This was the picture I chose to announce our pregnancy on Facebook. Who knew that we would literally have a "bump in the road" ahead of us with our sweet little boy. After the initial two visits we had and learned the news of his Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome diagnosis, we were probably not the two most grateful people that you would want to run into...We were upset and we didn't understand why something had to be wrong with our little boy. Then...as I prayed and was at the end of my line (because there is physically nothing I can do for him once he gets here) I put it 200% into God's hands. Since then I've noticed blessings all around us, helping us to prepare for our son's arrival. God has placed people in our lives that we didn't even know that's comforted us more than they could imagine, and he's brought old friends and others we only briefly met into our lives again, including a pastor at the church we visited several months ago...I think any parent that goes though something so serious as this with their child they feel completely helpless and need to hear reassurances where they can (which we've been blessed to have them all around us in just the first week of knowing).
More specifically, I want to talk about the day that God blessed us with one of our bigger stresses that we've had hanging over us since December this past year...our Escape...we have 3 children already and had little brother on the way and the Escape we had just wasn't working and wasn't going to work for our needs with baby brother coming. We tried in December to trade it in through Carmax in Chattanooga and the lady that appraised it said it had transmission issues, scratches down the passenger side door (which was some sort of hard wax or plastic that streaked down the side that wouldn't come off. It actually looked like a huge white scratch down the side) other than that she said the back bumper needed to be removed and painted and soft buffed...just the amount of problems she said were adding up and knocking down trade in value tremendously. We were so bummed and went home and just had this dread that it was going to be $$$$ to fix. She said anywhere from a $50 fix to a $5000 dollar fix. NOT what we wanted to hear.
Then come this past Thursday we had our specialist appointment and learned of baby boy's diagnosis and knew we would be traveling a lot to Atlanta. We knew we had to have a new vehicle asap and it was going to have to be reliable and have plenty of room for our family to get back and forth to his future surgeries, hospital and doctor visits etc. and began to pray. Immediately after we left the specialist we took the Escape to a good long time friend of my hubby's, Josh Moore, out at Hixson's Express oil change and dropped the car off to be worked on to fix EVERYTHING that popped up wrong with it (Which turned out that our warranty covered the 967 in parts and labor etc. and all we had to pay was $50..NOT $5000!).
We left there and went to look at Carmax maybe one more time to see if we could find anything since we were having everything fixed and was going to try again on our trade-in with the Escape. We found a really nice van fully equipped with everything we knew we were going to need for our family and special needs son and was sold that day. We even went to other dealers and just couldn't get a deal like we could at this place. We knew that was where we were going to sit down and try again.
We went Friday afternoon and picked up our Escape. Ice cold air blowing on us and the O2 sensor fixed (aka the transmission problems it was said to be having). We were ecstatic and highly recommend our buddy Josh Moore at the Express oil change in Hixson, Tn! Because of Josh we got to trade in our car the next day!
As we entered the Carmax parking lot early Saturday morning we were nervous and holding our breath that God would still let the van we found be there. Literally as soon as we pulled into the lot the guy on J103 started talking about people needing to buy new cars and that they would find what they want at so and so place, and I got this calm over me that God knew we really needed this now and that we wouldn't be turned away with bad news this time, and leaving in that crappy Escape we had so many problems out of.
Now was appraisal time, everything that she marked before took off tremendously from the trade in value. :/ Funny thing is, we took our car to have the "lava wash" done out at the big 3 minute drive through car washes the day before. I'm not sure what it was about that car wash but it melted that plastic/wax on the side to where it felt like a sticky sticker residue and I just washed it off real easy before we got there to have it appraised. So outwardly it had nothing wrong with it now like she said before. The guy took 20 minutes to appraise it and came back and said, well I can't find anything that she mentioned before. It drives fine (no transmission issues, Thanks Josh!) and the air worked perfectly (aka no more condenser issues!). He also said there was no outward scratches on the passenger side (that part that mysteriously FINALLY came off prior to the visit) and that the bumper didn't need any big paint job like she said. It bumped our trade in value 2,000 dollars! We were a lot more satisfied with this this time.
