20 Weeks 5 Days: God's Baby Shower Present

 Yep. That's us in front of God's baby shower present--a 2011 Jeep Wrangler Sport valued at $25,000!!!

Skyler and I were sitting in church yesterday morning when he kept getting phone calls from a guy he knows.

"I need to go check my voicemail," he says. I figured if he was getting up in the middle of the church service to check his voicemail, he must have been concerned. Just moments after he left the sanctuary, the pastor asked the congregation, "What does God love to do more than anything? He loves to give us gifts."

About five minutes later, my husband comes up behind me and whispers in my ear, "You need to come out here and find out what's going on." My heart sank. What has happened now? I thought. It's only ever bad news.

I go out and meet my husband in the foyer. I find him with tears in his eyes but with a look on his face that I recognize. Those are happy tears.

"You're not going to believe this!" he tells me, choked up. He proceeds to tell me about the phone call he just had with the deacon of St. Theresa's Catholic Parish in Evansville, IN. Unbeknownst to me, he recently purchased three raffle tickets to support their church. Out of over 5,000 tickets, Skyler's name was drawn out. The prize was a 2011 Jeep Wrangler from Audubon Chrysler in Henderson, KY.

The vehicle is really, really nice. BUT . . . it's a 2-door soft top convertible. Woulda been fun 10 years ago, but I'm not puttin' my baby in that thing! So, after spending six hours at the dealership (seriously, it's not like we had time to plan out what we wanted to do), we traded the brand new Jeep and our 2004 Chevy Impala (aka ticking time bomb with almost 140,000 miles on it) for two SUVs. We got a 2002 Silver Ford Expedition and a 2002 Gold Chevy Trailblazer.

 

Me in my Ford Expedition

 

Skyler in his Chevy Trailblazer

It might seem strange that we would trade a brand new vehicle for two used vehicles, especially ones that do have some miles on them. But, we really feel like we made the right decision for us. I'm not going to get into it, but we really, really, really, desperately needed a new vehicle, especially before Baby Girl gets here. Our car more than likely had some very serious problems, on top of the fact that it wasn't paid off yet. If we'd have kept the Jeep, we would have had to pay sales tax, plus a $199 dock fee for doing the paper work.

We started our day yesterday with a car payment on one car that was worth nothing but at any moment threatened to take us out with car repair payments. We ended our day with two really nice vehicles that are in great condition, no car payments at all, and we didn't pay a dime. Plus, they both have new tires, full tanks of gas, and each come with six free oil changes. PLUS, we're taking them back tomorrow to get free 2-inch balls put on the hitches.

There is no doubt--this is from God. It is a miracle. It is so good to know God has our back and will make sure we can take care of our little girl. It's also good to know that He just loves us so much that he would just give us a great big fabulous surprise.