Adoption Misadventures

What a Gas!

There is a huge advantage to adopting teens because they are old enough to know their way around the city, they both speak English well enough to translate, and they understand the basic needs involved in keeping a household running. On the other hand, how would you like to be almost completely dependent on your teenager?

Don’t misunderstand, they have been wonderful and doing the best they can but, especially at first, they have had to help us with almost everything. We can’t read signs; we can’t understand what’s being said to us. We don’t know how to prepare the food, our guesthouse is heated by a wood burning fireplace (not uncommon here), the washing machine is Russian, and we don’t know the difference between diesel and gasoline pumps.

The rental car that was given to us to get by for the weekend, with the intention of switching to another on Monday was diesel. They made this very clear to us so that we wouldn’t make the high stakes error of putting gas in a diesel engine. At the gas station on Friday Baiba assured David she knew which one was which. It all seemed so clear; it was the green handled pump and it fit in the fuel tank, just like home.

However, on Saturday morning as we were leaving the B&B and heading to our little guesthouse, the car had an extremely rough start as billows of smoke filled the small gravel parking lot and surrounded our car. We figured we’d been given a lemon since we had definitely put diesel in the tank. We drove straight to the dealership to see if anyone was there to make an early switch. Much to our frustration no one was working that day. Agnese even called someone who knew someone who…I’m not sure, but whoever it was couldn’t help either.

Every time we started the car it would sputter and spit and puff smoke out the tailpipe. The girls were convinced David is not a good driver. It was a stick shift and it’s been years since he’s driven one, and with the rough engine they drew a natural conclusion.

We had planned to go to Talsi on Sunday to visit the church we had gone to in 2009 and see our Latvian friends, but we were worried about going such a long distance in this particular car. We decided instead to go see Madara in Kuldiga, which is a bit closer.

We stopped to put diesel in the car and as we started back up the puffs of smoke reappeared. At that point Baiba asked a man if the green nozzle actually was diesel and he told her no, it was gas. We had not once, but twice put gasoline in a diesel car. The man said we should not drive anywhere until the gas could be removed and replaced with diesel and since we had driven all around on Saturday with gas in the car, we may have already ruined the engine. Then the helpful man assisted in pushing the car away from the pumps to a corner of the parking lot. 

Most of you reading this know that we’ve experienced miracle after miracle in this process. As you can well imagine, we started praying for another. The girls chatted away with each other and then cheerfully ran off saying that they would be right back.

We waited about ten minutes and they came happily back to the car. In their broken English they explained that they had gone to a nearby auto repair shop and even though it is usually closed on Sunday a young man was there working. He said he normally wouldn’t be available to help on a Sunday but he couldn’t say no to two beautiful girls. I’m pretty sure Baiba and Agnese could get just about any young male to do just about anything.

He drove over with his truck, towed us to the auto repair shop and then siphoned all of the diesel out of the car with the girls giggling and innocently flirting the whole time. He then towed the car back to the pump and waited to make sure it would start once the diesel from the RED pump was dispensed. He advised that we not mention it to the dealership since there was no harm done, making us really glad that no one had been there on Saturday. For all his trouble he charged only ten Lats, which is about $20. God is good!

Sisters, Sisters

After the fuel confusion was all sorted out the car ran great so we decided to go ahead and go to Kuldiga to see the girls’ oldest sister Madara. On the subject of being at the mercy of two teens, David has to rely on them for directions everywhere we drive. The GPS we brought doesn’t work here so Baiba and Agnese are it.

Pretty much every time we come to an intersection David says, “Which way?”

Baiba confuses the words “left” and “right.” She’ll say, “You go right.”

Then Agnese says, “No! Left! Left!”

Baiba replies, “Right.”

“No, left!”

This is followed by a brief argument all in Latvian followed by,

“Straight, straight, you go straight.”

Meantime, David starts to turn right then left then right then left and then goes straight.

Then Baiba will say, “Okay, now slow, slow, slow, slow, okay go, go, go, go, go!”

More than once they have led us down a one-way street going the wrong way. David will ask, “Is this one-way?”

“Oh, yes, yes, it’s one way. It’s okay, you get off this street and go left.”

“No right.”

“No straight.”

And it all starts over again.

Somehow we arrived all in one piece in Snepele, which is the countryside just outside of Kuldiga where Madara lives.

If you recall, Madara came to America for about three months over the holidays. Paulette and Marv Gutwein brought her over and although she decided not to stay in the U.S. permanently she became their daughter, a member of their family. She and her boyfriend are expecting a baby, which is due anytime now.

Agnese and Baiba had not seen Madara since the Gutweins were here in October of last year. We came with gifts from the Gutweins and baby presents from the four of us. She is nine months pregnant and of course looks very different than she did last October. Baiba said, “Madara, you are one big mama!”

It was fun to watch the three of them chatter away in lively Latvian and giggle and giggle and giggle. Madara served us tea and then we all went out for a late lunch. In the car the conversation became more serious and heartfelt. I don’t know what they were saying but it was obviously quality sister talk.

Madara is a sweet, sweet young woman and it was a treat for us to see her again as well. My heart went out to Marv and Paulette who I know, miss her dearly.

On the way home Agnese said to me, “You are going to be a grandma because Madara is going to have a baby.”

I said, “No, Paulette and Marv are going to be grandparents. They will also be your aunt and uncle.”

She smiled and said, “What a strange family we have.”

There is much more to tell, but it will have to wait until the next blog. Meantime, I’ll leave it at this: This is by far the best experience of my life and I love our daughters beyond all imagining.