My Thanksgiving Blessing

It took me a week and a half to write this post, but at last I wanted to explain this photo I shared the day before Thanksgiving.  If you didn't get it . . .  yes, I now have a car of my own.  And not only a car, a minivan!!!

For those who may not know the whole story, my husband and I have lived on one car for the entire 4-1/2 years of our marriage, over three of which I have been a stay at home mom.  (I wrote about how we managed this and the effect it had on our lifestyle here.)  As I wrote in that post, having only one car was a great challenge and sacrifice but also in some ways a great blessing.  Nevertheless, I have been dreaming about the day when I would have my own transportation literally since high school!

There were many days in my years of driving Michael to work or being stuck at home that I felt like I could not keep it up and we had to get another car right away.  I think it is fitting that the Lord did not bless me with the car during one of those discouraged times, but in a time when I was doing my best to accept our situation.  Then he just hit me out of the blue with His bounty!

I've always loved this quotation from Isaiah, "Even youths will faint and grow weary and young men will fall exhausted, but they that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength."  I think it shows such an understanding God, who knows that even young men (and women) get tired and discouraged.  It's such a great reminder to me that it is worth it to wait upon the Lord.

Briefly, our previous financial plan had been to save our three-month emergency fund and then begin saving for a car.  We had estimated that it would take two more years to save what seemed like a moderate amount for a used minivan.  However, for various reasons we had recently been talking about using part of our emergency fund to buy a fairly old used car to "tide us over" for the next few years.

Then, unexpectedly, Michael's parents told us about a minivan from Craigslist that they had gone to see and were going to have checked out by their mechanic.  In short, they let us buy it instead of them and were there to help walk us through the process, which was invaluable, as we are not too knowledgeable about cars.

It is a fairly old van, but it is in good condition and has had some major parts replaced.  And to me, it is as my Cinderella's chariot. ;-) We certainly plan to make it last as long as possible, while continuing to save for the time when one or both of our old cars will need to be replaced.  I feel blessed that we were able to save the money to pay for it in cash and not be saddled with a car payment, although we did reduce our emergency fund..  Now we are committed to rebuilding our savings as quickly as we can.

It's been kind of emotional for me to finally have a car of my own, and I know it's going to be a huge lifestyle shift.  It's a little overwhelming!  I know that I want to continue to maintain the positive habits that I've established out of necessity, like combining errands and limiting myself in the deals that I pursue.  However, I've decided that I'll worry about all of that in the new year, after the busyness of the Christmas season.  For the next few weeks, I'm just going to enjoy my new ride!