A Shiny New Thing

I felt like I should put out some sort of announcement.

Here it goes.

We (The Muffin, Josiah and I) are announcing the happy release of Bertha (or is it Bessie?) the Buick and Fred the Ford.

They've gone to a happy car lot and potential salvage yard in the sky across town.

Before I remiss about our many years and the many miles shared with Bertha and Fred, I want to introduce the newest member of our family.


Isn't she pretty? And shiny?  I am so giddy I can't help myself. I'm thinking about painting my toes red in celebration.

I can't even begin to tell you of the miraculous blessing behind our ownership of this beauty. It was certainly a God thing. We are completely humbled and so, so grateful.

I was the first one to test drive her. My first act was to see if the air conditioning and heating worked!

I've been burned, my friends. Or frozen. Take your pick.

This morning, The Muffin took the car to a doctor's appointment at the VA (Veteran's clinic). As he is driving down the highway he is giving me a play by play.

"The signals both work!"

"This is amazing."

"The heat works!"

"This is amazing."

Josiah and I were talking today of the "good ole days" when every trip in one of our "classics" was potentially a break down.

"Remember that time we broke down at Wal-mart? Or did we break down at Wal-mart more than once?"

"How about the time we went in to get Sushi and came out and you couldn't start the car?"

"Oh! The worst was when we broke down in Freezing Rain and had to get a tow."

"Remember a few weeks ago when we drove home from the farm and it was 7 degrees? We were so cold we had to stop in at Dollar General and try to find those little hand warmers to put in our shoes."

We felt like the pioneers!

Josiah was a bit sad to see the old cars go. The boy can't remember a reliable car. I think he's going to miss living wild.

I'm not.

I am in AWE of how God has taken care of us.

Through the years, family members and friends have helped us through breakdowns and blowouts. They sent us money to help with repairs, been willing to take a look under a hood and given us a lift when we've needed one.

There is some sort of kinship among those of us who drive a "beater"....

Where we would we be without duct tape?

This time around our new car came about because some dear to us gave even though they knew we couldn't give back. And I can't forget the prayers going out....

I don't have the words to express my thankfulness.

I haven't given the newest member of our a family a nickname yet. I don't know if that will happen until after our first breakdown.

Which, hopefully, won't happen for a very long time.