A Story About A Van

Deciding to have another baby is always a leap of faith.
Deciding to have a seventh baby is an extra big leap.
It means that my family will no longer fit into the standard or even extended sized minivan.
Baby #6 meant we needed another seat.  It was remedied fairly simply by someone giving us an extra 3 passenger seat for our van to replace the 2 passenger bench.

Baby #7 meant we needed a new car.  A big one.

Buying a new car seemed as much a possibility for us as getting a good night's sleep (heh)
We've been blessed to never have a car payment, and our budget has no wiggle room for a car payment.  Our old minivan has over 150,000 miles on and seems to keep going on love and prayers.
(We say a prayer of thanks every time the blinker comes on and blinks the right way)
So we couldn't count on any kind of a trade-in.

But I KNEW the Lord would provide for our needs.  He always has.  I've been taught to keep the commandments and a way will be prepared.
So I just expected our van to show up.  It was as likely as anything.  Sometimes I'd jokingly check out front to see if it had shown up.
We looked on KSL now and then.  We talked to friends about what vans they liked.  We debated whether to go for a 9 passenger Suburban, or a 12 or 15 passenger big van.
We wondered if we were supposed to use our tax return toward a new van.  We ended up needing it and all of our savings for the landscaping project.
We still had our little new car savings account that we hadn't touched for years.  It had seen small but steady growth, but the total was a pittance compared to what we needed.

Baby came and still no van.  Ours was working.  We rarely went anywhere all togehter.  Nathan was occasionally sitting in the rear cargo area. I made him move up to the less comfortable space behind the driver's seat.  It seemed less dangerous.
Summer vacations came and went.  Somehow we managed to double buckle or have someone ride with a relative or sit on the floor or even sitting in a makeshift carseat I latch-belted to the floor of the van.  It seemed ridiculous, but I felt we were doing the best we could and the Lord was watching over us. 
By the end of summer we had decided we wanted a Chevy Express.  It has an extended wheel base that makes it less likely to roll in an accident.  We were hoping to get one with bi-fuel so we could dissolve some of the extra gas expense of driving a lower mpg vehicle by paying $1.40 for natural gas.  We were pretty sure we needed the extra space a 15-passenger would allow.  Taking out the rear seat of a 12 passenger would leave us with only 8 seats: not enough.
I began praying specifically for this kind of van.  I tried not to think too hard about how it would happen.  I didn't want my ideas getting in the way of a miracle.
By December, I was beginning to doubt if I was going about it the right way.  Maybe I was being ridiculous to think the Lord would provide us with a van.  I cast those doubts aside and kept being grateful that the van we had was meeting our needs.
One day, I saw a navy blue Chevy Express on the freeway.  I have never seen that color, and I have always loved that color of car.
I jokingly said, "Dallin, there's our van!"  The doubts started to crowd in, but I shoved them aside.

My next day's prayer: "Help us to afford a Chevy Express 15 passenger bi-fuel van.  I even know the color now.  Lord, please help me know if there's something else I need to be doing to get us into a van."

A Thursday days later, I hear my friend talking about how low the interest rates are and that she's thinking of refinancing.  "I should look into that," I thought.  We could use a lower mortgage payment right now.

I can't remember if I was just drifting off or just waking up, but I related the refinancing story to Dallin and asked him what he thought about it.  As I was speaking to him, the thought came to my mind that it might be the way to get a van.  He told me to go ahead and look into it.

Monday I called our mortgage broker and he gave me the options.
I looked on KSL.  There was a whole fleet of navy blue ones!
By Tuesday evening, we had all of our papers and documents in to the loan officer.

I tried to just go on normally with life, tried not to get my hopes up and know that the best thing would work out.

The following Tuesday we got our appraisal back so we knew how much cash we could take out to buy the car. 

The loan wouldn't close in time to get us the tax incentive for buying an alternative fuel vehicle.  We decided to look into getting a car loan for a short period of time.

Wednesday I got pre-approved and began the process of a car loan over the phone.  I spoke with the dealer and found out as much as I could.  I added up what the bank would give us and what we had in our little savings account.  It wasn't enough.  I offered it to the dealer and he said no.

"Phew!",  I thought.  Now I can just focus on Christmas!

