Sweet Ride

So, even with the "Napoleon Dynamite"-ish title, you still decided to read this entry? I guess I could write pretty much anything now, and I would still have an audience, huh? Just kidding! I know this is an highly intelligent community and you would expect way more than that!

I have exciting news, and I have hesitated to share it before now, because someone who was involved asked that we not say anything - but YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE and we are very thankful.

My news is {drumroll please} I have a car!!!! I know it may not sound like a big deal for a middle-class family in middle-America, but there is much you don't know. This saga started out last year - the week of Christmas, my dear husband cracked the block on his car. It was DEAD - even after hours of CPR, no pulse, flatline - gone! Christmas was only days away and I had much shopping to do and preparations to make, when he gives me the news that his car is gone... and.....that he will have to drive my car to work.....and.....that since he worked an hour and a half away at the time it would make no sense for me to drive him! I handled the news with humility dignity and grace (NOT!) Over the past ten months, I have gone round and round with these wrong attitudes. The Lord has been a gentle and patient parent, showing me that His timing is perfect.

Also, my husband and I don't do credit cards or bank loans for anything other than our house - because he has always been convicted that you save up for what you need, and then you buy it - not the other way around. So for months we waited - and saved. We were finally able to buy a little truck that was for sale down the road from our church - but that was to be short lived - because on the way home with the "new truck" it broke down! And even though he had asked permission to leave the truck there, the next morning the owners of the driveway his truck broke down next to, had it towed away! After much TLC from my friends wonderfully talented husband, we determined that it was un-fixable, or at least not worth the expense it would take to fix it!

Over the ten months of car-less-ness, the Lord has taught me so many things - but he couldn't do that until I stopped kicking, screaming, crying, whining - and they have made me a better person. I am not good at depending on other people - and over this past year, I have had to depend heavily on all my wonderful friends who have taken me here, there and everywhere. I am sooooo thankful for a vehicle to drive. But he didn't just provide any vehicle, it is more than I could have ever asked for - the desires of my heart. And even if there wasn't a car in the driveway this morning - I would still say He is good! Better than a new car, he gave me a new joy in my heart. He didn't just effect a change in my circumstances, He made a humongous change inside of me.

Tuesday night around 10:00 when Travis brought the car home, we all went out and took a ride in it. Kullen summed it up perfectly when he said it - and not just about the car, about life, "Daddy, this is a sweet ride!"