God's Provision Part 2

I love George Mueller.  My dear friend suggested approximately 7 years ago, that I learn as much as possible about George Mueller. She shared some of his life story. It was so inspiring and totally changed my life.

You will need to read part 1 of God's provision to understand this God Story.

                                      

So my explorer was totaled. Gone. I needed a new vehicle. Something that could fit all of us and was pretty easy on my gas budget!

The very same day that I prayed for a buyer for my explorer I also asked God what He had for me as far as a new vehicle.

Now the kids and I had prayed and decided that we would like a Honda Odysses with leather seats and a dvd player. A blue one.

But God gently guided us in another direction. That morning as I prayed I felt that God was leading us to a Dodge Caravan with a tan cloth interior. No frills. No extras. But exactly what we need.

So after the explorer deal and finding out that insurance was being used by God as the tool to bless us, I balanced out my vehicle savings. (thank you Dave Ramsey!) I figured out how much we could afford to put into a new vehicle. I set a number in my mind...

I felt stressed and anxious about car shopping. Seriously how do you do that with 6 kids?!

A friend suggested the website, Cargurus.com. I kept checking that website plus autotrader.com. I called about several vans, but there was nothing in red with cloth seats, low mileage in my price range. This did not surprise me. I searched for 6 months before God provided my 15 passenger van. I expected to keep searching. But it was all weighing very heavily on my mind.

Then one day I did my usual search with a prayer and up popped an '09 Dodge Grand Caravan. Low miles, red, cloth seats, almost the right price. (the online price had dropped that day)

I send the link off to my Ohio mechanic friend for approval. He approved. I prayed and waited.

Meanwhile in less then 2 days my insurance check arrived...

I had to run to the children's hospital with Nesiah for some medical appointments. We drove right past the car lot. (which was 35 mins from my house) IT was rainy and icey. I was running late. I had spend 5 hours in Dr's offices. So I just stopped and took a quick look at the van. I liked what I saw.

I had an insane week. Adoption trainings, medical appointments, taxes, babysitting, bible study and just regular life with my crew.

But Wed morning I asked a friend to babysit so David and I could go car shopping. My plan was to go look at it, test drive it and put  a down payment on it, until I could work out the details on bring it back home.

I had exactly 2 hours before I had to be back to do kindergarten pick up for my babysitting kiddoe.

We arrived at the car lot at 9 am. The guy was really nice. We drove the van. We checked it out. I kept praying. I felt like things were moving a little fast, but I had peace.

We sat down to negotiate. I was running out of time. I knew I wanted the van. I had made financial arrangements. But this salesman kept doing all this long spiel about their business and I really just wanted to get down to business!

we negotiated until I got the price I wanted, which was significantly less then the price post on the van. It was my exact number. I was at peace.

They offered to bring the van to my house. Yes, they offered free delivery!! I was so happy. I ended up purchasing the van and they brought it out to my house 3 hours later. Free delivery and I was atleast a 35 minute drive for them!

                                    

I love how God answers. He knew what he had for me. He knew what He wanted to give me. I knew that being in His will and following the desires He places in my heart would bring perfect peace to my life.


We love our new van. It is so roomy compared to the explorer!!  I am still in shock over how God provided all of this for us! Jehovah Jireh God is my Provider!

God's Provision

This is going to be part 1 of a several part story of God's provision. I am going to be writing as it happens but waiting to publish until things are revealed a little more..

I own 2 vehicles, one is a handicapped accessible vehicle that holds all of us including Nesiah's wheelchair. The second vehicle, is one that I purchased pre kids. It held all of us but not the wheelchair.

We are planning a vacation in several weeks, so I called the garage to have them do a full service and check the tires and brakes before we travel. Now you must know, I am doing all this prep weeks and weeks ahead of time for a reason.

I had the garage come to pick up the explorer. They did a pre roadtrip check and called me.. unfortunately it needed almost $2000 in repairs. I was so upset.

I called my mechanic friend. I called my prayer warriors.. what to do?!

I decided to get the mechanic to fix the basics, then I would  sell it.

The problem was.. we are going on vacation in a couple weeks. I really wanted to take the explorer/smaller vehicle, instead of the van.

So I prayed and prayed, asking God to send the perfect buyer, making this as painless as possible.

The next day I got a call from the mechanic. This is one the few trustworthy mechanics in lancaster county. He was so upset, so apologetic...

His employee/son had been testing the explorer after changing the brakes and rotors. He lost control and crashed my explorer. Apparently he rolled it THREE times.
He was not hurt. He had a couple scrapes and bruises. However, my explorer was totaled. Completely totaled.

In 38 years this has never happened to my mechanic, in all his years my insurance agent has never heard of a garage wrecking a client's vehicle. I just quietly shake my head and say.. you never know how God will answer my prayers. I also breath a prayer for the young man who was driving my explorer. This has been quite traumatic for him.

Random Life Moments..

Life has finally slowed down.. I am trying to catch up on regular life. Finding a new normal with so much less stress... 

I am a big fan of Thieves Oil. It has helped us stay healthy for over 6 weeks! It is however, extremely expensive. So I endeavored to make my own.  I was quite happy with the final product! It has a bit more of a lemony smell to it. I use thieves to clean, on the bottom of kiddoes feet, diffusing in the air and in bath water. 

Fayth and I had the pleasure of taking a friend to pick up her newborn foster baby.. Fayth liked the carseat video they made us watch! 

Our latest favorite food is cornbread waffles.. 

We usually eat chili with these waffles. The kids LOVE love that. But this egg, ham and cheese waffle was our favorite! 

Lots of fun things happening.. We turned the guest bedroom into a Thomas bedroom, much to the delight of a certain someone. Curtains off a facebook  yardsale and border from Amazon. We can't paint due to allergies so this was the perfect compromise, bonus it was very easy!
Can you believe that when we moved here 4 years ago we had no idea we would someday need a bedroom that does not have carpeting?! God knew!