I’m back in Bogota, while the rest of my family is in Houston, enjoying friends and family.  One of our South African friends (actually, they’re really our only South African friends) is in Houston with Kristen right now, stocking up on baby stuff.  As pretty much all our readers know, baby gear is very expensive.  But it’s even more expensive overseas.  She’s told us that a stroller in SA costs about $600.  And we’ve seen firsthand how much baby clothes and toys cost in Bogota.

Anyway, a couple of days after I returned, I tried to start our car, to no avail.  I guess the battery had died during the month-plus that we hadn’t used it.  On Saturday I was meeting with some friends and asked one of them to come back to my place to jump my car, which he did.  Knowing that I now needed to drive around for a while, I took the car out for a spin.  Actually, it’s never quite a “spin” in Bogota traffic.  Nonetheless, I drove it for about 10-15 minutes and then went to get the oil changed.  I turned off the car to see if the gas station could change it (there are no Jiffy Lubes here), which they could in 20 minutes.  So I turned back on the car to fill it up with gas.

Uh oh.  The car wouldn’t start.  I tried to start it a few times, at which point it finally turned over and I pulled up to the pump.  Everything is full-service here, so someone filled up the car.  When I started it again, yep, wouldn’t start, but finally did, so I parked it while I waited for them to change the oil.  I asked if they sold batteries there as well, and they did.  But for whatever reason, they didn’t have one that would fit my car.  Bummer.  But he referred me to a store about 20 minutes away.  They changed the oil, and that guy referred to me a store much closer.  He gave me a specific address, as since the car was barely able to start again, I figured I better go now to get a new one because who knew when I’d have another chance.

Off I went, and of course, there were no stores that sold batteries at that address.  I went a few blocks down to a store that had pictures of car batteries on the storefront, but that guy said that they didn’t have any batteries today.  I’m not sure what that means.

I kept on driving, asked someone else who referred me on to another store, which did have batteries but none that would fit a Honda CR-V.  Meanwhile, I’m having to shut off the car and go into the store each time I go into a store.   (I thought about leaving it running, but that is not a safe thing to do.)  Sometimes it would give me trouble, but the last couple of times, it was starting right up.

I got referred to another store, which although it was only about 8 blocks away, took about 10 minutes to get there.  I pulled up in front, turned off the car, and thought maybe I should try to start it again to see if the battery was working again.  Started just fine.  Turned it off and started it again.  Just fine.

So, I decided to drive all the way back home hoping that the battery was now fully charged.  I got home, turned it off, started it again, and, graciously, it started.

I haven’t tried using the car again, but I’m hoping that it needed more than 15 minutes to charge, and is now working.  We’ll see.

Nevertheless, I was clearly reminded about just how bad Bogota traffic is and how everyone tells you what you want to hear.  They speak authoritatively, but most of the time, don’t really know.

Lesson relearned.

Here are some pictures from this past month…graduation, Mother’s Day, DC. etc.

Graham and Tina………………………………….Graham and Grandpa Seckinger

Ryan, Dad, The Graduate, me, Mom Ruthie and Nama

Mother’s Day at the nursing home visiting Mimi

Our little traveler, he makes this flying thing look fun!

Seth was determined to get Jackson’s picture in front of the weenie truck when we spotted it in DC…I told them it would make it to the blog with the caption “The Two Weenies”

Jackson is on his way to 6 teeth! He cut the second set in DC and the third set is breaking through!

Jackson playing with my cousin Johnathan and Aunt Carrol

Play dates with friends in Falls Church- Ellie and Alison, Micah and Kelley, and Abby and Rebecca (below). Jackson got and gave lots of kisses. He was more aggressive with Abby…but she held her own! Micah dominated among the boys! Ellie was just the sweet big sis to these crazy little ones!

First time in the grass with bare feet.

Hope you are all having a fun summer!

We had a whirlwind week before heading to DC. Jackson met his great grandparents on the Seckinger side and got to go see his other great grandmother, Mimi, on Mother’s Day at the nursing home. We also got to attend my parents farewell party as they are taking a hiatus from ministry after 30 years! Even though we didn’t plan to be in Houston during this time it was fun to coincidently get to be there for some big family events.

We are currently in DC taking care of other family medical stuff while we are back in the states. It has been fun to see friends and today we are getting to visit with my Aunt Carrol and cousin Johnathan. We return to Houston on Sat and then Seth heads back to Bogota on Tuesday afternoon. Jackson goes back to MD Anderson on Tuesday as well. It will be a relief to have all of this behind us. Our lives were kind of catapulted out of order and we are looking forward to getting back to some kind of normal..even if it’s a “new normal”.

Jackson is having the time of his life these days! Ever since we “set him free” from confinement he has been a little wild man. He is cruising holding on to the couch and doing pull-ups on the high chair. We think he might be walking by the end of the summer. The most desirable objects in the apt are the wires, plugs and doors. He is giving everyone a good workout. His Mia (grandma Kolb) was here for a few days last week and spoiled him with lots of walks and tickling. My mom came on Sat and will be here until we head back to Houston. Yesterday he got to go to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History with his Nama (Grandma Seckinger). They had quite an adventure with Jackson’s diaper bag getting stuck under the stroller in the security line and eventually spilling it’s overflowing contents when it was finally dislodged. As you can imagine this held up a line of anxious tourists. He was also obsessed with removing his socks (this is one of his favorite pastimes). My mom got more sympathy for his cold feet than I get in Bogota. In Bogota I get lots of dirty looks for “under-dressing” him.

On another note, we are celebrating a few things these days..the first, my brother Graham graduated from Texas A&M and just started his first job. He graduated on a Friday and was working the following Monday…pretty impressive. AND our friends the Maney’s just welcomed little Jonas into their family yesterday! You can check out his pictures by clicking on their blog link!

We are missing our cord to upload pictures so we will post some pictures from graduation, etc when we return to Houston. Stay tuned.

Thursday was a major milestone in this roller-coaster of a life we’ve been experiencing the last couple of weeks. We took Jackson to see the surgeon concerning how his leg was healing and if we could take the drain out yet. Kristen and I had decided we were going to do our best to convince the doctor that she should take it out. You see, they had originally told us that we could likely take it out before we even left the hospital (we left on Saturday). Then they said that if we called on Monday, we could set up an appointment to take it out, potentially that day. We called on Monday and they said we should come in on Thursday.

So, we went in on Thursday. The surgeon said that everything had healed very nicely. He didn’t seem to have any mobility issues. He could stretch and bend his leg without any pain or resistance. And he was able to stand on his leg without any problems.

Then came the drain. The doctor said she would take it out, although there was still several ccs’s of liquid coming out. We were so relieved. So she quickly yanked it out, much to Jackson’s chagrin. He let out a yelp and cried some, but I think he’s glad to not have that impediment any more. The doctor also said that he can now crawl and stand and do anything else, except for take a full-fledged bath. That’s because he still has a hole where the drain was, and that has to heal. She thought it would take around a week to scab over.

In the meantime, he has been making up for lost time. He’s crawling, wanting to stand and climb on and over anything in his way. He especially likes the Seckinger’s dog, Noah.

We will see the surgeon for the final time on the 27th, at which point we’re assuming she’ll say everything has healed perfectly, which will then allow Jackson to get his medical clearance back so he can travel to Bogota.

I’ve attached a short video we took with our camera of Jackson in a wagon, before the surgery. You can tell why he feels like a prince. It has been quite a let down for him to come home to normal life!

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=9Cul43hTX3Y]