Saying Goodbye to One and Hello to Another

To be honest I didn't think I would be posting about this experience until much later this month or even months to years down the road, but I am not. We have been thinking ever since we lost our last baby in September, that we should think about getting a vehicle that would allow us to expand our family more comfortably.  We then got to thinking how about November? My car would be up for registration and it seemed like it might be the perfect time to make the switch. We went back and forth on the issue of buying a new vehicle as we have loved not having a car payment and the fact that we knew we would be spending quite a bit more than either of us have ever bought a vehicle for, but we decided to go test drive a few options of vans anyway. We had intended on test driving a Honda Odyssey  Toyota Sienna, and then finally the Dodge Caravan, so we headed out to Low Book Sales to see what they had on their lot to test drive. They didn't have much in terms of the vans we wanted to test drive, but we did test out a 2006 Caravan and a 2012 Caravan to compare the old and the new model, needless to say we loved the 2012 way more than the 2006, just felt more right. As we both are not spare of the moment people when it comes to large purchases we decided to take the 2012 Caravan for the remainder of the day to be able to check out our finances as well as get a better feel for the car, we already really loved the car. Throughout the rest of the day we ran our errands driving the van to get a better feel for the van itself, and we loved it even more. It was a 2012, which we never thought we would be considering in 2012, and it was relatively low miles, which we wanted, the interior was black which is a plus with the idea of having many kids in the future, let's just say we were falling in love with the van, not the payments of course. Low Book Sales closed at 9 pm so we finally decided to bring the car back, but before we decided on purchasing it we needed to ask some hard questions in which we did, to make this long story shorter we then decided to purchase the car that night and drive it home. This next part of the experience I can say I did not expect the emotion that came with leaving my college car at the car dealership. Almost immediately when I knew we were going to be trading it in to them, I started crying. I began to remember all the fun times I truly did have with the car, it had been in our lives our entire marriage and had been a wonderful car. I was able to get myself composed enough I thought to empty the last remaining contents out of my Alero, but once again the flood of emotion came over me as I locked the car for the very last time. It broke my heart I felt like I was leaving a part of myself behind or maybe a child. Even as I relate this experience I can't help but cry for my Alero and the many experiences, joys, and downs that it gave me in the 6 years I had it as my car. Despite the difficult time I had with saying goodbye to a good car, I have stepped into a new phase a life, which will be just as great. With this van I feel more like a parent, like I was missing my soccer mom van (Not anymore) In the last few days we have been playing around with all the new gadgets and finding new things we didn't know about the van, so exciting, however, we still can't figure out how to get the lights to turn on automatically when the car doors are opened, if you know comment please. We truly are blessed to be able to make such a purchase and feel comfortable about the payments even though they are higher than we have ever made, but it is reassuring to know that we are okay and our family will not suffer because of this decision. Here is to a wonderful new beginning and a wonderful life with our new van. Enjoy the pictures of the old car and the new van.

I realized this is the only picture of my Alero-December 2006

Last remaining part of my Alero

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