WHAT???!!!!!!

a guy left a voicemail last night at 10:30 saying he was interested in buying our van that i had posted on craig's list. i called this morning and set up a meeting in the church parking lot at 5 p.m. he said that he would call his brother to make sure that was ok and then call me back. his brother was the one wanting the van, but he was doing the calling because his brother didn't speak english, only spanish. so at 4:45 p.m., i still hadn't heard back from him, so i called to see if we were still meeting. he said he thought so. i drove over to the church and waited till 5:25 p.m. before calling again, saying i was so sorry for being a pest, but was he coming? he said he was just leaving work because a problem had arisen there. he was going to pick up his brother and come right over. so i hurried home to finish the laundry and leave the kids with jason to eat dinner and then went back over to the church.

they finally arrived, and i gave them the list of pros and cons that i had posted on craig's list and they obviously hadn't read because on the phone, the guy had said, "there are no problems with the van, correct?" i said, "no, there are lots of problems." so i waited while he translated the whole list into spanish for his brother. then they called their mechanic friend to see if he had time to look at it. i agreed to drive over to their friend's apartment complex so he could take a look at it. when i got back in the van, IT WOULDN'T START!!!!! jason just bought and installed a new battery on SUNDAY -- three days ago!!!!!!!!!! so i called jason to come jump the van because the guys said that they weren't giving up faith. they still wanted their mechanic friend to look at it.

we drove over to the apartment complex (right next to clark middle school -- anchorage people will understand what that means -- not a great part of town). by this time, it's getting a little dark. all the way over there, i was afraid the van was going to stall because it was making some CRAZY sounds!!!! it made it, though. it took the friend a really long time to get outside because he's older and sick and maybe handicapped. he looked at the van and listened to the guy translate the list of pros and cons into spanish (AGAIN!) and gave his advice: no more than $400 (i was asking $1,000). i called jason and he said $500. the guys said no, $400. so i said i'd call if we didn't sell it soon. when i got in the van, IT STALLED!!!! i got out and said, they could have it for $400. i called jason to come get me. they jump started the van. the friend revved the engine a few times and said that they shouldn't buy the van because the gas pump was bad.

so by the time jason got there, i was shaking from cold, nervousness from being in mountain view in the dark, frustration from having wasted TWO HOURS of my day, and a DESPERATE need to use a restroom!!!!!!!!! i told jason that i was pretty sure the van wouldn't even make it home, so i drove the truck and he drove the van (which did make it home). the kids thought i was losing my mind because as soon as i got in the truck, i started crying (for the same four reasons that i was shaking earlier). i'm so very glad that the whole situation is over and that i'm HOME and that our "new" van should be here no later than next week!!!!!!!!

i KNOW that God works things out for the good of His children, so i'm waiting to see what He's got planned here!!!!! maybe one or all of those guys were Christians and God didn't want them strapped with this broken vehicle. or maybe they were scammers trying to rip me off, so God made it so that even THEY wouldn't want my van. or maybe He has some really good deal like a mechanic is looking for exactly this van to use whatever good parts are left to fix another ford windstar. i don't know exactly what it is, but there's a good reason for the "events" of this evening.