerbils and kids and headed to the store.

Sure enough, by the time we reached the pet store, E's gerbil was gone. The other one was frisky, but upon examination of it, they asked for us to get two new gerbils. What was it?Ringworm!! I had two girls crying because they had lost their gerbils. The store only had one gerbil to sell and I was running out of time. I finally asked for a gift card to go to the store closer to me so we could get some there (hopefully uninfected). We made a quick run there, picked some brand new ones out and headed home. They were so new that the store wouldn't release them yet, so we waited until Sunday and picked them up.

So there you have part of our week. After the fact, it doesn't seem that terrible, but we are still feeling the sting. We still have to have the truck fixed and I'm still slathering on ringworm medication. The boys had to miss their wrestling tournament this weekend because of it. The other factors from last week have much more lasting effects and were deeper wounds to mend, but as I said, those are unreportable. I can report to the fact that God gave grace and we made it through. I just have to say that I'm glad that week is over and this week is here!

posted by 6blessings @ 6:58 AM

7 Comments:

At 8:18 AM, Chris Goeppner said…

Wow! What a week indeed! I didn't kow you could get ringworm from gerbils, yuck! I hope the new pair are disease-free.=) Sorry about the car sitch, I know that it can be very stressful financially. We just had to repair our truck's window, it cost us $700! Quite a large chunk of change for a couple in ministry. God always provides though. Thanks for your prayers re: our agency's reaccreditation. I'll be praying for you family too.
Blessings,
Penny
At 1:12 PM, jessy said…

Bummer on your rough week. I know how it is you look back and thin, "Well, it really wasn't all that bad, what was I so upset about?" And I have come to the decision that with a large family every 'little' crisis is a 'large' crisis, simply because of the sheer number of people involved. But like I always say, the fun times are funner, the good times are better, and the sad times aren't nearly as sad, and I wouldn't have it any other way. But pets dying--that is the WORST, bar none in my book. Kudos to you for making it through, sister.
At 2:30 PM, Rhonda said…

What a crazy week! I had NO idea that gerbils could carry ringworm. And the truck...how disappointing. Here's to a new week!
At 5:22 PM, Maggie said…

What a week. That had to be difficult with the truck -- on one hand you know the truck was fine, but on the other, how do you prove it? It sounds like you came to a compromise, but it's quite a bummer!

I had no clue gerbils could carry ringworm. Uk.
At 5:38 PM, Suz said…

Oh my, never a dull moment at your house is there! Does ringworm itch?

So sorry to hear you have the truck mess to deal with on top of it.

Praying the other thing is something that won't be too terrible for you. God knows even though we don't.
At 4:11 PM, Deb said…

Ugh indeed! Sorry to hear about the truck. That's awful news.
Sorry you had such a bad week. Praying this week went a lot better.
At 3:27 PM, Lea said…

Boy, that is one bad week. Hopefully next week will be much much better. I sure didn't know that gerbils could get ringworm. That's a new one one me. I hope things are looking up.