Building Faith

When we planned our relocation to Florida, we had to plan around a lot of uncertainty, mainly when Ivy would be born. We knew the housing would be provided by Honeywell, but there was quite a bit of stuff we would need to bring down to make our 7 months in Florida comfortable (computers, clothes, bikes, pictures, tools, towels, books, etc.), so we had to think of a way to get the bare minimum stuff down there. Well, bare minimum stacks up quickly, and we still needed to actually get it down here.

Since our new van had a dealership warrantee on the engine and transmission, we didn't want to tow our stuff with the van, thinking that by so doing we would void the ability to exercise a repair claim (if anything did break down on the transmission in the first 5000 miles). Having the stuff shipped there was expen$ive, so we decided it would be best to use our old 1992 Honda Civic (265K miles!). Since we didn't really know when Ivy would be born, we didn't know how healed and able to drive I would be when we had to leave on June 10th, so we decided Brian would fly back a following weekend and drive down our stuff in another trip. (Sorry for the long story, but we had to background this story to justify our craziness for using an old compact to tow our stuff).

For trip one, we drove from Boston to Florida as a family in our van, and the trip took 5 days to get here (4 driving days, and one day stopping at a mission friend's house in Georgia to relax and recharge). This trip was semi-leisurely, stopping frequently for nursing breaks, gasoline, bathroom breaks, and overnight hotel stays. For Brian's second trip, he had only a 2 day weekend, in which time he had to fly back, pack the trailer from our storage unit, then drive the google-maps estimated 1365 miles towing a 2,000 lb. trailer! (Does this sound risky to anyone else?)

So, he arrived in Boston around midnight on Friday, slept a few hours at a friend's apartment where we used to live, woke up early Saturday morning to pick up the trailer from Uhaul, drove to storage, transferred some of our goods to the trailer, and finally rolled out of Boston around 11a.m. So far, all is well . . .

...until about 35 miles outside of Boston when the Check Engine light came on. This had happened a few times before a couple months prior to leaving Boston. Nothing ever came of it then though, so he just decided to keep on trucking. (After all, it was Saturday, no mechanic's place would be open until Monday anyway, and he had work on Monday. "Plus," he reasoned, "Check Engines come on for anything as small as a backfire or combustion misfire...they're more a suggestion.")

Towing a 2000 lb+ load with a 1.5 liter engine is usually not a good idea. (Brian edited this next part for technical accuracy:) The engine was running just as warm, according to the gauge, but the transmission (and gear shift knob) was really hot. At around 400 miles, the engine started developing serious hesitations and stalls in 5th gear. He was starting to get really worried. If the car up and died, he would be stuck far from all friends and relatives who could rescue him, 1000 miles to go, and less than 2 days to get to Florida. Sure, his boss would understand if he missed the first two days of the week, right? So, he just switched to 4th gear for the rest of the 1000 mile trip ("a better towing gear anyway because the gear ratio is 1:1 and fewer gears are involved so less power loss and heat generation"..? ). This meant he averaged about 50 mph. (only important b/c it made for a much longer trip). 4th gear had the same problems, but only under heavy load (hills or passing--yes, he said he actually passed 3 slower cars over the whole trip).

At this point we decided to make a deal with Heavenly Father: "Just let the car make it to Florida, that's all. If it never works again, no problem, just let it make it to Florida. If it is going to need repairs, just let it die in Florida." This is what both of us (Brian driving, me in Florida) continued to pray the rest of the trip.

His plan was to stop at a cheap motel Saturday night, catch some Zzz's, and finish the trip on Sunday. Didn't quite go that way. (He didn't tell me this until he returned home--curse those little white lies). He wanted to get as far as he could as soon as he could in case the car died, giving more time for a rescue from Florida if necessary. After hours of driving a sputtering car he did finally pull over at a Motel 6 . . . parking lot . . . and slept in the car . . . for about an hour and a half. Dangerous business I tell ya, but adrenaline does crazy things.

So, upon waking up he put some fuel cleaner in the car and resumed his trip (for fear the car might not start up if he waited any longer). The cleaner did help, but did not eliminate the problems. (Think hours and hours of driving, no AC, little sleep, towing a heavy trailer). So, 15 hours of driving later, he did finally make it to Clearwater about 6pm Sunday evening, the last two hours of which, the engine was really having even more serious hesitations and loss of power.

After unloading, the car almost didn't start, but we said our prayers of gratitude and counted our blessings. Then we realized we still had one problem: we needed to return the trailer. So, we decided to revise our "deal": "Thank you for blessing us. Yes, Brian and the car made it here, but if you could please let it work 2 more times, 1 to return the uhaul and get Brian to work, and 2 to get Brian back home from work, then it can die." He started the car up Monday morning, returned the Uhaul, drove to work and started it up to return home that evening.

The car hasn't worked since.

We've learned 2 things from this:

1. Heavenly Father answers prayers and we're really thankful for that.

2. Next time we should pray that the car should never die. (but if this happened, it wouldn't make for a very exciting story).

Seriously though, these are the kind of blessings that continue to build our faith. (Especially Brian, since he was the one driving) :)