Or better yet . . . Saturday?
Yesterday was a holiday here in my wonderful province. Family Day. What did we do as a family? Well, Ty went to visit his best friend, which was supposed to be for sleepover (his first sleepover ever away from home aside from Grandma's house), but it turned out to be just a 10-hour visit, because once evening arrived he no longer wanted to sleep over. I baked four kinds of muffins. Wayne, despite the fact that he's getting over a crazy flu/cold-like illness, took Mitchell out to the machine shop to work on a "project". Wayne, Mitchell and I played 3 board games throughout the day, and that basically sums up our Family Day.
On Friday I had a little mishap with my car on the way to work. It was either I hit the ditch or I hit the oncoming truck; I opted for the ditch. But that resulted in a 4-hour wait for a tow-truck, a 1-hour wait to get out, and then the disappointment that my car wouldn't start after it had been in the ditch all morning. Fortunately, I was able to start the car again about an hour after it had been towed home. However, by that time it was too late to go into work. And . . . today after work, my car wouldn't start.
I prayed over my car. But nothing happened.
So, I called my Home & Auto Insurance Co. and requested yet another tow. This time I only waited 30 minutes for the tow, and I got to return to the office to keep working while I waited for the tow truck to arrive. Wayne had to pack up the boys (they're on holidays this week . . . he's working the evening shift), and come get me, since I was kind of stranded in the city. As a result, he was an hour late for work. And he already missed a day last week due to his illness. And when he misses work it affects us. Greatly. He us usually able to make-up the time before the end of the month, but I'm not sure if he's going to be able to do it this time around.
The mechanic was able to look at our car this afternoon and then delivered the bad news. My car needs a new starter, and another repair. The engine oil level was dangerously low (however, no warning lights on the car had gone on yet, so I had no clue about this), and this was caused by something to do with the crankshaft on the front seal ??? I'm not exactly sure what all the mechanical jargon is, exactly. All I know is it amounts to one thing: $600. That's $600 that we don't have right now. We are currently in a financial bind. What else is new? I'm hoping that once we get our income tax refund all will be well again. However, this vehicle repair is really, really going to set us back. And to be honest, I'm not even sure where we're going to come up with the funds to pay for it. Until Wayne gets home from work and we discuss this whole matter, I've put the mechanic off and have advised him to wait to hear back from me before he proceeds to fix the car.
Our car is 10 years old and nearing the 300,000 km mark. In the last year, things have really started to go. And we're just not certain whether or not we want to keep putting money into something that keeps breaking. Our other option is to consider purchasing something else. That prospect scares me, simply because of the financial side of things. I feel like we're in a no-win situation here and so I've been spending this evening in prayer, seeking God's direction on this.
I am trying to trust God to meet our needs. And in the past, He's always come through. But from a human perspective, I look at our heap of bills, add the vehicle repair expense to the heap and wonder if we'll ever make it.
Please pray for us as we sort out this mess.
P.S. This whole ordeal with the car came after a day of challenges at work. I felt like I was being personally attacked, when the issues at hand were not a result of anything I did. My emotional state was already at a low prior to this whole car thing happening. I feel really discouraged.