We got the snow tires on our other cars in preparation for our trip to Idaho.  We'd gotten over a foot of snow and the roads were as bad as they've ever been since we moved to Elk Ridge.  While we waited for the tires, we talked about whether we had explored all of our options.  Our plan was to leave Friday morning, and the thought of not having everyone belted in this weather seemed downright careless. 

The dealer called back, trying to give us some other options.  He gave us his absolute lowest possibility on each of the vans we were considering.  We were still just a little short.  Could we put it on a credit card?  He didn't take credit cards.  "Call your dad."  the thought came.
I explored that possibility and quickly decided against it.  For sure Dallin wouldn't like it.  Hmmm. 
We had no choice but to go on with our family's festivities.  That night was the biggest night of the season for us:  Giving Day.  It was wonderful.
I woke early the next morning, still thinking I needed to call my Dad.  I was actually thinking up all kinds of crazy scenarios.  Dallin came down to tell me goodbye and I told him what I was thinking.  He didn't love the idea.  He was off to work and we were out of time.  I decided to take Brandon and do our last minute shopping.  It was December 20th.  The thought of Nathan not having a seat belt was still really bugging me, but I'd done all I could.

Just when we got down into Salem by the Krishna Temple (the place where my phone always loses service), the thought came again.  "Call your dad, you're running out of time."  I drove on until I got to the place where service was more reliable and had Brandon dial him in.  There was his cheery greeting on the other end.  "Dad, we're trying to buy this van and I just keep feeling like I should call you...." And I burst into tears.
The stress of the situation and the  humility of asking for help was too much to hold back!

My text to Dallin a little while later:  My Dad just wired us the money.  When can you get off work?

It was back in the Lord's hands while I focused on getting the Christmas items on my list.  Brandon and I had a great time.  On our way home, I talked to my Mom for a minute.  She said one of her Christmas wishes was to be able to help us get into the car we need.  What a blessing to have such parents! We got back to the house just as our guests were arriving for our co-op Christmas party.  I was a little bit distracted during the event.  I still had Christmas to finish and a trip to get ready for, and I still wasn't sure if this was going to work out.

The van was in Bountiful, over an hour away. The bank closed at 6pm.  The dealer was smart enough to encourage us to get a loan at a bank with a branch close to the dealership.  Dallin got home late. We didn't leave until 4.  The pumps at the stations we stopped at wouldn't work.  It was rush hour.  I called the bank and asked them what needed to happen to get things rolling on their end.  A purchase agreement.  Okay.  So the dealer faxed them a purchase agreement for a car we had yet to see.  The blue one.  I just knew it was ours.
We got to the dealership at 5:40.  Dallin hopped in the new van and drove it to the bank.  They needed to inspect it. We finished the paperwork and got out of there sometime after 6.  Then we looked at the van.  We looked and looked.  We looked at the other vans.  But our loan was for this van.  It was dark.  It was cold. We couldn't even really see the color.  We could come back tomorrow and start the process all over again if we wanted a different van.
But it was blue.  And it had the lowest mileage, only 45,000.
 It was our van.
We paid him and drove to a gas station.  Dallin got the hang of the natural gas pump while Nathan and I got some dinner.  It was late.  8:00.  Nathan stayed with me in the old van to help with the baby.  We got home first and waited on the porch in the freezing weather with the kids to see our van show up.
It did.
It just showed up!

The baby slept a nice long stretch that night.  I woke up at 5:45 thinking of the van.  Sulley hadn't even woken yet.  I tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn't.  I crept downstairs and looked out at it.  It was still dark, but it was there!  I tried again to sleep, but it was useless.

I decided to start my day.  I had a lot to do to get ready for the trip.  I went down to my sewing room where I study and pray.  I have a card that I use to help me stay focused when I pray.  It reminds me of the things I want to pray about.  When I got to the part about Nathan, I broke down.  I wept and wept - tears of joy, knowing that he would not have to ride on the floor anymore!  He would have a nice comfortable belted safe seat. 

Later the sun rose, and we all looked and looked at the van that showed up.  It is beautiful.  We loaded it for our trip. What a comfortable trip to Idaho we had! What a miracle!

In a matter of two weeks, the possibility of us getting the van we needed went from extremely doubtful to us driving one home.

President Monson recently testified, and I add my testimony to his:
"Our Heavenly Father is aware of our needs and will help us as we call upon Him for assistance.  I believe that no concern of ours is too small or insignificant.  The Lord is in the details of our lives."

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