Bittersweet day

Last Saturday we took our most trusted vehicle...the van...to the junk yard. It was sad. This was our miracle car. Let me reminisce for a minute....

It was the beginning of the month of December in 2003. We had 3 kids. Faith was 4, Hyrum was 3 and Vilate was 1. We were expecting baby number 4 to come in the middle of January. We had a really fun car...not really economical, but hey it was really fun!!! We drove a black Honda Accord 2-door sleek car. It had been lowered, had leather seats, a moon roof, tinted windows...it was stylin'! We were expecting a check from a company that David had been doing business with and we were going to use a small chunck of that money to buy a very used station wagon that we had found that would be able to fit our new arrival....but the check never came. I was devastated...David was frustrated and we were about to bring home a baby with no place to put him. It was a little scary...but we continued on for the next few weeks, hoping and praying that our Heavenly Father had a plan.

And then it happened. The day after Christmas my friend, Katie called. She told me that her Aunt Kathy's hubby had surprised her with a new car for Christmas. Kathy was very excited about her new car...and well, who wouldn't be!!! Kathy and I had gotten to know eachother a bit through Katie and she knew that we were in need of a car. She called Katie and asked her if she thought we would be interested in a well used, very loved old van...FREE!!! Katie immediately called me and I said, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" or something like that! We arranged to go and pickup the van the next day.

We took the kids to my parents house and David and I drove in our fancy-schmancy car to go and get the van. We got there and they were ready for us. They signed over the title and off we went. David drove the van and I drove the Honda. We got to my parents and the kids were so excited. David took Faith and Hyrum with him in the van home and I took Vilate. On the way home David had to stop for gas and Faith and Hyrum played tag in the van. They love the "new car" that we had been given. I will admit that it took me a while to really love the van...but David was hooked right away!!

This van has been a trooper. We drove it to Yosemite, to the temple in Oakland and then just around for almost 5 years. In October it failed the California SMOG test. The repairs on it definitely were more costly then the worth of the vehicle so we chose to retire it. Basically the state of California will give you a chunk of change for you to stop driving your car. We took it to Pick-n-Pull last Saturday and this week it was smashed. I will miss that van. It was a constant reminder to me that my Heavenly Father knows who I am and that he wants us to succeed...it will always be that! I am grateful for the blessing of this wonderful van. It was dirty, the seats wiggled a lot, there was an on-again, off-again rattle, it had no air conditioning, it had no radio, the passenger side rearview mirror had fallen off, it leaked in the rain...but it was an awesome van and we will all miss it!