A Little Car Accident

     After our women's prayer time a couple of week ago, Martina and I walked outside to see this man back into our van.  He was in a hurry and totally didn't see that we had parked there.  Thankfully we weren't near the van when it happened, but we still had to deal with the repercussions.  We had the choice of waiting 4 hours for the police to come or calling an company that works with the insurance in helping you to fill out paperwork.  They come right away but you have to pay 700 rubles (about $21).  The man asked us if we would pay this, which is totally laughable, as HE hit our van!!  But we also didn't want to wait hours for the police (we had kids with us), so we agreed to pay half with him.  

     Ike, up to this point, has always come with me to the prayer meeting.  Anneka came with me that day because I took her to the ear doctor beforehand. ( I thought maybe she had trouble hearing, but all of the tests came back clear... after talking with other ex-pats, we now think it's a sensory overload thing.  Her brain has to take in so much at a time and decipher which language people are talking to her in.)  We met Martina and her boys (who'd come from school) there after riding on the bus.  A lady on the bus had given Anneka 100 rubles (about $3) and told her to go and buy a pie with it.  So while we waited for the insurance guy to come, the kids and I went and bought... lollipops and bananas.  (but Anneka saved her money for pie later).  Ike fell asleep in Martina's arms.

     Once the guy came, Martina sat in our van with the 4 kids while I filled out paperwork in the insurance guy's car.  Amazingly, I didn't feel stressed at all... it actually felt like a mini-vacation, sitting in a warm car without kids.  Ha!  I even had time to clean up some old messages on my phone.  It was really interesting watching the man take out  a stencil and draw out the scene of the accident.  I asked him how many times a day he did this, and he just laughed and said, "a lot".  And he took pictures of everything, too.

     By now, the chunk on the side of our van has fallen off, and we're waiting to find out when and how the guy's insurance company will pay so that we can get the van fixed.  But we're counting our blessings that the van is still running well, that we weren't near the van when it happened (but that we were right there to take care of the needed business), and that Martina and I were together to "divide and conquer".  God takes good care of us!