We went out and went straight for our van that was still there! Told them that's the one we wanted to test drive and and when we got back we sat down with this nice younger guy that was going to be our salesman for this van. Oddly enough he was asking why we were interested in the van and we told him we were having our son soon and have three other children, but we would be traveling back and forth from Atlanta a lot with his condition and surgeries and he just stopped and looked at us and said, "You know, I've come to realize when you face such serious situations like that (because my family and myself did when my little brother died when I was little) that you just let go and let God". Sometimes it's hard to get through these situations, but God can get you through. That's what we've come to know and trust in." Of course I almost cried because what random person is going to take the time to tell you such personal religious beliefs like that in a professional business setting. You don't get that much anymore. Everyone at Carmax that we personally dealt with told us they were praying for us and our sweet boy. That's why we felt God wanted us to wait until now to get that particular van and to meet with these particular people. They really did put a calm over us because of both their unique situations too, which I'm getting to the business lady next. :)
Finally we come to the closing part and had just one owner (Shaun) on the car and was literally almost done. Something bounced back and they wouldn't take his military pay as proof of income so we had to do a redo with me as a co-owner. It turns out it dropped our payments $50 dollars a month! We're then thinking...okay God now you're just showing off haha. The lady that completed the sales in the business office was wearing cross earrings and a Jesus fish ring on her hand. She sat down and was asking about my pregnancy and the van and we told her about the baby and his upcoming birth, surgeries and she told us...my brother was told he wouldn't make it because of a rare disease he has. She said it would stunt his growth and they were not very positive about his diagnosis either. She said to this day he is six foot 2 and weighed 259 pounds. So she reassured us that even our little boy who isn't given the best odds at birth, could make it too!
We left in our brand new van and a blessed and happy heart. Even after all the bad news we had received prior about our son. God may bring us to a situation, and sometimes ones so serious that we don't understand why they have to even happen, but He will get you through it every step of the way...starting with our biggest stress since we found out we were expecting. I know God has my son's little heart in His hands and that He upholds my husband and myself and my family as we face what's to come. Even in the bad times and the things that didn't go the way we had hoped, look for God's blessings and His faithfulness in getting us through those dark situations. He's always there when you learn to trust him and put your faith in him, and actually look for Him. :) You just have to learn to take his blessings and reassurances as they come because if you're not careful you'll miss them. A positive attitude is everything in times like these!
More specifically, I want to talk about the day that God blessed us with one of our bigger stresses that we've had hanging over us since December this past year...our Escape...we have 3 children already and had little brother on the way and the Escape we had just wasn't working and wasn't going to work for our needs with baby brother coming. We tried in December to trade it in through Carmax in Chattanooga and the lady that appraised it said it had transmission issues, scratches down the passenger side door (which was some sort of hard wax or plastic that streaked down the side that wouldn't come off. It actually looked like a huge white scratch down the side) other than that she said the back bumper needed to be removed and painted and soft buffed...just the amount of problems she said were adding up and knocking down trade in value tremendously. We were so bummed and went home and just had this dread that it was going to be $$$$ to fix. She said anywhere from a $50 fix to a $5000 dollar fix. NOT what we wanted to hear.
Then come this past Thursday we had our specialist appointment and learned of baby boy's diagnosis and knew we would be traveling a lot to Atlanta. We knew we had to have a new vehicle asap and it was going to have to be reliable and have plenty of room for our family to get back and forth to his future surgeries, hospital and doctor visits etc. and began to pray. Immediately after we left the specialist we took the Escape to a good long time friend of my hubby's, Josh Moore, out at Hixson's Express oil change and dropped the car off to be worked on to fix EVERYTHING that popped up wrong with it (Which turned out that our warranty covered the 967 in parts and labor etc. and all we had to pay was $50..NOT $5000!).
We left there and went to look at Carmax maybe one more time to see if we could find anything since we were having everything fixed and was going to try again on our trade-in with the Escape. We found a really nice van fully equipped with everything we knew we were going to need for our family and special needs son and was sold that day. We even went to other dealers and just couldn't get a deal like we could at this place. We knew that was where we were going to sit down and try again.
