Alabama

My wife and I planned to take a trip down to see my youngest brother and his family in Birmingham, Alabama. We planned on leaving the Wednesday before the new year holiday. My Mom had already left with our daughter and two other granddaughters, the Sunday after Christmas. My middle brother and his family left to go down the same Wednesday morning that we were planning on leaving. So my whole immediate family was already down there waiting for our arrival. I picked my wife up from work, which helped us save over an hour of drive time. We stopped just south of Louisville for the night. We got up the next morning and headed out. We stopped just south of Nashville for lunch. We came out after finishing lunch and guess what.........Car would not start.

We tried and tried to no avail. We head back into the restaraunt, to seek out a phonebook. We call a local garage, the guy tells us we can get you in right away. We tell him that we need it towed. He gave us a number and set up the tow. The tow truck arrive in about 45 minutes and we had it towed over to the garage. We fully expected to get it in right away, but the guy told us that a lot of stuff had come up during the time from our call to him and finally getting there. He told us it would be about an hour before they could even look at it. Great! Ok, fine. God give us the patience to wait here for them to look at it. They finally got around to inspecting it, and told us that they could not fix the problem. They thought that it was the timing belt. We needed to take it to the Hyundai dealer. Great! Now we had to call back and have the tow truck come and tow us to the dealer. Another 45 minutes we had to wait. God just help us get through this! I am leaning on You to help us.

So  while waiting for the second tow, I thought that I would go settle up with the garage for looking at our car. He had originally told us it would be $90.00 to even look at it. So I go up to the counter and tell him I want to at least take care of his part. He told me that he wasn't going to charge us a thing for looking at our car ( Prasie God). In my head I was thinking "that's what happens when you are patient and don't lose your cool!"  So we get the car over to the dealer, finally! They proceed to tell us that they will not be able to look at it until the next day. WHAT!!!! Ok Jesus, more strength please! We are supposed to be in Birmingham by this point, our whole family was waiting for us to go out to dinner together, to PF Changs!

So we decide to rent a car and finish the drive to Birmingham. We get down there at about 8:30 in the evening. We went straight to the restaraunt to meet everyone. By the way, it was delicous! The next day we get a call from the dealer about our car. It is the fuel pump and it will not be fixed until Tuesday of the following week. Again, WHAT!!! Jesus, Jesus, help us in this storm! So we formulate a plan. My wife and daughter would ride home with my Mom, and I would stay behind and take the rental car back and pick up our car on Tuesday! It wasn't ideal, but it was the only way. So my wife, daughter and I were seperated for four whole days! It was bad! So I call the dealer on Monday to check and see if everything is still on track. The service manager told me that it was and that he would see me tomorrow. He said that it should be done around noon. So I leave Birmingham around 9:00 Tueday morning, to get to Nashville at noon. I pull in the dealer parking lot and there sat the car, all done. I went in and paid for it, unloaded the rental, took the rental back, got a ride back to the dealer, jumped in our car and off I went. I pulled in our garage about 10:30 Tuesday evening. Thirteen and a half hours after leaving Birmingham. Praise GOD!

So I guess the point of this post is that, although our car broke down far from home, and that me and my wife and daughter had to be seperated for a bit, God provided for us. We broke down in a major city! It happened while we were parked and not driving! The garage was a block away. They had a Hyundai dealer and it was only a block away. They had a rental car company. There was a car available to us. I Had my brothers house to stay at the extra days, instead of a hotel. Finally, God provided safe travel for me all the way home! No snow, rain or deer. Praise You God, for Your protection over me, Thank you Jesus for getting me back to my family!