Car Woes

Cars. Car troubles have plagued our marriage from the beginning. It does not seem to matter what car we have, we will have trouble with it. Memories of being stuck in Germany with a broken down car, not once but 2 or 3 times comes to mind.  Having a signal with a friend to come and “rescue” me when my car did not always want to start while we lived in Montana and Matt was gone.  Having to replace clutches in cars, transmissions, strut mounts. It seems never ending.

In the past month, we have replaced the air conditioner on our main car and some other various parts that go along with it. Two days after getting the car back, the AC quit working  and we had to have it looked at again to find out there was a leak in the line and all the Freon leaked out. Now the car is leaking something that looks like oil and we will need to have it looked at again.  As well, it kind of vibrates at higher speeds, despite having had our tires rotated and balanced.

Then this week, our other car has had trouble. Sarah was weed eating in the front yard and a side window on the van exploded. We are assuming a rock was thrown up and hit the window at just the right angle. One day after the window shattered, Matthew went to church to pick up Ben and Rebekah. Sarah got out of the car, then opened the door again to inform Matthew that the tire was hissing. Yes, a flat tire. While I know that Matthew can change a tire all by himself, I still called my dad. Grandpa went down and helped change the tire. Which turned out to be a good thing since one of the lug nuts was a different size. 

Cars cost money. And, my perception is that we have more car trouble than most other people. When we are having car trouble, it is a great time to remind myself and my kids of the love that God  has for us. He never leaves us nor forsakes us. We are able to praise God in all circumstances, such as the tire slowly leaking air instead of blowing while Matthew had a car full of kids. We are able to be thankful for air conditioning after a week of none with temperatures in the 100’s. Giving thanks during difficult situations is hard, but we are getting lots of practice thanks to our vehicles.