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Up until this week our family car has been a 1992 Honda Accord. This used to be Chris' family's car which was bequeathed to him by his generous parents upon his college graduation and subsequently became our shared vehicle when we got married a year and a half later. It has been a sturdy car, a (mostly) reliable mode of transportation throughout the first years of our marriage - first in sunny Santa Barbara and now in the verdant green of Oregon. The dutiful car never complained when we added first one and more recently two car seats which took up permanent residence in the back seat and added patina to the upholstery in the form of cracker crumbs and juice stains. We've had many adventures in our trusty Accord, so many, in fact, that we have driven a collective 220,000 miles on that steadfast engine. We knew our time together might be up soon and had let our minds wander to thoughts of a new car, but we just couldn't bring ourselves to give up on Old Faithful. Until this week, when the decision was made for us in a most abrupt and incontrovertible way.

I'll never quite know what prompted me to peek out the window towards our parking spot on Tuesday morning. But the sight that met my eyes was one I did not expect - our parking spot was empty. Although it is Chris' habit to walk to work in the morning, it is not unusual for him to drive instead on a drizzly day. So I called him at the office, ready to launch into a disgruntled speech about how inconvenienced I would be without the car that day. I was cut short, however, when he replied that he had not taken the car at all. With a sinking feeling I looked outside once more, just to confirm what I already knew to be true.

Yep, our beat up, barely hangin' on little Honda was stolen on Monday night. Feelings of disbelief soon gave way to frustration and anger that someone would have done something like that. And to us. It felt so personal. Why our car, out of the hundreds of others surrounding it in our apartment complex? The Sheriff answered that one: apparently early 90's Hondas are incredibly easy to break into. We found ourselves wishing we had decided to buy a new car a few weeks ago when we first started thinking about it.

Wednesday night found us at the car lot with our friend Matt while his wife Jess watched the kids. We knew what we were looking for when we arrived, and three and a half hours later drove home in our new (to us) Saturn station wagon.



I have to say, it's nice to have a newer car. We now have a remote door opener, CD player, and more trunk space - not to mention the well-groomed upholstery just waiting to be broken in by the kids in the backseat. I know all things happen for a reason. Maybe this was the nudge we needed to get a safer, more reliable vehicle. Perhaps the Honda was ready to break down and would have left us stranded on our next trip to the grocery store (is it bad that I really hope this happened as the thief drove off?).

And after all, it's just a car. We are thankful that God provided the ability to purchase a new one, but there are much greater tragedies than the loss of a possession. We're trying to keep it all in perspective ;) And a huge thanks to those of you who offered car seats and other kid-related things to replace the ones that were lost. We so appreciate it!!!