The
Family Car
Last week, Steve & I took one more
giant step into the world of parenthood.
We'd already converted our spare bedroom into a nursery and given our
living room up to the ever- increasing pile of toys (all of which,
inexplicably, make noise). We'd accepted
the fact that our days of sleeping late and watching whatever we want on TV are
over. Having a baby has changed almost
every facet of our lives - from the way we relate to each other to the way we
view the world around us. Last week, we
gave away that last little remnant of our independent, pre-parent days. Yep - we traded Steve's Ford F-150 truck in
for a Honda minivan.
We knew that eventually we were going to
have to do something about our vehicle situation - at least by the time we have
our second child. Neither my Civic nor
the truck were designed to carry two adults, two kids in carseats,
and all of the stuff that goes along with those two kids. At Christmas, we decided to drive the truck
to visit family because they're just wasn't room in the car for everything -
Gracie's pack-n-play, her stroller, all her clothes, our clothes, Christmas
presents, the kitchen sink......We loaded as much as we could in the cab of the
truck, stuffed the rest of it in the bed, and prayed it wouldn't rain. It didn't rain - it snowed! Luckily, Steve had a tarp and nothing was
messed up, but we could both see the writing on the wall. So, the idea of getting a vehicle that was a
little more practical for a growing family had been swirling around in my
head. The space issue was compounded by
the gas issue. There are months when we
spent more at the pump than we sent to the bank to pay for the vehicle. That's like paying more a month for home
owner's insurance than you do for the mortgage payment - oh yeah we do
practically do that, too (oh, the joys of living in
When we took the Civic to be serviced last
week and we saw a pre-owned (don't you love car dealers' euphemisms these days)
Odyssey, I took it as a sign. I also
took it as a sign that we had both the car and truck with us (we'd driven the
truck to pick up the car). I mean, it would have been a lot more difficult to
trade the truck in if it was at home, now wouldn't it? Of course, I take everything as a sign, so I
looked to Steve to see what he thought.
"It's up to you," he said and shrugged and then agreed to test
drive the thing while Gracie and I waited in the parking lot. When he came back 30 minutes later, I knew he
was hooked. I was picturing all the room
we'd have for trips and how easy it would be to get Gracie in and out of her
seat - I was hooked, too. I made a
ridiculous statement to the saleswoman about how we'd only buy it if they took
the truck as a trade and paid off the car so we'd only have one car
payment. It never dawned on me that they
would actually go for it - I had forgotten that car dealerships these days are
practically begging people to take cars - I mean 0.00% financing, come on!
So, the push and pull of buying a car
began. There's a reason they call these
places dealerships. They deal - they
don't sell - and anyone who thinks buying a car is a simple sell has never
bought a car. And anyone who was insane
enough to take a tired and hungry toddler with them to a car deal knows that
the wheeling and dealing is hardly made easier by having a fifteen-month-old
tagging along. Gracie split her time
between stealing the pens that the saleswoman brought to the table and trying
to alternately write on the cloth chairs or poke her own eye out and running
through the showroom. She was fascinated
with the cars - their headlights, the shiny paint, the
tires. I managed to keep her from
scratching the paint with her stolen pin or climbing into one of the $35,000 sports
cars with her mushed up animal cracker hands, but it
was close!
Finally, we got
everything worked out in a way that was acceptable to both the dealer and
us. By this time, it was closing in on
Gracie's bedtime and like many toddlers, the more tired she gets, the wilder
she gets. So, to spare us from a lawsuit
and the dealership from the pain of having to explain to their insurance
company whey they let a toddler drive one of their cars through a plate glass
window, I agreed to go ahead and take Gracie home and let Steve finish the
paperwork and drive the van home. I'm
sure I saw tears of relief in the saleswoman's eyes.
As I walked out into the warm evening air,
an old friend caught my eye. There,
sparkling in the fading light was Steve's black truck. Suddenly, I was a little sad. Steve had the truck when we met. Its door was the one he held open for me on
our first date. It was what we drove the
day we went to pick my engagement ring out.
When Steve was traveling out of town, it was that truck that I waited to
see pull up in our driveway. It was the
truck that we drove away from our wedding reception, our first ride as husband
and wife. After we were first married,
when I'd turn the corner onto our street, my heart would skip a beat when I'd
see that truck, knowing that the love of my life was home. Just then, the second love of my life, the
little imp with a new car fetish, smiled and waved back at her daddy on the
other side of the plate glass. I saw him
standing there and knew he had to be a little sad, too. He was giving up a piece of himself, but he
was doing it to make life easier for Gracie and me. To me, his truck was always an outward symbol
of what a strong man he was - a strong reliable vehicle for a strong reliable
man.
I know that there
are people who will tell you that they will NEVER drive a van and men who will
tell you that's it not manly for a man to drive a van. But, I'm here to tell you there's nothing
more manly in the world than a man who will do anything for his family. Every time I look at our new van, I'm
reminded of what a wonderful, strong, loving husband I have and what a
wonderful father Gracie is blessed to have.