between life and a hard place

Our maroon Caravan has been on its last wheel for a long time. It’s the newer of the two vehicles we own. We bought them both used and the 95 van is the one Gina claimed as her own because it had the extra comfort features. At the time she spent a lot more time in her car than I did. She was driving back and forth to her job in Marshall County and she deserved the plusher ride. Her job changed immediately after we purchased the van and she wore the thing out doing four county home health visits. I wanted her to get a smaller car that would be better on gas but she said the van made it easier on her knees to get in and out. That made sense.

We really should have replaced that van three years ago but Gina liked her ride and we decided to keep both vans running as long as we could. We started our business two years ago and all our resources went into it. We took our home repair/renovation project funds that we were putting toward the business. Life at home has been at a stand still until we get the business off the ground. Repairs were made but with a semi-finished basement.

In 2006 we began to receive enough income to pay ourselves through out the year. Patient case load is picking up as area physicians are finding out about us. Taxes hit us hard last month. We’d been putting a lot of money in the repair of our vehicles to keep them going. Last month, while visiting family in LaGrange, Gina’s van broke down. A mechanic down there bolted the motor and transmission back into the van so Gina could make the trip back to Gadsden. The van has been in the shop ever since. We’ve paid to have the motor and engine mounts repaired but the air condition hasn’t worked since LaGrange. The AC problem has been a mystery. We’ve been working off one vehicle now for a month and it’s not easy when kids have to be transported and office errands have to be made. We’re going to have to take the van somewhere to have a look at yet again. We put $1,200.00 into AC repair last summer and can’t afford to pay that much out again for this summer.

We found out Friday that Gina will need to be taking on a new patient early (7:00) in the mornings. That means I’ll be getting the kids ready and off to school and we can’t work off of one van. We’ve been going down together while the cars been in the shop. Saturday evening we picked up her van from our mechanic who couldn’t find the electrical problem with the AC. It looks like Gina will be driving without AC until we can get back to using one car. Last night, while returning home from the Eagle Rock event, Gina’s door fell off again (third time). We had been told the last time it came off that the repair wasn’t a permanent fix. I told Gina to not open the door after I got it closed last night. She’ll have to enter and exit the vehicle from the passenger side. It would be great to rent a vehicle while we have the car fixed but we are strapped.

What to do what to do? How about praying for us over this predicament?