Todd, Mark, Kate and Richard - A Story of Four Cars

On Tuesday evening we did something very exciting, something we'd been talking about doing for months now - we bought a minivan! He is a 2005 silver Dodge Grand Caravan and his name is Richard. (Yes, we are the type of people who name our cars.) When I look back over the past and think about my husband's and my experience with owning cars, all I can think about is how incredibly blessed we are and how God always provides in wonderful ways.

Between the two of us, we haven't had to buy a car since Jonathan bought his first clunker back in high school before we started dating. His first car was a 1994 Chevy Cavalier named Todd. There are so many funny stories about Todd, but really, the value in that car wasn't the vehicle, but the experiences. Jonathan spent so many days working on the car with his friends and we have so many funny stories and precious memories of learning experiences related to his first adventure and lesson in exactly how not to purchase a car. So many jokes made at that poor car's expense. So many good laughs. 

Jonathan's second car became the first car we ever co-owned. "Mark" was a 1995 Ford Explorer with a manual transmission. Mark was a gift from an acquaintance of a parent - someone we had never met - and what a huge blessing he turned out to be! We drove that car for a couple years before it required such extensive repairs that we couldn't make it work anymore. It was really Jonathan's car, but when we moved to Wisconsin as newlyweds and had to change the plates and registration, he put my name on the title and it became ours.

It was a sad day (for Jonathan) when Mark was sold. I never looked back, but Jonathan was attached to his truck-car. The transmission got to the point where it wouldn't start in first or second gear. That's right, I had to start the car in third gear or above! Now that takes some serious skill, but I don't miss wondering every time I get in a vehicle if it's going to start for me or not. But God continued to bless us - we managed to sell the car (for money, which we couldn't believe!). So even when it was time for it to go, God used that car to provide for our needs.

Around the same time that Mark was dying off on us, a relative offered us her old car for free. This car, "Kate," was a gold 1997 Ford Taurus. Sure, she was an older vehicle, but she only had about 70,000 miles on her, so she wasn't as old as she seemed. This was such a "God thing". When Mark broke down in our first year of marriage we were both scared. We both remember that as the first "crisis" we got to navigate together. At the time we couldn't really afford to buy another car. We were both in undergrad and trying so hard not to take out too many loans. We were each working 20 hours a week while going to school full time, and that was about all we could do. It was scary. We were in Wisconsin and we didn't know if Mark had another trip back to Michigan (where all our family and friends lived) left in him.

Well, Mark made that last trip back to Michigan. The speedometer didn't work. I did the math and figured out how many seconds we should be able to count between the mile markers along the highway. Each state was different with the various speed limits, and we counted seconds periodically to double-check our speed. We had to do stop-and-go traffic in Chicago with a car that only started in fourth gear at that point. But we made it back to Michigan, and just when we couldn't have done another trip, Kate was there waiting for us. A gift that we would never have been able to afford on our own.

Kate was truly God using a family member to bless and provide for us in a big way. I still look back and take comfort in that situation, knowing when new hard times come up that we have always gotten through before and God never fails to come through in some crazy and unexpected way.

Kate was the first car I ever really felt was mine. I learned to drive driving my parent's full-sized van and Explorer, then I drove Mark, another Explorer with a manual transmission that took serious muscle to shift. As a short person, I never really "fit" into any of those vehicles. Kate was my car. She was little, smooth, the seat went high enough and forward enough for me to lean back and drive at the same time! I love her. And we still have Kate. She has been hanging in there and doing pretty well for us, although she is starting to show her age now with frequent trips to our friends the neighborhood mechanics.

It was time. It was finally time for us to buy our own, grown-up car. So now we have Richard, our minivan. We did all the research, picked the year and model that we wanted, talked to various sellers, negotiated a price, had a friend who was a mechanic check out the car with Jonathan, the whole nine yards. We went to the bank, took out cash for the car, and handed it over. It was scary, but it felt good.

Not only am I officially a mom with a minivan, but I still can't believe this is the first car that I have ever purchased. How did I get to be almost 24 years old driving myself around every day without purchasing a car? Well, first I married a man who had a car. Then we got through almost four years of marriage sharing a car. And along the way God has continued to bless and provide for us in ways we would never expect.

It is a little scary, buying a used car from a private seller. We know of one repair it needs for sure, but I am just hoping and praying that when we take it in for that repair it won't spiral into many repairs, which I feel frequently happens. For some reason trusting God with cars and transportation seems to be an area I struggle with. Every time our car needs a repair I feel a knot in my stomach as I wonder whether it will really cost x-amount or if it will become something bigger. And yet, this is an area of my life in which God has blessed me so greatly. It shouldn't be hard to hand it over and trust him with it.

It is always a process. It shouldn't be so hard for us to trust God, especially when he has always come through, time and time again. I am so thankful that God comes through for me, even when I fail at trusting him, and I love being able to look back and see how God was taking care of and providing for me through some of the most ordinary situations.