A Real Dilemma

Ed is in the middle of his two week trip away, training the team of American Interns who are spending the whole summer with our JV team here in Slovakia. They were first in Austria, then Czech Republic, and are now in western Slovakia. Tomorrow they will begin visiting the cities and schools where English camps will be held, trying to advertise the camps to invite as many kids as possible to attend.

This past weekend, I drove the kids to Czech to visit Ed and to meet our team of Interns. I was a bit nervous about the trip...you know: unfamiliar roads, five hours, one adult, five kids (one being a one-year old), language barrier...what was I thinking??? Many people were praying for the trip for us, and for courage for me...thank you!!! It ended up being a great weekend, and we are so glad we went.

The only thing that could have ended in disaster was on the way there, when Shaylee first fell asleep after one hour of traveling and I was hoping her nap would go for the next 4 hours...:-) except that Tate piped up with "I have to pee." I told him that I couldn't stop because Shaylee would for sure wake up if the van stopped. He then asked if there were any empty bottles in the van (a trick we've used on previous trips). There weren't, but I did remember that in our garbage box was a McDonald's sack from a few weeks ago and I told him to check if there was a cup inside it. There was!!! So he went in it, filling it to within an inch from the top...then handed it to me. :-( So I took the cup in my shifting hand and steered with the other hand. Now what...I was completely stuck, and in a real dilemma!! I was driving 100 km/hr and then right away entered a tunnel with no shoulder!! I was panicking...if I had to stop quick and needed to shift...I could just picture (and smell) the contents of that cup all over me. I put the window down, but couldn't bring myself to dump it, as it would probably fly back in my face and would definitely get all over the van, so I put it back up again. I held the cup like that for about 10 minutes, contemplating what to do that would bring about the least amount of damage. I had slowed down in the tunnel, as the speed limit had dropped to 80, and then slowed down some more. I knew that I had to get rid of it soon, because when the tunnel ended, I was thinking I had to slow down and make a turn. So I again put my window down. I went with my gut instead of my conscience...and tossed the whole cup!!! The kids were shocked that I had littered, and I was too, but I assured them that there was really no other option!! The only thing that I could tell that got covered in that liquid, was my left hand, as it was dripping when I pulled it back inside the van. A few wet wipes later, all was good again! Whew!!! Disaster avoided!! We will now try to remember to always travel with an empty lidded bottle!