God is good, part 2 or stranded in the burbs

I made it out to Chicago in relatively good time.

Driving the 5 1/2 hours all by myself is never easy, but I made it.

Tired, but I made it.

My appointment was uneventful.

Not many of my supplements have changed, which can be discouraging, but on the other hand, the one I'm taking specifically for my tumor went down, so that is a little encouraging.

It may mean my tumor is feeling the effects and DYING! Not disappearing, but dying.

That is the first step.

Kill it, then expel it - hopefully it is working.

I left the office right during rush hour traffic for Abby's apartment.

Unfortunately the road I was on was like a parking lot, abnormally so due to construction.

I rolled down my windows, turned on the radio, and prepared for an hour or more drive to my destination that should have taken about 15 min.

Suddenly....

Pop.

Steam.

Barely getting my car off the road before it died.

And realizing I was in a strange city, on a strange road, in the middle of 6 lanes of stop and go traffic,

All. By. Myself!

I immediately called Dustin - exactly what I thought he was going to do way back home, I'm not sure - but I called.

He tried his best, but we couldn't come up with any solutions other than calling some random towing company and hope for the best.

Did I mention that my phone was dying?

Thankfully Dustin has this handy dandy little thing that you can plug into the cigarette lighter and then plug your actually charger into.

I panicked for a few minutes as I didn't know how to turn the power on, but eventually, after desperately praying, I found it.

The last thing I wanted was to be stranded out there without my phone.

After calling Rae, who is working out there observing my chiropractor, and asking her to pick me up, she told me that her boss, the man who owns the building my chiropractor works in, said he could send his mechanic and truck.

We said, "Yes, thank you very much!"

This whole process took about 2 hours.

Two hours in which I had a great Bible reading time, and randomly turned on the radio to hear a sermon on Job.

If I had been tempted to complain about my lot, remembering Job's story quickly chased that away.

I was out of traffic's way, I had a nice breeze, and my car hadn't exploded.

Not to mention someone was coming to get me.

The calvary arrived shortly, and I have never been so happy to see cars with faces in them I knew.

Justin, Rae's boss, told us to go on home, he would wait with the car until the tow truck arrived.

I hugged him and gratefully got into a moving car.

He grinned and said he would want someone to do the same for his daughter if she was stuck in a strange city.

Praise the Lord for people like Him.

I later found out that when he said "His mechanic and truck" he literally meant that.

It seems he owns several businesses, one of them being some kind of mechanic shop.

I can tell you one thing,

If the car had to overheat, I'm glad it did it there.

If I had to be stuck, the road was perfect.

And...

I'm grateful for a friend in Chicago who owns a tow truck!

The mechanic, Andy, had a bit of a headache finding out what was wrong.

I almost took Rachel's car home because they didn't think they would get it done in time.

In fact, I had driven her car to a gas station just down the block.

Crying.

You see, her car is a manuel.

I learned to drive on a stick shift.

Drove one for seven years.

Loved it.

I don't drive them now.

Driving in Chicago traffic made me so nervous.

And yes, I cried.

Why would God make me drive a manuel home, when He knew I was so uncomfortable with them?

My husband listened to me whine and blubber over the phone, called Andy, and they worked it out.

You see, someone had jimmy rigged our car before we bought it. Putting some wires together so the fan ran all the time to cool the engine, then hiding their work, which is what took them so long to find it.

Andy graciously jimmy rigged it again so I could drive it home.

I drove Rae's car back to her, so relived I didn't have to drive it, and then asked for a ride to the shop.

Carson, someone else she works with, unhesitatingly took me over there - some 25 minutes away. (Chicago is so BIG! It was technically even on the same side of town.)

I"m telling you, God is good!

Andy patiently explained what was wrong, handed me the part to fix it, told me how to find the other part in a junk yard so we wouldn't have to spend $250 for the whole thing, and offered to find it if I wanted him to.

I already felt like we had been burden enough, so I said Dustin would try to find it at home.

He assured me that if we couldn't, he would do it and mail it to us, or the next time I was in Chicago he would fix it for me.

When I pulled out the check book he waved me away and said it was all taken care of.

The towing.

The part.

The time and labor to find that silly jimmy rigging!

I smiled all the way home.

What could have been a headache and very expensive had been a blessing and a reminder to me of just how good my God is!