20 weeks

That's right. Saturday marked week 20 in my pregnancy. And to celebrate, I bought a car! (Still no ability to upload pictures b/c of laptop problems.) No really. My husband and I got me a fabulous car. My girlfriend Kellie had sent me a link to one of her friends in a neighboring city who was selling her car, which wasn't exactly what we were looking for, but was in good shape, very little miles, and in our price range. So I emailed her and left her my number.

This woman left me an email saying that someone was coming to look at the car at 8am and she didn't know what time was too early to call. I was so angry and upset that I didn't tell her that anytime after 6am would be fine to call because of how early my son gets up and even more so because my husband and I felt very much that this was what we were supposed to do. We'd been feeling very apprehensive about getting a car from a dealer and spiritually that it was not what we were supposed to do.

The woman graciously emailed me back and let me know that her car had sold. Now I was super confused. Why would Lars and I both feel settled about something and not have it work out? Grousing to myself in my head, I pulled up Craigslist.com and started to scan through cars in the OC. I found one that looked right (a VW Jetta), similar the link I'd been sent by Kellie and made the call. Someone was already on their way to look at it. Brick wall.

I made another phone call. Sold. Brick wall.

I made another phone call, not enough information. Brick wall.

I found a great 2007 family Volvo for sale, made the call. As I calculated the insurance payment in my head on top of dropping every penny we had in our savings just for the car and not including money for car/repair/insurance, I quickly came to the conclusion that insuring and repairing a luxury car was so not going to happen. Brick wall.

I made a few other phone calls with more of the same thing. But now I was fueled by frustration and anger. I was on a mission. I knew I was supposed to buy a car this day. So I kept at it.

Then the woman I originally called about the first Jetta (because I'd found a few) told me that the person who was coming by had repeatedly kept calling and saying she was just around the corner, even though they lived in the same city. We were told we could come out and look at the car, since the car owner was tired of being jerked around. So we prayed, loaded up, and headed to Orange County.

When we got there, the car was gone. Actually, the person who had originally wanted to look at the car was behind us IN THE CAR. Now I was ticked. Holding my breath. They left, saying they wanted to think about it. WHAT?? Who does that?

We checked out the car ourselves and crossed our fingers. We paid for it and while Lars filled out the paperwork, the woman who was selling the car got out a kids drinkable yogurt and some Oreos to share with my son. She and her husband were so kind. I was just blown away that she would share something with us when she had two little girls of her own and was selling us her car.

Now after how nice this couple was, I'm really hoping there's nothing super wrong with this car. It'll go to the mechanic's this week sometime when Lars can take it because this momma is not putting herself or her child in that car until everything's put together. **Holding my breath**

And you'll be happy to know that for the first time EVER, I drove an entire 45 minutes on the freeway with my son in the backseat following my husband home. I've never driven on a California freeway for more than 15 minutes to get to work, so nearly and hour was a miracle. I'm not saying I'll be doing that anytime soon again, but now I know that I'm capable of it. Maybe I'll get a TomTom I won't be so freaked out about getting so hopelessly lost with no one to find me that I'll die of panic in the car....