I've learned a lot this week. I learned that I put too much faith into the wrong things and not enough faith in God. I also learned that I take my husband for granted. This last week was probably one of the worst weeks of my life. I won't say it was THE worst, but it ranked very close to my top 10. But it also turned out to be one of the best learning experiences of my life.
It all started when Mike left town for some geek convention in Oklahoma City, several hours from here. It didn't take long for me to start feeling the effects of separation anxiety... one of my MANY issues. Seriously, I was a nervous wreck the entire time he was gone and turned into a complete psycho. Just ask him... he'll tell you. Those few days he was gone, I realized just how much I depend on him and take him for granted. I honestly don't think I could survive very long at all without him. Anyway, by the 4th day... the day he was to come home... I was impatient and more anxious than ever for him to be home. He called me first thing that morning (last Saturday) to tell me that his car had broke down and that he and our friend, Jim, were waiting for a tow truck. Great. All I wanted was for him to be home safe and now his car wasn't working. Just great. A little bit later, he called to tell me that the car dealership that the car was towed to had no mechanic on duty until the following Monday morning. That made everything in my world go from bad to worse. I had a complete meltdown... and I blamed God for it. I thought for sure HE was teaching me a lesson and telling me that another 2 days alone might do me some good. Well, as things turned out, Mike and Jim decided to rent a car and stick to the original schedule, instead of paying for 2 more nights in a hotel. I was so glad to have Mike home that night! We fretted the rest of the weekend about the car. The man at the dealership said he really thought that the timing chain had broke, which is a very bad thing. He told Mike that if it was just the timing chain and nothing else got messed up, we would be looking at $500 to fix it. If the timing chain did other damage on the way out, we were looking at a new engine. We wouldn't know for sure until the mechanic showed up Monday. So the news was either going to be bad or really bad. Either way, we didn't have the money to fix it.
Early Monday morning, Mike called the dealership and the mechanic was just getting to the car. It was much worse than we thought it would be. The car needed a new engine. They told us they had already found a used engine that had 50,000 miles on it that would only cost us $2600. It might as well have been $1,000,000. After consulting with the wise men of my family (my dad and my brother) we decided not to let the dealership work on the car. It wasn't worth the expense. We still owed $2700 on the car and blue book value was $3100. Putting another $2600 into it didn't make much sense. Now we had to figure out how to get the car back home and find the money and means to do it. First, I had to swallow my pride and ask my grandfather for a loan. I didn't much doubt that he would give me the money, but I dreaded what his reaction would be to my asking. Much to my surprise, he was very kind to me about the entire situation. He didn't hesitate to give us the money. He gave us enough to pay for the car rental, the $300 fee the dealership was charging us for just looking at the car, for paying off the $2700 we still owed on the car (so we could drop the insurance) and enough to buy another used car (which we are currently looking for). We had a trailer lined up to haul back the car, but had difficulty locating someone with a truck big enough to pull it. So, we ended up with a plan to drive the rental back to OKC, where we would then rent a U-Haul truck and trailer and haul the car back. We hadn't factored that expense in when we asked Grandpa for help, so we weren't sure how we were going to come up with the additional funds. As it turned out, one of the ministers at our church called and said they wanted to help us and would give us $350. Wouldn't you know.... that's exactly how much the U-Haul truck/trailer was going to cost us??? I'll tell you... I started bawling (again). I was so overwhelmed. Bryan couldn't have known how much we needed. That was God at work.
So, Mike, my dad, and I headed for OKC in the rental (which, by the way, was a little black VW bug). It was a long cramped trip, as you can well imagine. Our first stop was at the U-Haul place. My dad and I took the truck followed Mike (in the rental) to the car dealership to pick up our dead car. I have to say... as soon as I saw it sitting there on the lot, I got emotional (again). Mike's car is one of those things I put too much faith in. It was the dependable car. I was never afraid of it breaking down and leaving us stranded. Now, it's not only broke down, it's dead. Anyway... back to the story... the man at the dealership came out to help us load the car onto the trailer and would you believe he waived the $300 fee? He said he just didn't feel right charging us. Between the dealership and our church, we ended up saving $650. That was God, still hard at work for us! But it doesn't stop there... we were running late and it was passed time for the rental place to close and we still had the rental car to drop off. Well, we got to the car rental place 10 minutes after they were supposed to have closed and they were so busy that day, they were still open!! I was finally starting to feel like God really was on our side and not out to get me, as I had previously thought. On the way home, there were storms all around. We could see them coming from the south and from the west. We were hearing warnings on the radio for places behind us (to the south, where we had been). We managed to stay ahead of the storms to the south and on the edge of the ones from the west. We saw lots of lightening and nasty clouds, but not one drop of rain. By the time we made it home that night, we were feeling very blessed.
Mike and I were resigned to the fact that we would have to share my undependable car until we can locate a car for us to buy. We hate that because he has to drive out of town once or twice per week for work. My car can't handle the amount of driving that he has to do. But God stepped in again. He sent one of His good people to Mike's place of business Tuesday afternoon. This very nice man, who is a friend of a friend and also happens to do some work for Mike's place of business heard our story and offered Mike the use of a vehicle that he hadn't been using until we are able to find another car. The blessings just keep overflowing! We won't forget the good things God has done for us in our time of need. We hope that we will be able to bless others the way they have blessed us!
Matthew 17:20 (NIV)
He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."
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