What a weekend...

God's provision is marvelous. And what's even greater is that He teaches us through His blessings.

We bought a car yesterday. I wrote a $14,300 check. What's amazing is that we did not have any of that money prior to November. We had known prior to November, however, that we needed to investigate getting a new car...a scary endeavor when you have very little money.

First off, I am blessed to have had the Beetle. I remember when we first got it...it was the most beautiful shiny new cute car! I loved my seat warmers and how cool the sound system was. It was a wonderful and truly appreciated gift, not just for the fun seat warmers, but that I had a car to drive around through highschool and college. Life would have been completely different had I not had a car for those years.

As much as I am truly blessed to have had the Beetle...it has begun to wither in the last year. We had to replace the engine in August, a nice $2,000 expense. Then one month later, the check engine light came on and another $350 bill had to be paid. The next day, literally, the check engine light came on again. When you drive to Fort Worth most weeks (a good 40+ mile drive), that's not the most reassuring thing to happen.

That was about the point I started obsessing over getting a new car. NOT a good way to handle things. I remember asking you all to pray for me and I'm so thankful to have felt those prayers as God calmed my heart about the car. I was able to not think about it constantly but to be patient as we slowly did our research.

After a couple of months, we were blessed to experience God's provision for a new car. First, we received an insurance settlement and then I got my CPA exam bonus. All of that money equaled the amount we needed/wanted to put down for a car (the $14,300 check I told you about above) so that we could afford the monthly payments.

But God was not done teaching yet.

Patience is not one of my strong suits and thankfully God knows that and desires to teach me what it is to be patient. Reed's dad gave us the ability to use his GM points and in combination with some offers from GM, we got an additional, $3,000 off of our new car! Pretty amazing! It expired Feb. 1, but we figured, having gone in on January 2nd, that we would get a car well before the deadline.

Well, that wasn't quite God's timing for us. We have waited almost a month to get our new car and it has been VERY difficult for me to have patience. Each weekend we would hear that they would probably have one mid-week and come mid-week, there wouldn't be anything. At first, it just killed the excitement a little, but no big deal really. Towards the end of the month, we had to start evaluating whether or not we should get a different GM car. Because if the $3,000 incentive ran out, we simply could not afford the car we wanted. There was another similar car that we could also get so we started to think that over. BUT, God's plan was to provide and for us to trust that.

This past Wednesday, we got a call from the dealership saying that we wouldn't get a car before February 1st but they had a VIN number of the car we would get (that way we could use the $3,000 incentive).

It all came down to the last weekend...but we were able to buy our car. God is truly faithful and we believe wholeheartedly He has given us the means to buy this car. And we are so grateful.

So...hopefully we will be able to show you pictures this time next week. For now, you can go visit the GMC website and check out the Terrain in carbon black metallic with the two toned interior :)