car repairs

the other day, right after i had my hair done, i was driving to pick up my kids. the officer was at my brother-in-laws helping with some - car repairs on his car. he took the kids over there until i could pick them up.

i had to drive right by my neighborhood to get to the turnpike. right before i got to my neighborhood, i felt my car do something. i don't know what, but i knew something was wrong. i slowed down and decided i would drive home real quick and take a look. i was literally 50 feet from the turn into my neighborhood when this happened. as i turned the car into the neighborhood, it was very hard to turn. i remember the officer telling me something about my power steering that we would eventually have to get fixed. i thought this is what it must be. as i turned into the driveway, it was very, very hard to turn. i could barely get it turned into the driveway. of course, i was parked crooked - nothing new though.

as i turned off the car, i heard a flapping sound and my emergency brake light & battery light were on. i called the officer an told him the news. sometimes he gets a little stressed about car stuff, but he was great. he said B (brother-in-law) would bring them all home after they finish up what they were doing. i called the mechanic asked him how much a power steering pump would be and then made an appointment to take it in the next day. when the officer got home, he started up the car. he found a loose belt and a broken pulley. this was not good news. he was worried they may have to take out the engine (which translate to a lot more money in labor and several days in the shop) to reach the pulley. the officer decided we better have it towed to the shop. they would tack their bill onto the mechanic's bill. the kids were very excited to see them tow the car away. the tow guy was here all of 4 minutes, but he got it to the shop at about 2:30 p.m. that day.

at 5 p.m. the mechanic left a voicemail on the officer's phone, "we need to talk to you about your car." we didn't get the message until 7 p.m. we kind of fretted about it until the next morning. the officer called first thing in the morning - it wasn't even 8 a.m. the mechanic said, "it was just the idle pulley. we fixed that and had to replace 2 belts." the officer was very relieved. it was almost $150 less than we originally thought.

my car has been a great car. it has almost 150,000 miles on it and is paid off. we are working hard on trying to pay off our debt so we try to keep this car in it's best condition (mechanical-wise). the officer does all the routine maintenance work on our cars. it helps a lot.

i was so grateful that God was watching over me. i was happy my car sputtered right outside my neighborhood and i was able to get home safely. i was so relieved i didn't have the kid with me out on the highway or was not by myself on the way tulsa or somewhere else.

Philippians 4:6-9
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me - put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

God is my protector. God is my deliverer. God is good.