Aye, Captain!

“Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered.” -William Shakespeare from Cymbeline

         I’ll never forget the time I was able to translate a portion of Twelfth Night into “Korean English” for a group of Korean middle school students to act out. My Shakespeare professor enjoyed it thoroughly. She also enjoyed my final paper about how the so-called tragedy, Titus Andronicus, was actually meant to be a comedy. Entirely too many heads and limbs chopped off for Shakespeare to be serious in that one. Anyway, as much as I adore the late playwright, I disagree with him sometimes. In this case, all boats are steered. 

We have a gracious Father; amen? Although human plans change more often than Louisiana and Puerto Rico weather, they do not change because no one is directing them. Our Captain just chooses not to give warning.

To begin, I mentioned previously that John would be partnering with a fellow Parker alumni. Although that chiropractor and his wife have been (and I hope they will continue to be!) LIFESAVERS, plans changed. John will be opening in the same space, but he will be doing so alone. We live an hour or so away from our friends, so the drive would have been long for them. They were blessed with an offer to open another clinic closer to their home, and we respect that completely. John’s clinic will be in a small hospital. The hospital has an emergency room, a laboratory, radiology, a gynecologist, a psychiatrist, and soon, a chiropractor. The entire interior has been, or is in the process of being, remodeled. John’s space is in a hall that was previously labor and delivery.

John's main office in the beginning of the remodel

The old delivery prep room before remodel

Little waiting room he'll share with any other new doctors who rent space

The front of the hospital

John's main office yesterday...almost finished!

After three trips to San Juan, John is a LICENSED CHIROPRACTOR in Puerto Rico! That last trip was quite something. We had to leave the office several times to seek out money orders, signatures, and proof…once again…that he owes no child support—they sure are serious about that one! Know how we did that? There was a tiny building with a dinosaur computer in the corner. I mean big, white monitor and everything. He typed his social security number in, and it printed out his “proof”. Scary, huh?

So far, he has purchased all of the toys that he wants to start out with, completed several applications to become a provider for many insurance companies, purchased a new phone with a local phone number, and sought out a business account at the bank. He jumped a little too quickly, however, on the business cards. Thinking he was going to share a phone line, he put phone and fax numbers on the cards that will no longer link to him. So, we are fixing it manually. Because that’s how we roll. 

 

Aside from working on the clinic, getting a driver’s license here was an interesting experience. We went to the DMV one day, completed all of the paper, and, at the very moment we thought they were going to take our picture and let us be, they told us the test was starting in 30 minutes. Test?! It was terrible. I was seriously so angry that I think smoke might have really come out of my ears. We were told we could find an English version of the law book at Walgreens, but after stopping at three different ones and never finding it, we just bought it in Spanish. With our small grasp of the language and the help of grandparents and Google Translate, we managed. Before we took the test several days later, we had to get the DMV medical examiner to sign off that we were able to drive. We went to a FOTO booth (I couldn’t make this up if I tried), paid the women $22, told her that we both wore glasses or contacts, got her signature, and went on our way. Seriously, a foto booth. I went on to make the lowest possible passing score! We celebrated with Pollo Tropical like two sixteen-year-olds getting a license for the first time!

 

       Later that night, one of my best friends gave birth to her first child. We feel blessed and assured that Puerto Rico is where we are supposed to be right now, but missing that time there ranks top five in the hardest things we have faced here so far. Love and miss you, Whitney!

So grateful for our Captain. Keep steering, Lord, keep steering.