Counting My (Auto Related) Blessings

This was not originally intended to be a Thanksgiving post, but something amazing happened back in early October and my heart continues to well up with thanks to God for it so I just had to share about it here.

To start, I must first mention that in the early Spring, my husband was given a pink slip from his school district. Along with 92 other teachers and staff in the district that were among the 'recent' hires.

He's been a teacher for 15 or 16 years now (with a short hiatus in which he worked for a trucking company when we first moved to this area) but when we moved across town a few years ago, Jeff switched to his current school district and this year, was 5th from the top of 'the list' of pink-slips. 5th in line to be hired back if they so chose.

We're currently a single income family, and I would be lying if I said that I didn't feel a little niggle of worry in the back of my mind at the sudden changes I knew were looming on the horizon because of all this. The previous school year, the district had done the same thing, only that time Jeff didn't make 'the list'.

The district was being overly cautious this time around, no doubt due in part to the fact that our entire country was seeing an unprecedented increase in government spending, and frankly, things weren't looking quite so promising as they had the year before.

With all the economic uncertainty, among teachers there was talk of what had happened during another infamous economic crisis in our nation, the Great Depression...when many districts around the nation eliminated high schools because there just wasn't a sufficient tax base to support them.

If that were to happen (God forbid), they knew that the long term teachers would be shifted around among the remaining jobs district wide and there would be a lot more people unemployed.

Around this time, the building boom finally went bust in our area, people began losing their homes in record numbers, and enrollment dropped in our area.

Circumstances didn't look so good, and the situation was never far from our minds.

However, as we prayed about it and trusted the Lord to care for us, that 'peace that transcends all understanding*' settled over us.

We knew that our faithful Lord, who had provided all our needs in years past, would do so again.

And from our experience, it seemed that things occurring during just such times were especially remarkable to witness because they just didn't add up on paper.

With God, the One who owns the "Cattle on a thousand hills"...nothing is impossible.

A couple of weeks after receiving the pink slip, Jeff was honored with becoming "Teacher of the Year" at his school.

I was delighted for him, but the recent pink slip kind of put a damper on things for him. To be told you're teacher of the year material after essentially being told you are not coming back...seemed wrong, somehow.

But we continued to pray.

There was still that inexplicable sense of Peace. The Lord had always been faithful to care for us in the past...and after directing our focus continually back where we knew it should be, we knew He would continue to do so.

And blessedly, a couple of months later, his job was reinstated...with a pay cut.

However, we were thankful to the Lord for that job even with the pay cut, because a 6.5 % decrease in pay was a whole lot better than the projected 15% cut the district had wanted.

It was doable if we tightened the belt a bit.

And so we did.

And we managed just fine.

In fact, it was during this time that we experienced several substantial blessings...the gift of a camper and a computer among them.

We began to feel that belt tighten, however, and learned that we had been a bit excessive in our spending. Too much eating out. But we continued to express our thanks to the Lord our Provider, and cut back wherever we could.

I was thrilled that I could still stay home with our little Judah and not have to re-enter the work force or put him into daycare.

And somehow, in the midst of our lack of funds, we found ourselves able to give back to the Lord and others in many other ways. And we were blessed in the giving. Abundantly blessed.

Though none of this added up on paper, we always had enough of everything we needed and always had plenty to give.

Then things began happening to our cars that were out of Jeff's realm of expertise.

We had to face facts. Our paid off older cars were beginning to cost us more than they were worth.

Getting them to pass Smog and get re-registered seemed an absurd expenditure when one of our cars was barely limping along and the other needed some expensive work on it.

My long-suffering husband Jeff was also getting weary of spending so many weekends trying to keep the cars in working condition.

We continued to pray for the means to buy a more reliable vehicle. A longstanding prayer of many years, actually.

Always before, the Lord had provided something that always got us through and was generally a step up from the last vehicle we'd had, and, with the exception of our black car (which cost a mere $500), the rest of our vehicles were given to us outright.

We've had a long history with these auto related blessings.

There was the red compact.

The pick-up. Which, like a cat, seems to have 9 lives with us.

The van.

The camper.

Each time, we felt enormously blessed, and thanked the Lord for His provision.

Jeff, self-sacrificing man that he is, always made sure I had the best of the cars to drive, seeing as he didn't want me and the kids stranded around town.

More recently, he was driving the black car. It ran pretty well but is totally falling apart inside due to it's age.

