Kinzi and the Terrible, Horrible No Good, Very Bad Day

I think the Traveling Pants have flown their last frequent flier mile.

Why is it that when the man of the house is out of the house and far, far away, I always end up with a child in the hospital, a major car breakdown and an American friend married to a Jordanian guy in trouble? ALL at once???

Sigh. The mechanic just came with the latest verdict. The third verdict of this particular trip, mind you. First payout was 80JD for the twenty-year old car we thought would die by now. The second for our ‘newer’ car, 277JD to cover the blow-out, new brakes, suspension stuff, new muffler pipe and other stuff. Shocked I am, that even ‘old’ parts on ‘newer’ cars cost 3x what the older car does. Then, I could tell the newer car just was not running right and feared the gas tank was leaking. Bingo. Sometimes I wish I hadn’t taken auto-shop and couldn’t recognize spark plug issues. The verdict: nearly 500JD. I am choking, and I fear hubby will be choking too.

Not to mention the freezer defroster not working, a valve in laundry room needing replacement, having to contact the property manager AGAIN to ask why the ads aren’t in the Sunday paper. This is husband work, I am SO not cut out for it. I need my man.

My American friend is an Extreme Prodigal. You know, the biblical story of the Prodigal Son, but she is a daughter. I learned an important lesson this year: do NOT feed a prodigal. If you give them a snack when they are starving, they stay in the pig pen. Let them starve; they come to their senses, come home and repent. She came home, ready for true change, asking for help. She is making good choices, and this is a bright spot on a bad day. It’s just terribly draining to hear of West Ammani lifestyles, like something out of NYT fictional bestseller, that I wish didn’t exist. It’s also risky to get back involved knowing she may not have paid the full consequences. But that is what friends are for.

Thank God hubby doesn’t work outside Jordan permanently, that the hospital visits were brief, we don’t pay American wages to the mechanic and we have the extraordinary blessing of not one but two cars. I also thank Him that my friend could’ve gotten away with it in the US, but an honor-based society forced her back in line.

I am most thankful that the Traveling Pants have begun their descent. If he wasn’t coming soon, that last paragraph would be a fake-it-til-you-make-it-living-in-denial ending to this day.

And I know, the cool stories he comes home with will change my mind, and just another trip won’t look so bad. Plus, the next time he travels, I get to go too!

(History Buff is feeling better, thanks for asking. He was messing around with his crutches today and fell flat on his injured ankle, but seems ok now)