Reflection

The last 3 days have been very tiring for me. On Saturday (3/5) my van decided to spontaneously combust. Even worse my wife had to drive it to work that day (usually she would drive her car, but we had to take her's in to get repairs). She stopped by the office to print off some surveys for the program she was putting on. Within the 5 minutes she was inside printing the van caught on fire. The thing is the night before she debated even making a survey for the program; thank God she did. I can only imagine what would have happened if the van would have caught on fire while she was driving. Of course we saw this as a blessing. Yeah, my van was gone but at least my wife came away without a scratch (I can get a new car, I cannot get a new Jackie).

However, the blessings did not stop there. When we went to go take care of the van everything seemed to fall into place. I did not sleep well the night before because I worried about all the red tape and $$$ I would be spending. We did end up having to spend some money on storage and towing fees but when we went to scarp the van we recouped that money and then some. We got back almost as much as we paid for it. When it was all said and done, saying bye to the van was fairly quick and painless. 

The rest of the day we spent getting back Jackie's lost ID and bank cards that was consumed by the fire (she left her purse in the car). We also almost got side-swiped by a semi as we where driving on the expressway. The truck ended up in are lane and I ended up on the shoulder of the expressway feet away from the guardrail of the upcoming bridge (at this moment I was filled with a mix of fear and rage). When we got home we checked the mail and what did we find...? A wedding gift of $200. Our wedding was 3 months ago! With that check we made back all the money we spent buying the van. 

At that moment it hit me like a ton of rocks, and I just started to cry (I was very overwhelmed). At this moment I cannot really tell you why, because the truth is I truly do not know why. My best guess is that it was a mix of lossing some personal items in the van, being thankful Jackie was ok, and of all the wonderful things that came out of the situation. I am thankful for my wonderful wife, because even as she was trying to process why the heck I was crying she was there for me and stayed clung to me until my eyes were dry. God truly is good.