This year, due to the whole "Teacher of the Year thing", Jeff got as his reward the most coveted parking spot on campus...right outside the school office.

However, he'd been a little too embarrassed to park there on account of having to tuck the door handles into the car each time they got out.

They were attached only by the electrical cords that operated the electric windows and locks as there was literally nothing left to attach the deteriorating foam handles back to, short of bolting them through the door itself...a step he wasn't willing to take.

Needless to say, our car situation was really wearing thin for Jeff, but with finances being tight, there wasn't a lot of wiggle room for a car payment.

And so we continued to trust the Lord and pray.

And then, out of the blue...the most remarkable thing happened...and from a source we never ever would have expected!

It was like our own version of the movie Facing the Giants.

This beautiful truck was driven over to our house one sunny Saturday in October.



At first, we were ready to scold the young man and his fiancee who brought it over, because twice, in previous weeks, they had come over to show us their brand new vehicles, asking Jeff, "So, what do you think?"

And both times we'd shared in their joy.

You see, their excitement and joy was bittersweet for them, because they had come into a large sum of money from a life insurance policy which had been paid out when the fiancee's mother was involved in a tragic car accident a couple of months ago. Heartrending events still fresh in everyone's mind.

"It's a beautiful truck" Jeff admitted, adding in his fatherly tone, "But you two need to get in and see a financial planner and make sure you have enough set aside to buy yourselves a home. It's not everyone that gets the opportunity to start their married lives off this way..."

The young woman pulled out her camera. And the young man said, "Actually...this truck isn't for us...it's for you."

And Jeff's mouth dropped to the ground.

"NooOoOoooo..." he replied, shaking his head. "I can't accept something like that from you guys!" He went to hand the keys back. "It's too much!"

The young man held his hand up, "No it's not...it's a gift."

The young man had wisely thought to bring along his grandma (Jeff's mom) as backup. "No, Jeff...this is a gift from him to you...and you need to just accept it as such."

And the words this young man spoke as he hugged us both and told us how much he appreciated our impact in his life brought tears. We were truly humbled beyond words.

This young man is an extended family member who we love like our own. And in fact, one of the two main reasons we moved across country 13 years earlier was to be here for he, his siblings and his mom as they underwent a terrible time in their lives.

13 years ago, when all this stuff was going on in our lives, we just prayed...trusted God and took a leap of faith...and He not only caught us, but provided for us every step of the way. Moving money, a job, a place to rent which was an incredible deal and was literally doors down from their family...we knew it was meant to be and we were happy to do whatever we could to help our family.

We never dreamed that our obedience to God then would, in a sense, lead to such an amazing gift these many years later.

Our wonderful Lord used these generous souls to bless us with that beautiful truck outright.

And let me tell you, once we got past the shock, there was much hugging and happy-dancing going on in our driveway.



It's the newest vehicle we've ever owned...with low mileage and all the bells and whistles plus a full 3 year warranty...which means we can even take cross-country trips in it! Praise the Lord!

As we took our beautiful new-to-us truck for a spin later that evening, we pulled out some CD's (because this vehicle was the first vehicle we'd ever owned that came with a working CD player inside) and as we drove, we sang praises to God at the top of our lungs...astounded and utterly giddy at His provision.

And the next morning, we all peeked out the window and Jeff exclaimed, "It wasn't a dream!"

And Jeff now happily parks in that hard-won "Teacher of the Year" spot at school, thanking Him every time he gets behind that wheel for answering that yearning for a reliable vehicle...beyond his wildest dreams.

The Lord has truly been good to us, and for these and many other blessings I am especially thankful this Thanksgiving.

Every good and perfect gift comes from above. ~James 1:17b

*Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ~Philippians 4:6-7

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It bears mentioning that this couldn't have happened in more perfect timing, as the black car all but gave up the ghost on the side of the freeway yesterday afternoon.



Here was Jeff, administering first aid to the vehicle.

Turns out that running out of gas was the least of the car's problems.



And yes, that is a bowling pin used to hold up the hood of the black car. We're classy that way.

Unfortunately, the black car had to be transported home via ambulance tow-truck, and is now in critical condition in our driveway.

We fear she is not long for this world.

Thankfully our van is still viable, and in a couple of weeks when Jeff completes what we hope is the last major repair on it for a long while, she should be good as new for a long while.

Thankfulness abounding,

Frumpmama