Good Bye To The Old

When we moved to Texas - oh so long ago - we had seven kids and no regular car would work for us, not even a standard van.  We looked and looked not sure what to do  In the end we invested in a used 15 passenger van.  That bucket of bolts was a God-Send.  In it we brought home 4 more children from the hospital.  We traveled north, south and east to visit with family and friends in that car.  We have gone to swim meets, retreats, and Mass. This big old van allowed us to travel together and pick up friends along the way.  We moved people in it and we shared it when others needed it more than we did.  The van only had 117,000 miles on it but in every way it was falling apart.  I took this serious of pictures to remind me why we went back to making payments after having had that thing paid off for so many years.  Thank you God for allowing us such a luxury all these years.  We had good transportation for our growing family. 

 

 The springs in the drivers seat were broken, the passenger seat has not reclined in about 8 years.

 Drivers door handle came off and we fixed it but the fix only lasted a year or so.

 So many dents all over this bucket.  The door was hit at some point when we were out and about and no one left a note. 

 This sticker was hard to let go of.  Our favorite swim coach of the Cudas from years ago called all the kids by Pooker's name.  They were all known as little Pookers.  The kids were most upset to see this sticker go.  We have had the sticker almost as long as we had the car.

 I love that our homeschool group created these stickers a year ago. 

 The seats were messy, stained and the backs were torn to shreds on one seat.  The back of the passenger seat had a pocket that was half torn off.

 The glove box broke off about six months ago.  The cigarette lighter spots were torn out with only one working outlet left to charge a phone.

 The front license plate block has been hanging on for years.  We would fix it but the fixes never held for more than a few months at a time.

 Driving down the highway on the way to a friends house part of the car blew off and smashed behind us.  I was able to grab part of it so we didn't cause a wreck but in the end a big piece was missing from the base of the window. The wipers were no longer protected. 

Finding a replacement was a nightmare.  We have searched on line for months and first started to look for a new car before we got pregnant with the twins.  (Postponed the looking for a few years because we needed all those seats for sure with twin little ones.)  Pooker now has purchased her own truck.  We have a car for dad, Goobers, Bear and Sugar.  What to buy . . .