OK so every time my family experiences an earthquake here in Mexico City the topic of moving from our 8th floor apartment comes up. My children both insist they hate our apartment for the following 24-48 hours. This is largely to do the fact that none of their friends are even aware we had a earthquake because most of them live on the ground level or 4th floor.
For the past 4 months we have been dealing with a neighbour who parks his car in front of our car. Not his fault that is where he rents the parking space. The problem is that we can not leave or get in once his car is parked there. We have spoken with his mother. He lives with her and I think he is in his 40's quite normal out here. We have spoken to the building administrator and told her of the countless time we are late for work due to our neighbour's car blocking us in. Not to worry she promised she will just make sure he knows our work schedule and tell him he is to be out of his parking spot each morning by 7:15 am sharp. Which is the usual time we see the kids off and head to Spanish class.
Fast forward to today. Over the last month we have banged on his door, rung his apartment doorbell , called him all in order to help him get out of bed. Apparently all his family members are quite sound sleepers.
A wise friend reminded me yesterday that no apartments are perfect and you need to choose what you can and cannot live with. So can I live with not moving our car when we need to?
The last point I make against our apartment is that we are NOT allowed a dog. The fact that we gave away Charlie our O.C.D. peeing and biting dog continually come up with the children. I constantly remind them how Charlie bit everyone, how he had this amazing ability to pee while laying on his back straight up into the air. The fact that his own urine would hit himself still would stop him.
Oh lets talk about taking Charlie for a walk. A walk anywhere actually. In a park, yes he would bark, and of course search for the biggest dog in the place and then proceed to challenge them. I would even make those amazing little sounds Cesar Milan makes (CHIIIT) and sort of kick Charlie in the leg to change his focus. NOTHING would help. So when Sam went for allergy testing in Abbotsford and the results said he WAS allergic to his furry, peeing and biting friend I must admit I jumped at the chance to relieve the house of him. Seriously this dog knew when the floor was just washed and instinctual to cover the clean aroma he would move in to pee once again on it. Oh how I would have loved to call Cesar Milan to come to our aid.
Did I mention the bark collar we bought him once the neighbours called the SPCA when they could no longer tolerate his barking. It was one of those nice kinds where the person at the Pet Shop store had some internal moral struggle selling it to you. And then you felt the need to tell them your life long story of how it came down to this collar or losing the dog. The sob story struck a cord and they sold us the bark collar.
OK so now what would be the most responsible thing to do tell the children? We tried it it didn't work on so many levels! Or tell them maybe we can move to another place and get a dog? They really are still mourning Charlie like a part of our family died. And I guess to them he did. So is this the straw that breaks the camels back and gives us that final push towards moving? I don't know...
This morning Andrew made us breakfast. We didn't go to church this morning as we are all struggling with sick tummies. I guess it is time to get the parasite medicine again. There are lots of reasons people talk about the constant battles with their tummies. Some say the heat, unclean water or just parasites. Opps OK no more rabbit trails. So after we were done eating in our usual family tradition Andrew played a story on his I Pad for the kids that we would talk about once it was done. Today's story was about the people of Israel grumbling and only focusing on the have nots and not the things they had been given,. Like their freedom from slavery in Egypt. They were already eating mana, a bread that showed up each morning allowing them to have food each day. Reminding them that even when things all seem lost they still had a God who heard there cries and took care of them. But did that stop the
Israelites from grumbling?
Does it stop us? Does it stop ME? Nope and so on the story goes. We ask, we receive. ,We are happy. We forget all we have. We ask again and grumble as we see all the things others seem to have. And their stuff looks better, at least from over here it does. They have a car they can drive when they want. I bet they don't have to bang on their neighbours door for 20 minutes in order to get him out of bed to move his car. I bet they didn't even know we had three earthquakes last week, and here I am with my children bagging to go back to Canada where they never felt a earthquake before. Howcome everyone in the building is allowed a dog but us? That's not fair! But then the discussion comes after the story we heard this morning. So what do we have? What are we thankful for? What have we forgotten to give thanks for? So we went around the table and prayed.
Thank you Lord for...
rain to wash the air
summer holiday for the kids
a roof over our heads
beds to sleep in
food everyday
happy earthly poor fiends full of joy reminding us of what really matters
parasite medication
great friends back home that help us to not feel forgotten
churches back home that make a effort to call us one of their own
team mates
Mexican friends
family that is coming to visit soon!
the ability to bring the children with us as we travel to small towns
a Sunday at home with just our family
Beth learning to read
Sam learning the guitar
me loving cooking for my family
a God who loves us and forgives us DAILY and allows us to begin again EACH MORNING.
So do I know if we should move or not? NOPE. But I am reminded to be grateful for the here and now and not get caught up in thinking that things will be better tomorrow. Because despite all the hard things life is pretty good TODAY!
All my love, Claudia
