Unexpected Thankfulness- Day 21

Today I am grateful for:

Blessings on Wheels

This 15-seater beauty pictured above is the same model Jamie drives to work every weekday, only his is white and says VPSI commuter vanpool. Jamie volunteered as the driver for this vanpool that takes passengers from Douglasville to Buckhead (the area in the city where Jamie works). Thanks to a subsidized program here in Atlanta Jamie gets to ride for free as the driver. He parks the car in our carport each night and picks up passengers at two stops and takes them to work and back again. And he gets to park for free. Before this came up he was taking the city bus and the MARTA (Atlanta's subway system). This obviously cost more, took a lot of time, and he either had to take the car for the day and leave it at the bus stop or I'd have to toss all the kids in the car at 6 in the morning to take him there. He drove to work sometimes but that's a lot of gas and it costs $8 to park. So we have been so blessed to have this monstrous vehicle. The kids love it too and call it "dad's bus." Sadly though the trial period is ending and they are still short a couple riders so they'll lose their funding. We'll be very sad to see it go and I suppose it's a blessing I took for granted until it threatened to leave. Poor Jamie's been working extra hard on finding solutions to make this work out and I'm so grateful the sacrifices he makes for our family and finances!

In other vehicular news. We are now the official owners of an '02 Ford Windstar (I'd say proud owners but I'm not sure that's the right word when you're talking about minivans). We previously owned a great little '06 Mazda5 (our mini-minivan) and actually loved it! Beautiful little van, reliable, and a fun ride (sniff sniff)! But I had this crazy idea that we could sell the car, buy an older and bigger minivan, then use the rest of the money to pay off our car loan. Jamie thought I was crazy at first but being the devoted family man that he is he gave in and helped me research the best option. And this is what we found. Not even close to the Mazda in looks or funness but it actually has less miles and more room! It's super clean and in great condition! The kids are excited to have a blue car and we'll be happy to have one less thing to pay for. Now if only someone would offer to buy our condo for twice what it's currently worth...(sigh)one step at a time.