When I turned 16 my parents bought me a 1995 Honda Accord. I loved it so much and was so excited to have a car at 16. I remember driving it home from Franklin and going to straight to what we called "McDomaco" (an Texaco and McDonald's in one). My friends met me there so they could see it. We were all so excited that we were finally 16 and able to drive on our own. Then I went home and parked it behind the house in the driveway and took pictures of it - some with me sitting in the driver's seat :) I wish I knew where those were!
That was my first car and I drove it for the past 10 years. I had one wreck in it and that's because some jerk clipped my rear end going about 45 miles an hour and then sped off. After the initial shock of being hit and seeing him speed off, I actually started to go after him - with my bumper now dragging on the ground. I was so mad that he had the nerve to do that!! Clearly he got away without me getting his license plate and I pulled into Nipper's Corner and called my dad. :( Anyway, that situation was taken care of and other than that incident I maintained that car so well and she never gave me any trouble. I always said that I would drive it until it wouldn't run anymore because it was a great car and I didn't have any car payment. I'm really proud of myself for sticking to what I said!
Well her days came to an end 2 weeks ago. I was driving home from work at about 8pm and at the four way stop outside of our subdivision she started smoking and everything under the hood sounded like they were just having a party and dancing all over the place! I immediately called Slone and asked him what to do. I drove it the next 2 minutes home and parked it for the last time in front of the house as smoked poured from the hood. :(
We knew that this was going to happen sooner or later because over the past year we've had to put a lot of time and money into the car and it was adding up very quickly. We weren't willing to spend more money on it that what it was worth so we were careful as to what work we were willing to have done. In January I couldn't pass an inspection and the fix was $300. We never got that fixed. So....it started to seem as if we were going to have to get another car sooner than later. That scared us because I'm student teaching right now with no pay and working about 2 hours a night at Texas Power. How were we going to just go out and confidently get a new car???
That's where God's grace comes in because He wants to give freely to His people. We went through the same process buying a new car as we did with buying our first home. We always looked at houses for fun to see what was out there and what we could afford but didn't think that we would be buying at such a young age. Within a few years we became homeowners and chose the first home we looked at (after comparing others that same day). We have always looked at Acura TL's to watch the prices of them and we LOVE those cars. They are super reliable and built very well - but again, we were never in a position to buy another car and they were out of our range. But, God comes through and we own an Acura TL that we've wanted for the past 5 years AND the place we bought from took my little Honda as a trade in! We knew what we could afford monthly and were not willing to go anywhere above the budget. The credit union first said that we could only finance the car for 4 years which made our payments out of our range. The lady was really nice and Slone asked if she could consider talking to someone about making an exception for us to finance for 5 years. We test drove the car again and had it inspected while we waited on her to call back. I prayed and knew that if they couldn't change the number of years we could finance then we would have to move on. Low and behold, she calls back and they are making an exception for us! Praise the Lord! We finished the deal that day and bought our first car together :)
That day I realized something very important about my marriage. Slone is a strong, intelligent, and negotiable man. The things he said and did during the whole process, as a woman, I would have never thought to do. I told him during the day that I was so thankful to have a husband that knows how to handle these situations and negotiate with people. He knew all of the questions to ask. All of the steps to take and never got anxious or worked up during any of it. He kept me grounded and confident in what we were doing that day. What a safe feeling it is to have a husband like that.
So the moment you've all been waiting for - unless you skipped reading and went straight to the pics, the new car! (When I say new I don't mean 2012. New to me is any year in 2000 because of the condition my car was in when she died!)
Bye, Honda! Many, many memories were made in this car!!!
Hello, Acura :) I hope you are ready for a fun adventure and some kiddos in the back seat someday ;)
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