Saying Good-bye (to my car)

When I turned 16, I did not get a car. Of course, at the time this was the most devastating thing ever. All my friends got cars. I got to drive my dad's old Buick because he got a new car. I know that I'm fortunate to have had something to drive. I know that now, but at the time-I hated it. We won't discuss how I never locked it or how it only had a tape player so I put a small boombox in the middle seat with batteries so I could listen to CDs.

Shortly before I graduated from high school, my parents finally (in my mind) bought me a car. Now that I'm older (and wiser), I realize how fortunate I am that my parents bought me a car at all. I realize that they didn't have to do this. I realize that there are parents who are unable to or don't buy their teenagers cars.

My car was worth the wait because it was very nice. It was only a year old and had low mileage. It was a used car, but had never been owned by anyone. It drove great.

 Here I am leaving the dealership on the day my parents bought it for me.

Driving to school for the first time in my car.

This car saw me through college. It was our "getaway" car after we got married. We went on our honeymoon in this car. My dad signed the title over to me when we moved to North Carolina and it was such a great feeling when we decided to buy Lee a new truck to not have to worry about any car payments for my car.

As I mentioned, we decided to buy Lee a new truck a few years ago. His vehicle was older and mine had many more good years left. Our plan was to keep my car for several more years. We planned on getting me a new car either when we could afford it or we had two children so we would need something bigger.

Well, that plan may have gone out the window on Monday. Monday was a work day for me and we had "Meet the Teacher Night" for the upcoming school year. My coworker and I were walking out the back door because that door was closer to our vehicles. As we were coming up on the parking lot, we heard a car accelerating and braking; we saw this car jump the curb as they rounded a curve; then, we heard more acceleration and some crashes. I just knew.

This is what we saw:

Now, I'm not going to share the story that was given to us because honestly the facts don't all add up and it's just very frustrating. I'll let you imagine your own story. As you can see, my car was hit (quite hard) and you can't really tell from the picture, but my coworker's car (the black Expedition) was hit as well. Then, the car at fault ended up completely in the bushes. 

Keep in mind, this happened in a PARKING LOT! How do you destroy a car like this in a PARKING LOT?!?

It was a long night as we spent about 3 hours in the parking lot between waiting on the police officer to show up, having him write his report, and waiting on a tow truck. I was just sick. I could barely look at my car. 

I KNOW it's just a car. I KNOW things could have been worse. There was actually a family walking nearby at the time this happened. I KNOW life isn't fair and you have to just take it as it comes at you. But seriously, life has thrown A LOT at us since we've been married. We've never had a "honeymoon" stage of marital bliss. We've been dealing with life from day 1. I don't mean to sound ungrateful because God has always provided for us and I know He will provide in this situation as well. 

I'm just frustrated because this was not part of the plan. I have worried myself too much with thinking "what if." It's also frustrating because it is in NO WAY my fault. My car was innocently parked at my work place. In other frustrating news, it's that way because we don't have the money to just go off and buy another car. So, if we have to get another vehicle it probably won't be what I'd really want.

At this point, we're not 100% sure it's totaled, but it seems that it might be. It's pretty messed up. I've kind of already convinced myself that it is so that if it is I'll be okay with it and if it's not it'll be a great surprise.  I'm not going to lie, I've cried a little about this. This car has sentimental value to me. It was my first car. My dad worked hard to earn the money to buy me that car. It was paid off. I knew all it's little imperfections. I was used to it.

Needless to say, this was not the way I wanted to start off my summer. I hope yours has started off better than mine!