Our vehicle saga started Friday, October 23. I was to go to the school to help with the second grade class fall party. I went out to leave and I couldn't get the van to start. I tried for a bit without success and then called Skeeter, who came home real quick to see if he could help. Amazingly, he was able to get it started right away. Thankfully the clock was off, once he got it started, so I knew this wasn't in my head. Thankfully, I was able to get to the school without any problems. That weekend, I helped take pictures at Skeeter's cousin's wedding, which required me to have transportation. Thankfully, the van worked just fine for that event.
Then, on Sunday, October 25, Anne and I went to WalMart, to pick something up real quick. Unfortunately, once we were done shopping, the van was not ready to leave. So we once again had to call for some help. And like the last time, Skeeter was able to get it started without too much trouble.
On Tuesday, October 27, I was at the bus stop dropping the kids off, when the van started acting funny, and then turned off. Thankfully, I was able to get it started back up. On the way home, however, the gauge needles started going crazy, the radio started buzzing, and the lights were flickering. I knew I was once again in trouble. So I literally prayed out loud the rest of the way home, praying stop lights would change, etc, just so that I could get home. Jaydon thought I had lost my mind and told me to stop, but I didn't. :) I got home and right after I pulled into our drive, the van decided it was done. So, I started calling people to arrange getting the kids home from school. Skeeter came home early from work and the battery was at 0% and he didn't know how I made it home. A miracle happened, that's for sure! He tried charging the battery, but it wouldn't hold the charge. We got it jumped started long enough to go purchase a new battery. The alternator checked out fine.
On Thursday, October 29, I was on my way to go pick up the kids after school. I noticed the van acting funny, but figured, I needed to at least try to go get the kids. Unknown to me, there was a puddle of oil left behind in our driveway. At the stop sign, I would later see another pool, and then a trail that followed me. I just got onto the highway, when the van really started acting funny. It wasn't wanting to pick up speed, and the steering started to get hard, so I pulled off, and just got pulled off the road in time for the van to coast to a stop. We ended up having to have the van towed home. Thankfully I had friends who helped get the kids home, as well as pick Jaydon and myself up. We also had someone very generously lend us a vehicle for the next day so that I could get the kids back and forth to school.
Our van was deemed, dead, and so on Friday, October 30, we got to see this through our front window:
I have to admit tears came to my eyes as I saw this happen. It made the fact that our van was dead a reality. This meant that we would have to buy another vehicle, which meant a big piece of money. How was God going to provide us with something that would be nice and not be a piece of junk? Vehicles aren't too cheap!
On Saturday, October, 31, we went van shopping. We found a van that wasn't too bad of a deal at the first place we looked at, but wanted to keep looking. We looked at several car lots before we headed to the one we thought would be the least likely for us to be able to find anything. However, God had a surprise waiting for us.
They had a 2009 Honda Pilot, that was on clearance as they were trying to get rid of their "old" inventory. We still weren't sure that this would work for us, but God worked some miracles, and showed Skeeter that this was the one He had saved for our family. So....this is our new vehicle. We are thrilled to have heat, windows and a cruise that work. :) Thanks for praying for us! We also praise the Lord for His protection through all of this and that the van didn't blow up or something like that. We were kept safe!!
