Well, this last week I did something for the first time that I don't doubt I will be doing more often in the future.  I drove 465 miles by myself, spanning four states, with Judah in the back seat.  What was supposed to be a 7 hour 35 minute drive, actually turned into 25 hours!  Now, some of that additional time was due to the normal stopping for meals, restrooms, and baby needs.  But, most of that time adjustment was due to an unforeseen problem on the interstate.

Before I get into the real adventure on the interstate, I will start by telling you about my experience driving through the Chicago area.  We were about an hour away from Chicago, and Judah clearly needed something to eat, so I phoned Andy (who was in front of me in the truck, pulling our trailer home).  I told him to go on ahead, but that Judah and I were going to stop and get something to eat.  Since Andy had to drive slower with the trailer behind him, we figured I would catch up to him eventually, and everything would be fine.  Well, Judah is at that age (just turned one a week ago) where we can still do a bottle if we want, so I decided that I would give him a bottle since it was easier on the road.  He ate a normal amount and we got back on the road 30 minutes later.

We were back on I-80 and 20 minutes into our journey, Judah starts wailing like he's hungry...again!  In my attempt to keep going and catch up with Andy, I reached behind me into the diaper bag and grabbed the Tupperware container of cheerios.  I then proceeded to toss the cheerios at my screaming child, hoping that they would land in his lap, or at least in his car seat.  As you can imagine, that didn't work.  I finally pulled over again to feed Judah, after calling Andy to tell him the plan.  Judah took a total of 11 oz. of formula (between the two stops).  Wow!  I guess he was hungry!  Probably the 12 month growth spurt.

We got back on the interstate, and shortly after we hit Chicago.  That was an experience!  I wished at that point that I was following Andy, but Andy was actually almost an hour ahead of me on I-80 at this point.  We made it through just fine though, even through all the construction they have going on right now.  I don't know about you, but I get really claustrophobic when I'm driving on a two lane interstate with construction barricades on either side of me!  I'm one of those people that wants to slow WAY down--probably frustrating to the people behind me.  But better safe than sorry, I guess.

Once Andy and I caught up to each other, we were about 1 hour into Michigan on I-94 and a tire blew on the right side of our trailer.  I was thankful that I was following Andy at this point because I was able to call him and say, "You better pull over!"  There was a very loud explosive sound and smoke.  It was the center tire on the right side of the trailer (we have three axles).  Probably a defective tire, Andy thinks.  We were thankful that the blown tire was on the ditch side, instead of the highway side because it was getting very dark at this point.  We did have a police officer stop and ask Andy a few questions, but most of all, he just wanted to talk to Andy about "the biggest 5th-wheel he's ever seen."  He was more in awe of it all, and didn't really offer any help.  Oh well. 

Judah and I sat in the back seat and prayed real hard for Andy and thanked God that Andy had all the tools and knowledge he needed to change the tire.  By the time Andy was done with the tire, it was 9:30 at night so we decided to get a motel room for the night instead of traveling the rest of the way.  We were exhausted by that point.  I'm glad we waited, because the next morning we went the rest of the way and arrived at the CBM headquarters in full daylight and there were three fellow missionary men who came out to help us get set up!  That was such a blessing!

We are thankful to God that He got us here safely!  I'm sure our time in Rockford will be used by God to bless our lives and hopefully we can be a blessing to others.