A sigh of relief

The last 24 hours has been quite an emotional roller coaster.You see about a week ago we were able to pay off our car. Something we have been working hard to accomplish before this new baby comes so that we could purchase a second car that will actually hold all of our children. Not only did we pay it off, but with our tax return we had enough to put down on the next car. Talk about awesome, right? We thought so too and had been feeling so good about what we had accomplished. Until yesterday. Sunday night as Jeremy was driving home from work he heard a sound coming from the engine that concerned him so when he got up yesterday he changed the oil hoping that would help. I continued to go about my day driving downtown to Kindermusik with our youngest and noticing no problems whatsoever. But as I was driving home the car began to make a clicking sound. This sound got progressively worse so I called my husband and he urged me to get off the freeway immediately. I took the long way home hoping and praying that nothing would happen before I got where I needed to be.

Our in-laws arrived at our house shortly after I did and my father-in-law gave the car the once over deciding it would be best to take it in. He thought it would be something minor as did the mechanic at initial glance. Then we get the call. The call telling us it is the engine and the entire thing is going to need to be replaced. Oh and did I mention that it would run us somewhere around $3,800? GULP. That is unless we had receipts to prove we had been keeping up on our oil changes on our own as that would mean our 100,000 mile warranty on the engine would still be good. But of course, we didn't have those receipts. Now came the wait. Would the dealer honor the warranty despite the fact that we didn't have these tiny pieces of paper? This meant the difference between only paying a $100 deductible versus almost four grand out of pocket. This was one of those moments where the wheels in my brain begin to spin in overdrive playing out every possible outcome. Allowing myself to feel so sorry for us that we had only gotten a week of peace about the car situation before something was threatening to take it all away. Anger that a car that is only 5 years old with 55,000 miles on it was giving us this kind of trouble. Doubt that this could all possibly work in our favor.

But before these thoughts could completely consume me I began to call those closest to us just asking for prayer. Knowing that this was completely out of our hands (oh how I hate to have no control!) and that all I could do at this point was to give it to God. Last night as I tossed and turned I kept trying to pray for peace. For the ability to not look ahead but just take this one decision at a time. I don't think I got more than a minute in each time before my mind began to wander. Then this morning we got a call saying that they were sending out the inspector and hadn't even asked about the receipts. That if this person gave the thumbs up all would be well. But that we wouldn't know until tomorrow night. So we continued on our day just trying to push it out of our heads until tomorrow. Then Jeremy's phone rang around 12:30. It was the dealer. The inspector had made it and they were agreeing to honor our warranty. Not only that but they are paying for us to have a rental car for up to 10 days. All of this will be taken care of in a little over a week and is going to cost us about $100. This situation couldn't have turned out any better. And we give all the glory to God. We are so thankful that he heard and answered our prayers in this way. We are thankful to have such amazing family and friends who not only offered to help in anyway possible but who also lifted us up in prayer. I don't know another time that I have breathed such a big sigh of relief. We are feeling truly blessed.