A Most Horrifying Halloween

We moved into our house on Halloween. Since we didn't actually have anything to move (except our 10 suitcases) I fooled myself into thinking that it would be smooth sailing. As we entered the house, we realized that it was freezing! We were all huddled up with our blankets and CJ was frantically trying to figure out how to turn on the heat! You would think such things would be simple, but it turns out that although they do speak English here everything is different! CJ worked his magic and we prayed that things would start warming up.


After we were settled into our house, we realized we were starving and didn't have anything in the fridge except some cold pizza. Now, pizza would have been fine if I only could have figured out a way to heat it up. We had no microwave and I could not figure out how to turn the oven on for the life of me! But no worries, we were having our church Halloween party and dinner would be served. The girls had been talking about the party for weeks and we had no dinner, so we were definitely going!

We only had a few small problems. First, we didn't know how to get to the church. We had been borrowing a friend's GPS, but they had needed it for the night. I called up a friend and her husband kindly agreed to drive to our house and let us follow him to the party. Problem solved. But as we were about to leave, CJ (who had been a little sick all day) began to get a fever and had a bad case of the chills in our freezing house. He needed to work the next day, so we decided it would be best for him to stay home.

Now things were starting to get a little scary. I had only driven a couple of times and driving in general is a terrifying thought. I weighed my options and decided that I had to brave the outing on my own with my three kids crammed in the back of our tiny British car. The girls had been looking forward to this for weeks and we had no dinner! I just had to go! Our friend finally arrived and we embarked on our 30 minute journey to the church.

I began following behind my friend, when my heart began to race. I had never driven at night before, and I hadn't realized how utterly horrifying it would be. Imagine racing along on tiny little roads at 60 mph, trying to keep up with someone in the pitch black! And on top of that, every time a car passed me, I was momentarily blinded and unable to see which way the twisty road was turning. Every time a car passed, I held my breath hoping they wouldn't hit me. The cars just looked so close! I had to stay as far over as I could! Unfortunately this made me hit the curb every once in while, which really gave my heart a jolt.

I continued to follow him for another 10 minutes when we came to a T intersection at a very busy road. My heart started to beat a little faster, knowing that I would have to try hard not to loose him. My friend turned and my heart sank once more as I realized that I would have to wait for another opening to turn. After a few seconds, I turned and realized that there was another road to my left. Oh no! Did he go straight or did he make a second turn? I had no idea! I continued going straight, but soon realized that I had lost him! I had no idea where he was, I had no idea where I was, and I had no idea how to get home. I didn't have a cell phone and I didn't even know who I would call if I had had one! The only thing I could do was to start praying that we would be able to find our way home again. I told the kids that we were lost and I asked the girls to say a prayer. We must have had angels watching over us, because somehow I miraculously remembered the way home and we got back safe and sound!

We ended up eating cold pizza and trick or treating through our neighborhood. The kids went to bed full of candy and happy, but my heart was still racing a bit. Happy Halloween!