We call it a "God thing"

Ok, so background. Our church has what we call community groups. It's groups of people, families, couples within the church who connect 2 times a month in another member's home, our community group leader.

Way back in, I think January, we were talking about something - I can't even remember what. It had something to do with commuting and one car being stressful. Anyway, so one of them said "Well, since you guys can't afford a car, we need to start praying for a free one." Yeah, uh, me? No really, I believe that God can do some crazy things. But a car for me? It's so easy to see where someone else deserves something or needs something so much more than I do. I prayed about it a few times. I honestly have no idea how often they did. We didn't really talk about it again for awhile. Well, it came up again with Dave's new job.

It's been a hard thing to figure out what to do. A 25-27 mile commute one way may not seem like that big a deal but when you have 1 vehicle it is difficult. Especially when our lives don't just stop. It's been stressful. VERY stressful. Some mornings we have all had to be out of the house at 5:15 and not been home until 8 PM. Other times I have been home for 3 days straight, with no way out. LITERALLY. It isn't like I live in the city and can walk anywhere. We are just stuck. It's enough to drive a person insane. I know, I have been on the edge of insanity a few times these last few weeks. Our options were 1) move - we even spoke with our landlords about the potential of breaking our lease and they were very gracious. There were few strings attached. A move would mean our rent would be 1.5 times what it is now. 2) Buy a new car.

The issue was this. We can't buy a car and then move in 8 months because we wouldn't be able to afford the payment and the increased rent. Time is most important to us as a family so we decided we needed to rough it until we could move. This is why the last few weeks have been so stressful.

Last Friday was a bad day. I wasn't feeling that great and between Dave's schedule and my work schedule I wasn't getting much sleep, which I don't deal well with. I get sick. Add sick kids to the mix it was ugly.

My community group leader/friend (the wife half)called and asked me if I was sitting down.

"Yes," I said. "Why?" "Well, you know that free car we were praying for? You got it if you want it." The owners had heard we were a 1 car family commuting and wanted to offer us the car (from some one other than the cg leaders)

After several days of back and forth with the owners, who by the way didn't know we were praying for a free car, details were that they thought the car had pretty much died permanently. Their mechanic looked at it to see if he wanted it for parts,etc. and said "All it needs is a starter. What do you want to do?" They replaced the starter at no cost to us and called us at 9 PM last night to say we could have it today if we wanted it.

Ironically Dave and I were much closer there than our home since we went away over night. We met at the auto shop this afternoon, went to the tag shop, and after an hour of paper work we own, at $128 in tags, title, and reg. - a new to us car.

Unless you have been there you cannot even fathom the relief this is already. The stress is already melting away. We are so very grateful for how we have been provided for and truly feel like we don't deserve it but here it is. We have been provided for. call it coincidence, call it whatever you wish, but for us, it's a "God thing".

For 10 years we have been a "1 car family". Today, our 10th anniversary, we are a 2 car family. We are blessed beyond anything we could ever imagine.