We bought a new car this weekend.
We don’t do that very often. We tend to drive our cars until they just decide one day that they have had enough and give up the ghost. Which is what my car threatened to do this past week. When I took it in to have the engine looked at (it was doing this weird sputtering thing) and the oil changed, the mechanic gave me a list of repairs that was longer than my arm and would have cost more than the car was worth.
So we decided to look for another. We did our research and narrowed the choices down to three different models. Friday I spent most of the day going to the different dealerships (oh yes, there will be a story told about THAT experience, just you wait!). I picked my favorite and we went back on Saturday for JD to look at it and give it a drive. We weren’t really expecting to buy a car that day.
As part of the deal, we traded in our old car. Bless it’s heart. It wasn’t worth very much. They said it rattled when they drove it (true) and it needed some work (true). They were willing to give us a little for it but only if we were going to leave it with them that day. Like right now. Our new car would be coming from a different city and wouldn’t be available until Monday. They would give us a loaner car until ours was ready.
Elena looked up and said, “Are we leaving our car? Will we ever see it again?”
“No honey, we won’t see it again?”
Then the girls and I cried.
You see, it’s more than just a car to us. Elena was just a baby when we got that car. Katie wasn’t even big enough for just a booster seat yet. I’ve watched them in my rear view mirror go from facing backward in the infant car seat, to looking forward, graduating to a booster, and now (in Katie’s case) needing no car seat at all.
I used to watch Elena sitting in her car seat with her thumb in her mouth watching the world go by. Now when I look back she has a book in her hand and when she smiles she is missing her front two teeth.
This is the car where some of our best Backseat Conversations took place. Where I told Katie about the birds and the bees. It’s been the car that has driven us to countless lessons and practices. It’s taken us to family and to friends. It’s taken us to the beach and to the mountains and to many places in between. The back has gone from holding a pack and play and diaper bags to soccer and softball equipment.
It’s taken us to church. It’s been the scene of much laughter and the occasional fight disagreement (usually on the way to church…..what is it about Sunday morning that brings out the very worst in a marriage?).
It’s taken us to happy occasions such as family reunions and weddings and to sad ones such as funerals.
To some, it may seem silly to cry over a car. But for us, it was saying goodbye to a precious time in our lives. A time that has seen us change from a family with babies to a family with a pre-teen and an almost second grader in what feels like a blink of an eye.
I think that deserves a tear or two.
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