We bought a car...and no, its not a minivan!

So here is the story of our car situation I told you I would blog about. I really hope that you can see how God's hand was in all of it. Shane and I earnestly seek God's will in our lives and pray that it is evident in the decisions we make and the way we live out our daily lives.

So lets back up a bit...my parents handed me the keys to my 1996 Grand Am on my 16th birthday (I remember it, because that night I drove to watch Shane play basketball and I believe it was the first night I met Shane's dad), its been a great car but showing its age lately (Shane has been driving it as a work car for the past 4+ years). For the last few years I have been praying that it would last until we got our car paid off (and we did back in March over a year early!). I then started praying that it would last until we could pay cash for our next car...a minivan more specifically (yes, I really want a Honda Odyssey, strange I know, but very practical).
Well, the day before we left for vacation to Nebraska on June 25, Shane left for lunch and I thought the Grand Am sounded quiet, when he drove home from work it was smoking up a storm and our little computer we have for it said 'cylinder 1 misfiring'. So we dropped it off at our mechanic's shop on Friday before leaving town. The next Monday, we get a phone call telling us that the Grand Am blew some head gaskets and was gonna cost $1500 to fix (which is all the car is worth in running condition, $1000 alone was labor, since you have to tear everything out to fix it) and that was at a minimum, who knows what else could be wrong once they tore into it. So we thought and prayed on it and then my mom asked if we would be interested in buying her 1994 Camry, so we thought and prayed on it some more and decided yes, we would like to buy her car.
Why not just go out and buy a minivan you may ask us (which I would have loved to do)...yes, we can afford a payment for a minivan, but we are trying to change our mindset that if we can't pay cash for it, we can't afford it (yeah, we took that Dave Ramsey class at church!) After paying off our car, I have been saving money for the minivan and to side and roof our garage.
So a few days later I called our mechanic back to tell him that we aren't fixing the car and he said that he may be interested in buying the car from us, but he wanted to investigate further to make sure it was just the head gaskets (makes sense for him to fix it, he doesn't have to pay labor costs!)
So Sunday, July 5th after driving to Nebraska with one Toyota Camry, we returned to Iowa with two!
So where is God in all of this:
1) I prayed that the Grand Am would last long enough until I could pay cash for my next car...I was able to write a check in full to my mom, and had the exact amount leftover to still do the garage! We didn't even have to touch our emergency fund!
2) Timing couldn't have worked out more perfect, we happened to already be going to Nebraska and was able to just drive mom's car home. Funny thing is, the last several years we joked about buying mom's car...I kept telling her she couldn't sell it to anyone else!
3) God already had a buyer for the Grand Am...and as hard as it was to let go of something that my dad worked hard to give to me and that I had for 9 1/2 years, I have great peace that God worked everything out! I didn't even fret over any of the decision making (anyone that knows me, knows I hate making decisions)! I pretty much just handed it over to God and my husband!

If God was that awesome now...I know that if we honor the commitment we made to Him about paying only cash for our next vehicle as well (hopefully a minivan), He will bless us with whatever we need!

Here are a few pictures I was able to find...

A Senior Pic

Shane's Cougar, my Grand Am, Shane's Alero...
after 10 years, Shane and I no longer own a 2 door red car.

My Junior Prom

A sad farewell...I didn't even get to drive it one last time! We went to the shop to clean it out on Wednesday, it was completely torn apart. I did get to sit behind the wheel one last time though!

A lot of life happens in a short 9 1/2 years...hard to believe I was once 16 driving this car, and today I am a wife of 5+ years, and a mom to a beautiful 10 month old baby girl!

Most of the junk I cleaned out of the Grand Am!
Some of the stuff I found included: name tag from when I worked at SunMart in high school, Shane's high school graduation program, a warning I got from having my fog lights on while dragging main, a warning from not making a complete stop (or so the cop said) driving out at the lake one night, the old Nebraska plates, a picture of Codi and Justin from Sweetheart (I have no idea why I had that!), 4 window scrapers, 2002 Ogallala Indians tassle, 2 sets of jumper cables, every insurance card dating clear back to when the car was bought and lots more!

Shane's new car

Our driveway is a lot less colorful now, but we are the proud owners of 2 Toyota Camrys that are paid for...can't get much more blessed than that!