Cooling to 97 Degrees Friday...

Our third daughter, Jordan Joy, is 14 months old and just beginning to say her first words. Of course, “Dada” was her very first word (as it also was with my other two girls! Yes, I must brag!) and “Mama” also quickly followed. She also knows how to say “bye” when we’re leaving and “uh-oh” when she drops something. However, these few words have been the sum total of her vocabulary until two days ago...

It was a long and exhausting day. Up at 4:45am to shower, pack, and have all five Tuckers on board the Holiday Inn Express shuttle to catch our 8:45am, one-way flight to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. We were thankful it was a nonstop. We became even more thankful for the nonstop after we realized our family was seated on the last row where you get to know the flight attendants and all the passengers as they stand in line for the restroom directly behind your seats. Oh, joy!

We were thankful to be together on the flight because this trip represented our most tangible way of saying “We are moving to Texas!” The long-awaited Tucker family trek from Portland to Fort Worth was finally coming to completion! As the American Airlines flight landed safely at DFW Int’l we rolled our bulging carry-on bags up the ramp to a 101-degree welcome to the Lone Star state. The much-anticipated heat was finally a firsthand experience—and, oh, what a heat wave we stepped into. The five-day forecast of high temperatures is 101, 103, 101, 101, and 97. Yes! A cooling trend on Friday of only 97 degrees!?!

Thirty minutes later our family of five exited the baggage claim area with 250 lbs of luggage (five pieces averaging 49.999 lbs each) stacked like a leaning tower of Pisa on the luggage cart I rented. In my stubborn frugality, I refused all offers of help from the luggage caddies and slowly but surely managed my family’s leaning tower over and around the hurdles and oncoming traffic of DFW International Airport. Once outside we were all immediately enveloped once again in the joys of 101-degree weather and were more than thankful to see our shuttle pull up after only another 10 minutes. “Raise your hand if you’re SURE” is a request that not a single Tucker family member could accommodate at this point. While Suzy loaded the children, I gave in and let the shuttle driver help me load the car seat and what, at this point, was truly feeling like a half-ton of luggage. Is it anathema to tip someone only a dollar? My Scottish blood (I must have a good bit) screams, “Absolutely not!”

Whew! A/C is a blessing our family had not previously given such hearty thanks for, and this shuttle had soft, cool seats and a powerful A/C unit blowing down on us in a way that briefly brought us back to our senses. All too soon we seemed to arrive at our car in the overnight parking lot. I yelped and jumped back, burning my hand as I tried to open the door by its blazing hot, black handle. There’s no doubt in my mind whatsoever that the hood of that car would have easily fried an egg if only given the opportunity. The gray leather seats in our borrowed Chevy Tahoe were each holding heat well and proved it to my two oldest girls by slightly burning the back of their thighs. Hey, we’re from Oregon! We don’t know leather can get that hot—ever! Once the girls’ tears subsided (slightly) and they were buckled into their booster seats, Suzy somehow managed to strap Jordan into the car seat between the older two.

As we all yearned for the A/C to turn the Tahoe’s interior from fire into ice, Suzy and I could both tell we were quickly nearing the end of our “parental rope.” The early rise in Sacramento, the long flight “scented” so sweetly by the plane’s overused toilet, the leaning tower of Pisa, and the scorching welcome to Texas heat. All these had combined to create an extremely sweaty, impatient Tucker family and we were about to erupt like a volcano. The tears of our two oldest girls had given way to the incessant complaint: “Why is it soooo HOT here?” I was at my wit’s end and would have sold my birthright to a 7-Eleven cashier for five large Slurpees. Unfortunately, no 7-Eleven could be found. However, in that moment of frenzy, sweat, and singed thighs I heard a new word—as clear as a bell—come out of Jordan’s mouth in the back seat: “Hot!”

I turned (yes, while still driving) and asked, “What did she say?” Kezia and Eden looked at me in mutual disbelief and exclaimed, “She said ‘HOT,’ Daddy. She said “HOT.” Jordan, say it again. Say HOT!” Jordan, not one to perform on demand was happy to oblige this time: “Hot! Hot! HOT!” All at once, we all started laughing and I almost ran off the road as I looked in the rear view mirror to see Jordan’s expression as she kept saying her new word. She knew she had our attention and she just wouldn’t stop saying it over and over. Like the perfect timing of a gifted comedian, Jordan’s ever-so-appropriate, new word had changed the expressions and attitudes of every member of our family. Suddenly the heat, our exhaustion, the burnt legs—all were laughable because of the perfectly-timed, new word of our one-year-old girl!

God has countless ways to get us through life’s challenging moments. Sometimes he unexpectedly uses even our youngest children to bring us into his overflowing joy. Thank you, God, for Jordan Joy and for giving us such laughter and joy along with our hot, Texas welcome!