Gratefullneess

Memorial Day weekend I traveled to Seaside with some friends from church for a nice weekend away. I drove my car along with my friend Julie and we stopped in Portland to visit family & friends on the way to Seaside and back.

A few weeks before this I noticed that my car was acting sort of strange. Sometimes when I turned off the ignition the radio would not turn off - and I could pull the key out. I mentioned it to Chris but we decided to wait to check it out since it wasn't consistent.

Forward to Seaside. Saturday of our weekend we drove down to Tillamook and Cannon Beach. While leaving Cannon Beach, Julie had trouble starting my car. We jiggled the steering wheel and after a few tries it started. The next night we also had to try a couple times to start it when leaving Cannon Beach after dinner.

Monday, Memorial Day, we all headed home and Julie and I had lunch with her parents in Portland before heading back. It was a nice break but we were ready to get home since we had both not seen our husbands all weekend (unfortunately they both had to work and could not come on the trip).

Well this time my car would really not start. We tried everything and nothing happened. We turned the key, the electrical came on, and that was it. We soon realize that there is not much we can do. It's Memorial Day and most all repair shops are closed. We called AAA and they sent out a locksmith to make sure it was not the ignition. It sure wasn't - the ignition and key were in great shape. But we soon found the problem. There was a piece behind the actual ignition that was loose.

Julie and I were set to spend the night in Portland and have my car towed Tuesday morning to a repair shop. But Julie's parents had another idea. They offered to let us use her mom's car to get home and her dad would get my car repaired. Then he would meet Julie in the Dalles to give my car back when it was fixed.

Wow! I was blown away by this. They certainly did not have to offer this. And originally her dad was just going to drive all the way to the Tri-Cities from Portland to make the exchange.

Since this is already a long story I will sum it up in the fact that my car was finally fixed on Wednesday and Julie and her husband met her dad in the Dalles to get it back. He did a lot of work to fix it trying to track down the apparently obscure part that was broken. And he saved me a lot of money in the process.

I am so grateful:

Grateful that the car broke down in front of somebody's house and not on the freeway.
Grateful that it broke down in Portland and not in Seaside.
Grateful that Julie's parents were so generous to loan me their car for most of the week.
Grateful that Julie's dad put so much time and effort into fixing it.
Grateful that God takes such good care of me even in tough situations.