The saga continues

So, as you know, our Nissan has been retired from service. We still have to get it out of the driveway, but we're working on that. With our very strict budget we went searching for a new car. In one day, Benson drove about 10 different cars, trying to narrow the playing field for what we wanted. He really liked one of the cars he drove, a Mercury Milan, but it was out of the budget, so we moved on. Well, sort of. What really happened was I got ambitious. I was certain that we should be able to find the car we want in the budget we had. We just had to get creative and start really looking hard. I scoured the web for hours trying to find a good deal. Most of the cars I was finding were listed for between 12 and 16K. Just plain too much. Anyway, I was thrilled to find one listed in our budget, so Benson went to check it out.
It passed his test, and he got a great deal. In fact, the window sticker price said 15,900. There was another couple who came to buy that same car after Benson had already committed to it. They had already negotiated a price of 12,900 for it. Lets just say we didn't pay anywhere NEAR that. Its a beauty. Anyway, the day he paid for it, he couldn't drive it home since he had driven there by himself afterwork. So, we went to pick it up yesterday. We packed the kids up in the minivan and off we went.

Benson looked like a little kid in a candy store. He was just thrilled with the new car. I wasn't at all familiar with the area the dealership was in, so I asked Benson to drive right with me home.

As we were driving home, I noticed a squealing sound that was new. Not so great. Not too long after and the battery light came on the dashboard. I called Benson and told him to watch me closely, because the car wasn't acting right. I then said a quick prayer that we would get home safely. About 5 minutes later, the engine temperature started rising. I tried to grab the phone, but couldn't dial because I was freaking out too much, so I just put on my blinker and pulled over. I'm SOOO glad Benson was paying attention. He pulled over too. We had nothing to cool the car down and we were at a bad spot on the highway, but we were close to an exit. So, we slowly drove the car the short distance to get off the highway. When we opened it up again, Benson was able to grab the broken belt and pull it out. At that point it was obvious we couldn't drive the car ANYWHERE even if it cooled down, so we called for a tow truck. Unfortunately, 6 people don't fit in the fancy shmancy new car. So we packed the kids in and I left Benson to ride along with the tow truck.

So, I *could* whine about my bad luck and the cost of repairs ... but instead I choose to be SOO GRATEFUL that Benson was right there with me when the car broke down. If the belt had broken when I was by myself with all the kids, it could've been really dangerous, and much harder to get home. The Lord did answer my prayer: we all got home safe.