We went Friday afternoon and picked up our Escape. Ice cold air blowing on us and the O2 sensor fixed (aka the transmission problems it was said to be having). We were ecstatic and highly recommend our buddy Josh Moore at the Express oil change in Hixson, Tn! Because of Josh we got to trade in our car the next day!
As we entered the Carmax parking lot early Saturday morning we were nervous and holding our breath that God would still let the van we found be there. Literally as soon as we pulled into the lot the guy on J103 started talking about people needing to buy new cars and that they would find what they want at so and so place, and I got this calm over me that God knew we really needed this now and that we wouldn't be turned away with bad news this time, and leaving in that crappy Escape we had so many problems out of.
Now was appraisal time, everything that she marked before took off tremendously from the trade in value. :/ Funny thing is, we took our car to have the "lava wash" done out at the big 3 minute drive through car washes the day before. I'm not sure what it was about that car wash but it melted that plastic/wax on the side to where it felt like a sticky sticker residue and I just washed it off real easy before we got there to have it appraised. So outwardly it had nothing wrong with it now like she said before. The guy took 20 minutes to appraise it and came back and said, well I can't find anything that she mentioned before. It drives fine (no transmission issues, Thanks Josh!) and the air worked perfectly (aka no more condenser issues!). He also said there was no outward scratches on the passenger side (that part that mysteriously FINALLY came off prior to the visit) and that the bumper didn't need any big paint job like she said. It bumped our trade in value 2,000 dollars! We were a lot more satisfied with this this time.
We went out and went straight for our van that was still there! Told them that's the one we wanted to test drive and and when we got back we sat down with this nice younger guy that was going to be our salesman for this van. Oddly enough he was asking why we were interested in the van and we told him we were having our son soon and have three other children, but we would be traveling back and forth from Atlanta a lot with his condition and surgeries and he just stopped and looked at us and said, "You know, I've come to realize when you face such serious situations like that (because my family and myself did when my little brother died when I was little) that you just let go and let God". Sometimes it's hard to get through these situations, but God can get you through. That's what we've come to know and trust in." Of course I almost cried because what random person is going to take the time to tell you such personal religious beliefs like that in a professional business setting. You don't get that much anymore. Everyone at Carmax that we personally dealt with told us they were praying for us and our sweet boy. That's why we felt God wanted us to wait until now to get that particular van and to meet with these particular people. They really did put a calm over us because of both their unique situations too, which I'm getting to the business lady next. :)
Finally we come to the closing part and had just one owner (Shaun) on the car and was literally almost done. Something bounced back and they wouldn't take his military pay as proof of income so we had to do a redo with me as a co-owner. It turns out it dropped our payments $50 dollars a month! We're then thinking...okay God now you're just showing off haha. The lady that completed the sales in the business office was wearing cross earrings and a Jesus fish ring on her hand. She sat down and was asking about my pregnancy and the van and we told her about the baby and his upcoming birth, surgeries and she told us...my brother was told he wouldn't make it because of a rare disease he has. She said it would stunt his growth and they were not very positive about his diagnosis either. She said to this day he is six foot 2 and weighed 259 pounds. So she reassured us that even our little boy who isn't given the best odds at birth, could make it too!
We left in our brand new van and a blessed and happy heart. Even after all the bad news we had received prior about our son. God may bring us to a situation, and sometimes ones so serious that we don't understand why they have to even happen, but He will get you through it every step of the way...starting with our biggest stress since we found out we were expecting. I know God has my son's little heart in His hands and that He upholds my husband and myself and my family as we face what's to come. Even in the bad times and the things that didn't go the way we had hoped, look for God's blessings and His faithfulness in getting us through those dark situations. He's always there when you learn to trust him and put your faith in him, and actually look for Him. :) You just have to learn to take his blessings and reassurances as they come because if you're not careful you'll miss them. A positive attitude is everything in times like these!