CAR! part 1

Well...the quick and easy thing to say here is...

...we got a car!

but hi, do you know ME?! :)  I'm not gonna make a 'story' that short.  Of course, you need the background infos to fully appreciate how exciting this is to us!! 


SO, background...my last car was a lease.  A few months after my dad passed away, the lease was up.  At that point in my life, i was beginning to feel 'changes' in my heart, aka, God was starting to work on my new direction;)  I was working towards going in to the nursing program taking classes at MJC in the evenings, working during the day.  I was living at home with mama and I had taken over my dad's financial responsibilities.  


Nursing at MJC is a 2 year full time program, so I wasn't in a position to take on a financial responsibility such as a car payment.  The logical thing, at that point, was for me to use my dad's car.  


THEN, I found out that some of my classes wouldn't transfer over (to fulfill prereq's), which meant that I would need to either flat quit my job and go to school full-time, or prolong even being able to apply for the 2 year program...blah, blah, blah...and we decided that Tyler couldn't financially support both us and my mom, so this just wasn't the time to pursue a career change.  Is that interesting to you now that you know where our minds were last January?! :) 


I continued to borrow the car all the while we: saved to pay off debt, saved to buy a house, saved for the down payment for a car.  Well...as of last February, we'd done all those things (payed off debt, bought our home, had our cash in the bank for the car) THEN we were at the point where I was going towards going back to school, or getting a new job...we thought ;0..., and we didn't feel we could afford a car payment.  So, we talked about getting a new car, we asked if we could just buy it (my dad's car) from my mom several times over the past 4 years and finally in December it was like, "OK we MUST do something and we just need to make something happen here."  


We were in much prayer over it.  I was obsessed with Carmax searches as we knew that we wouldnt' be buying brand new.  I struggled with myself over the price range, and pretty much had convinced Tyler to 'want' what I wanted :)  I thought we should get a larger car 7-9 seater, mini SUV/crossover.  The logical thought to me was to buy something that we could grow in to and that we'd have 'forever' - pay it off and not have to replace for some time.  This was what 'I had decided on' back when I was still working and perhaps that would have made sense. 


"Why so big?" you may ask, well, this way we could fit more kids (as they come) and be able to also have my mom and whomever else with us wherever we're going.  We just always go places in groups, and thought it would be nice to be able to have others pack in our car to get to wherever we're going.  


We were seeking advice and prayers from family, friends, mentors from church - everyone.  No one was saying what I wanted to hear ;)  Ah....so I needed to continue to pray for the person that would say just the right thing, right?! :)  Every message we were hearing at church or online or reading was saying the same thing: God will provide your needs.  Then...the day we went to church with Grandma Boyd, oh that was a hoot, my mind paraphrases something that was said, "God's not going to give you what you want, he's going to continue providing what you NEED."  


Over the past year, the Lord has done nothing but prove to us over and over again that HE is our PROVIDER.  He hands us just what we need right when we need it.  Seriously.  Emma's bedding for $10, financial assistance to not pay anything for her being born, additional income each month to continue paying for our bills +, gifts for Emma that we receive of things we don't have to buy for her, baby food and cereal people have that is 'extra' that they give to us.


It's been a joy in my heart to continually see His provision for us over and over again.  A couple of days prior to that Sunday, Tyler and I sat down and talked and we said, "OK, lets really pray about this car situation over this next week.  If a great deal comes up by Friday, then we'll go for it.  If not, on Monday, when Tyler's home, we'll start the car search all over and down size the car we're searching for."  Then that Sunday, the message just pounded in to my heart and I was like 'OK, quit asking for more than you need.  Be practical and logical, not lustful and greedy."


I spent all week resisting the temptation to search for cars.  I made a deal with myself that I wouldn't search for another car until after we'd gotten past this week.  And it was on my mind so much I decided to pray about it each time I thought about it :)  Seriously obsessed folks!  


Monday, I went to Bible study and at the end I asked for prayer about 'my car situation.'  Before we got up and started to make our way out, a gal, Bobbie, spoke up and said, "Connie, are you having car problems?  Need to have a car fixed?  Need to sell a car?  Need to buy a car?"  I laughed (and realized I really could have a car 'problem' but was blessed to just be in the situation I was in!) and told her that we needed a car.  The next words out of her mouth were, "Ah, I have a car for you.  My in-laws are selling a car, it's 6 years old with 50 k miles on it, looks and smells brand-new.  We've been looking for someone to buy it." ...then, dare I ask?!, "What kind of car is it?" (seriously, I cringed kinda not knowing what she was going to say) "Dodge Stratus, I had one of them with my first two kids.  It was perfect, I loved it.  It fit them and everything needed to lug around for them.  I kept it until we had our 3rd..."


My thoughts were, 'OK this is it.  She just told me it's all I need for this stage of my life.  My sister had one and she loved it...'


Wow this is getting long...fast forward: It was only $3,000.  We continued to pray over it.  Felt completely at peace with moving forward with this, and by the following week it was ours (last week).


...and here it is!  

we love it!  it's perfect for us.  It is a 2004 Dodge Stratus.
...and...yes, the title says 'part 1' which means there will be a 'part 2'.  I'll try to give you a break before posting that one so as to not deter you from ever looking at this blog again due to my wordiness here :)