The Jetta

So, I mentioned a while back about the car that the Lord gave us.  This beauty is it.  It's a 2006 Jetta.  So here's the back story...

Scott had been driving a "hoopty" old Honda Accord for several years in California.  It didn't have a/c (which is kind of a bummer when it gets to be 110 in the summertime, but no worries - it's "dry heat"), had a big scrape down the passenger side, had crazy dark ghetto tinted windows, and a suped up alarm system that sounded like Fort Knox when it armed.  Scott was proud to drive his "hoopty" car until the electrical system shut down.  (A problem that I caused driving back through the desert, in the middle of the night with no cell phone after my weekend in Vegas with my girlfriends, but that's a story for another day!)  Anyway, because of it's electrical issues, the car would just quit as you were driving it down the road.  We took it to the shop NUMEROUS times and they always replaced this part or that part and promised us that THIS is the solution.  Not so much.  This was a problem as we had already arranged to fly my Daddy out to drive the hoopty cross country on our move.  We picked the car up at the shop the week before we're headed to AL and it quit in the parking lot of the shop.  Nice fix.  

Ok.  All that being said, it became days before our move.  One morning at the park, one of our dear friends basically sits with me on a bench and tells me that the Lord has told them to GIVE US THEIR CAR.  What?????!!!  Seriously??  Who does that???  Who just gives away a car????  Let me just say that I have trouble accepting gifts and help.  I have a hard time asking my DAD to babysit...  I had real trouble accepting a FREE CAR!  Especially when said car is going to leave my friends with one vehicle for their growing family!!  Doesn't make sense, right???  However, when your sweet friends say that the LORD is TELLING THEM to GIVE YOU A CAR and you have every confidence that they've heard from the Lord correctly before...  it's hard to argue with God.

Our friends have been paying the lease on this car for the past year.  I don't know if I've mentioned it before because we're not really supposed to talk about money, but when you go from being an officer in the Navy to a brand new pilot with an airline, you take a TREMENDOUS pay cut.  (Have I mentioned our 1200 square foot rental house and our nearly family of 6?  one bathroom??)  Anyway, it's been a stretching year - the Lord has really taught us a lot about priorities... Again, I digress.  The fact that the Lord gave us a reliable, fuel efficient (lots of trips back and forth to Cincinnati and Atlanta for Scott's commute), and even sporty little car to drive for free for the first and most difficult year with the airline is an unbelievable gift.  

We turned in our cute little Jetta yesterday.  Scott will begin his second year with Delta on May 5 and we expect a significant pay raise as a result.  Pretty perfect timing from my gracious Lord, huh??  I want to print and frame this picture of Scott and the Jetta and hang it on my fridge as a reminder that the Lord DOES provide what we need and JUST when we need it.  I've had the proof parked right in my driveway for the last year.  I pray that He'll continue to remind me of that again and again.