This weekend we purchased an upgraded carseat for Gloria so Aaron could have her's. He could have gone another month or so in the current rear-facing seat, but we wanted to be all together certain that we could fit 3 car seats in our sedan... or have as much time as possible to acquire a mini van. And we're proud to say, our little Sonata can continue to serve us faithfully as our family grows! We love that car, especially since its paid for, and gets much better gas mileage than any 7 seater on the market. Frankly, we love debunking the myths that all families need an enormous vehicle, or every child needs their own room, or you can't live a good life on a single income. One of Randy's favorite phrases is, "what did you just say?" in response to a "you can't" statement. Lately, as people have questioned us on the size of our car, home and income as we expect our third (and not final) child, his response has been to ask if they would like him to answer in Mongolian. This stems from my stories from Mongolia- watching families, yes even large families, live happily in just a few hundred square feet.
So this morning, I loaded the kids into their new seats, new arrangement, etc. and headed to get groceries. Gloria is still needing some help figuring out how to get in and out of the new seat with a different strapping system than she had before. I'm sporting maternity pants with no pockets (why IS that???) and being out of the unloading-kids-routine, proceeded to lock my keys in the car. Thankfully my mom was working nearby so I hoofed it to the next shopping center over, (wishing I had my sling as Aaron almost made my arm fall off carrying that strapping, young lad!), and borrowed her car to go home and get my spare key. As I was attempting, rather pointlessly, to strap Aaron down so he wouldn't climb over the back seat into the trunk, a sweet lady pulled up and said she had heard me explain my predicament to my mom. She offered us a ride home, her car being equipped with car seats and kids being home with dad. Wow. God provides. What a blessing it is to know that He really does supply our every need... and provides new friends along the way. :->
4 comments:
Continue to be firm in your conviction on what your family size is. When you are, you never question when someone else questions you. This conviction has kept Matt and I strong when people question. And God continues to confirm. Yes we may not have the biggest house, or the largest income...but we do have love...and a friend of mine (who also has a large family-6) calls it "laughter in the walls." And yes he continues to provide...enough money, and in our case...abundance in every need that we have. I pray for that for you guys as you start your adventure of a large family!!!
You just seem to take everything in stride...it is so challenging for me! We have a minivan because our car barely managed 2 car seats (there was about 6 inches between them). We are hoping, though, that it will last us a good long while. I have been thinking a lot lately about how Americans in general have a mindset of "needing" so much more than we really do. It really hits home watching my kids play with old boxes and random kitchen items when they have toys spilling out of just about every room. And once you're at that point, it's so much harder to de-clutter!
Lori,
Don't get us wrong, we didn't really intend to buy a sedan that could seat 3 car seats in the back. (If it were just a matter of seating 3 kids, that'd be a different story, but God Bless our government trying to protect us w/ car seat regulation.) If our Ford Focus had been a 4-door rather than a 2-door, that would have been our initial family-mobile.
I came into the marriage with a 150,000-mile Grand Prix that had been a construction vehicle for a while (and a starving college kids ride before that) so it wasn't really aesthetically pleasing...AND the A/C didn't work...AND the driver's side window didn't work. So, it was a greenhouse on wheels in the Florida summers (which last from about April through September). We needed something else since the Focus (with its 35-mpg!) was about to become my commuter-mobile for my daily 50-mile round trip.
We were really only look for two things when we went to the car lot: low price and high gas mileage. Reliability was also a concern, but we only had so much cash and credit available (after having just put everything toward the purchase of a house). It just happened to be that the 4-cyl Hyundai had a good mix of low sticker price and high mileage as well as a cushy enough seat width to push the limits of a mid-size car nearly to the "full-size car" range.
If we had our choice, we probably would have purchase another Ford Focus. At least that's what I wanted, I really like the Focus Wagons. But the Sonata is proving itself to be a real blessing. AND Alison really gets a kick out of the round headlights. :)
thanks for the encouragement that God DOES provide!!
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