Big Ooops

Today, I earned the mother-of-the-year award from Natalee. I also earned neighbor of the year from my landlord next door.

I was heading out to run some errands and to pick up Kaitlyn from Kindergarten. I had my keys in my hand. I strapped Natalee in her carseat, threw my keys on the middle console and then shut the door. I walked around to the drivers side door and it was locked...infact, all the doors were locked. Normally, I would've grabbed our spare set of keys, but alas, they have been missing for several weeks.

I ran to my neighbor, who is our landlord and who has been a lifesaver time and again. This was certainly a time that my life needed saving. In my simple German, I tried to explain to her what had happened. Between me,her and her maid, we came up with a plan. We decided to call the insurance company and they were going to send someone right away.

I kept running out to Natalee to see if she was okay. As time passed, tears came (from me and from Natalee), her shoes and socks came off, her face became pale and her nose became red. In the mean time, Corni and I were doing all we could to console the locked-in Natalee.--singing, dancing, you name it. My heart was broken for her! If only she could unbuckle herself and climb to the keys and hit the right button...but there was no possible way!

So, the man showed up and broke a small window, attached a wire to the end of my broom handle and oh so carefully got the keys. Talk about technology at work. 50 Euros and a broken window later, I grabbed Natalee and kissed and hugged her. It felt like she'd been trapped in there for a lifetime.

I told the man I wanted to snap some pictures for the memory books and he played along and was so funny!

Here is my neighbor helping Natalee after we got the car unlocked. She is the best! I couldn't have asked for a better neighbor/landlord. Her German is a little fast for me, but I am learning so much. Last week, Ben called me from a city 20 minutes away saying, "I took the wrong train from the airport, can you come get me?" So at 8:30pm, I called her up and she came over so I could go pick up Ben. There is so much more I could tell.