My husband always tells me I need to journal, so I won't forget. He's been after me to do that for, well, years. I'd say I do that about... umm... next to never. So, no time like the present.
I want to get this down, so that I don't ever forget the huge blessing the Lord bestowed upon us recently.
Backstory:
We bought a minivan while we lived in upstate New York. We had four children. My oldest was four and my youngest was 2 months old. We had a van, but the transmission was going, and we needed something else. We arrived at the car lot just after noon. We found the van we liked immediately. Test drove it and were emotionally attached right away. We loved it! And so began the purchasing process. I decided to sit in our preowned van while my hubby did all the paperwork inside the dealership. I really didn't want to drag 4 small children out of the vehicle and into a small office. Because honestly, this process should only take an hour at tops. WRONG! Between multiple feedings to a newborn, crying toddlers because they were hungry and uncomfortable, and multiple visits from my husband to tell me the car salesman said it will only take 20 more minutes, I was going berserk! After the 2nd hour of waiting for this process, we should have just fled the car shop thanking the Lord that we did not buy it. But we didn't. The kids and I sat in our van for over 5 hours. Can you imagine the chaos in that van?? It was like the Lord was giving us time to flee this whole process. But we didn't take that opportunity. We knew better. (yeah, right!) And we forced the purchase of our new (to us) Ford Windstar. UGH. We should have picked up on the foreshadowing of what was yet to come. If I were to categorize the purchasing experience as horrible, then I'd have to categorize the ownership of the Ford van as detestable. It was a money pit. Constantly breaking down. Bells and whistles constantly not working. Not only were we dumping loan money out on this thing, but gas money to pay for the 16mpg, plus the repair money was draining our bank account on a monthly basis. We regret the day we made that purchase.
So where did we go wrong? (Besides the fact it was a Ford) Simple. We didn't pray about it.
We owned that van from 2007-2015. Eight L O N G years. We had been driving two separate cars everywhere for the last four years. Me and the kids in the 2-door Civic (which was a huge blessing from a friend to give that to us!) and Matt in his Corolla. Timeline doesn't match up? Our van sat in the driveway for four years without being used... It was that bad. We finally sold it to someone last spring (with full disclosure of everything that was wrong with it). But, before we sold it, I took a picture of it, (I've been meaning to print it and frame it, but haven't yet) as a reminder to pray before purchasing.
This huge mistake made quite the impression on my husband and me. We actually use it as a teaching lesson for our kids anytime they want to make a purchase. Pray. Wait. Pray. Wait. If it's a "go" from God, purchase. If it's a "no" then run fleeing the other direction thanking Him for His protection!
End of backstory.
Now:
My father-in-law wanted to bless us with money to buy a minivan for our family. We are so thankful for that!! God used him to bless us in a wonderful way. And so, in December when the money was offered, the purchasing research and process began.
Learning from the Ford experience, we didn't go out right away shopping for a vehicle. Instead we did research. A LOT of research. We used NADA, Kelley Blue Book, USNews Cars Reviews, basically any and all reputable websites that would tell us about vehicles, their values, their faults, and their positives. We asked friends who buy and fix vehicles. We talked to other friends who worked as adjusters and in auto body shops. But most importantly we prayed. We prayed all of December without going out and shopping. We prayed all of January, with only test driving two vehicles, but looking at oh so many more. :) We prayed in February, asking for God to just drop a van in our laps, so to speak. And that's exactly what He did.
The first week of February, I saw a van of interest on Craigslist. It was at the top of our purchasing range. It had everything that we wanted (Matt wanted leather, I wanted a sunroof and back-up camera) and so much more. But the crazy thing was... We weren't emotionally attached to this van at all, even though it had everything we wanted. We went out and looked at it. I was actually disappointed with it because it had little scrapes and dings all over the bumpers. The interior trunk area had a Target bag stain on the carpet and the sidewalls had been scratched. All normal wear and tear from an 8 year-old vehicle. It had under 84k miles though, which met our under 100k mile criteria. I guess my point is, it was EVERYTHING we wanted, but we just weren't attached to it. We drove home from the seller's house and as Matt and I were talking, we realized we didn't care if we got it or not.
Two days later, with no contact initiated by us, we get a text from the seller offering it to us for $2000 under his original asking price.
Matt and I prayed about what we should offer. We weren't in total agreement ($500 off from each other) and prayed some more. Finally, we came into agreement on a price that was basically saying "God, if this is the vehicle for us, we know it HAS to be from you, because there is no way that this seller is going to go for the price we're offering". The next day we text him back our offer that is $4000 under his original asking price.
That evening he texts us back $3000 under his asking price. I had moments of "Well let's just get it for that price anyway, because it's an amazing deal!" And then moments of, "But that's not the price we told God." And visions of that hideous Ford Windstar danced through my head. Through it all, Matt unwavering, stuck to our suggested price. We didn't respond to his text. We were going to wait until the morning to text him back and let him know that we stand at our offer.
Little did we know, that we didn't even have to text back the next morning. When we got up at 4:45am, Matt's phone had a text. It came in at 9:30pm the night before. The seller texted us at $4000 under the original asking price (exactly what we wanted to pay) and asked us when we were going to come pick it up!
Can you say "van dropped in our laps"?
We still weren't all that emotionally excited about the purchase yet. But since, we'd prayed and God delivered, we were going through with it.
Due to funds needing to be transferred and holidays, we weren't able to get the van until this past Tuesday. But I have to say, all day Tuesday, the excitement began to build. And now that we own it, I can't stop smiling and thanking God, especially when I'm in the van, for his blessing on us.
We know that this van is from God. That makes my heart happy. And what I love, is that not only did God give us a van with the three things we wanted, he gave us a van with things we never knew we wanted. He is so good to us!
And although the prior van purchase was a horrible experience, it had taught us a huge lesson on praying, trusting in God, and his timing. And we have used that lesson in much more than a van purchase. We always have regretted buying things that weren't blessed by God. But when we buy something that God has blessed, we have the peace that passes all understanding, and haven't regretted the purchase one little bit!
In reading this blog post, I hope you find the encouragement to pray, maybe even wait it out, and not to "go" unless you get the green light from God.
