Life Lessons: Car Troubles

I honestly mean this question, and will let you know when I see the bigger picture, but I am eager to find out what God is trying to teach Renae and I right now in this season of our lives. Here is a little background of some lessons that we have learned in our short 5 years of marriage:

Year 1 Fiasco

I idolized an amazing local school district. I wanted to teach there and no where else. I applied. Miraculously got accepted without having any connections in the district. Realized that it wasn't what I thought it was. Did not last the entire first year. I spent the next year working for the same company as Renae making hourly wages bringing in anywhere from $200 a month to $3000 a month.

Year 1 Lesson

I realized that I needed to get that idol out of the way. After all the dust settled Renae and I learned how to budget and manage our money. By the end of year 2 we had pretty much paid off $40,000 worth of debt and were pulling in the savings. I also took a job at a private school and absolutely loved my time there. It was a teaching position where I was able to gain a solid foundation in teaching and classroom management as well as pour into the lives of my students.

Year 3 Fiasco

In one week too much happened. On Monday I became an uncle. Tuesday found out I was going to be a daddy. Thursday had my car totaled in an accident. Friday settled on our house. My head was on a swivel that week. In fact, I think I may have suffered from a metaphorical whiplash. But the dust did settle...

Year 3 Lesson

Life comes at you fast but the Lord provides. Not once was in desperate need of a car during the three to four  weeks that I was without one. The house settlement went smoothly and because I didn't have a car I just went to the house to work early in the morning and would stay there all day until I could go home. Financially, we were able to have a child without any extra added stress. We were thinking about selling my car to look for a new one and having it totaled actually provided more money than we thought we could sell it for....and the big kicker was we found a steal of a deal at a car dealership on a Honda Accord which was too good to turn down, and came right at the beginning of the school year when I needed a car for my 30 mile round trip.

Now...
The issue is vehicles....

Back in an earlier blog I posted about Renae's car needing too much work done on it when it went in for inspection. First of all, we didn't know where the money would come from and secondly it would cost just about the same as what it would be to purchase the car used. So we ended up junking the car...

Two weeks later...I am driving home from a Bible study on the back roads of West Chester, PA. I am driving carefully around the twists and turns with the high beams on, waiting for a deer to prance across the road. Then, only a few miles from my home, I get on a short section of highway when BAM! Out of nowhere a deer comes through the woods and slams into the front driver side corner of my car! The radiator was hissing and fluid was dripping...headlights were out...dash lights came on...lucky for me the air bags didn't go off.

So what lesson are we supposed to learn from this? I am waiting to hear back from our insurance as to how long we will be without a car. We don't really have the money budgeted for these kinds of things (but really, who does?). I honestly can say that God has taken care of us over the past 5 years. At first it can be depressing to think about our situation. But then I realize that we have a good life. And more awesomely, we get to see God work in and through us in times like these. So we will hang tight and weather the storm and keep you updated with how things work out.