A little back story here 1st...
We seem to be notorious for choosing vehicles that turn out to be lemons. About 5 years ago, we purchased a super cheap mini van when little Asher joined our family. We drove it about a year when it started to completely fall apart, quite literally. I vividly remember driving through Canton & having parts fly out from under the van & it coming to a jerking screeching halt.
After that, we were gifted a newer mini van, that we hoped would outlast our kiddos... After pouring thousands of dollars into repairs, over the course of 2 more years, only to find out the transmission was about to blow, we were feeling pretty discouraged about it all.
We have a mini vacation coming up & knew there was no way, it was going to get us there & back, so we decided to reach out for recommendations this time & try to shop a little smarter.
We came up with a budget plan & set out looking for our next car.... This is the part I love :)
We shopped online(some of the local dealerships) we were initially looking for a Honda Pilot, but our search revealed that even the used ones were far beyond our budgeted price. We found an Explorer that we wanted to look at though.
I had an appointment in Wooster earlier this week & decided to drive over & take a look at the Explorer after I was done. It turned out not being something we'd want. Knowing we were crunched for time, I was feeling discouraged & decided to get some ice-cream, just another block up(because eating your feelings is always a good idea) haha!
Anywho :) ...As I sat there, having my caramel sundae, I talked to God. Asking His favor in finding the car we were meant to have...
I started for home, and as I passed the next dealership, A white Explorer caught my eye & I decided to stop on a whim & take a look at it. Andy & I had discussed mileage, price & a few other details that were important to us & the Explorer had almost double the miles what we had talked about...
Just as I turned to go back to our van, a young man came up behind me & asked what it was that I was looking for...
I told him we were looking for a 7 passenger vehicle, with 50,000 or less mileage & gave him the budget price we came up with.
The young man looked at me a little surprised at the exact specifications & said, he had a Honda Pilot in the garage, getting detailed & it would be ready to sell by the following day & it was almost identical to the ones we thought we couldn't afford & exactly within all our specifications. The young man said he would notify us as soon as it was ready & we could be the 1st ones to test drive it.
The following day, we got the call, but couldn't get in to drive it. We were asked if we wanted to put down a deposit to hold it till we could test drive it. We declined, believing that if it was meant to be, it would still be there... & it was :) We drove it the next day & both Andy & I loved it.
We went inside & crunched some numbers. We had both decided, that if the payments came to more than our budgeted amount, we would simply walk away & trust that God had something better for us.
The numbers came back, & the payment was 150.00 MORE than what we could do per month, so we apologized for wasting their time & planned to leave.
The young lady, working with us at that point, asked us what we were looking to pay monthly, she took the numbers to her manager & they crunched some numbers, & came in 4.00 better than our budgeted amount... & the rest is history.
I'm still in awe, how Abba Father orchestrated it all, & not only provided, but showed favor & allowed us the opportunity to purchase a car we loved & thought would never fall within our budget.
