Take II

Well, after the car accident, it seemed to take a LONG time to hear back from the insurance company as to the state of our beloved Prius. We were given a quote from the collision center and told that the car was "borderline" totaled. An adjuster would have to come out and determine whether it was totaled since it was a close call. Still borderline. They did a little more tearing apart to see what else might have been damaged and eventually reached a conclusion:

TOTALED.

Poor Prius. That was a little over a week ago. We had been hoping the car wouldn't be totaled, as we thought we would get considerably less for it than we paid new a year and a half ago. And after paying off the loan we didn't think we could afford another car. With the Taurus on the fritz and just recently fixed to the tune of several hundred dollars, we really wanted them just to tell us that they could fix our Prius and we'd be done with it. But God knew better and decided to surprise us. Amazingly, we actually came out a little ahead on the deal (before paying off the loan, that is) and were given several thousand more than we expected from the insurance. But... it meant we were on a car search.

After owning a Prius, we were sort of spoiled. We had specific criteria we weren't really willing to let go of as we looked at other cars. It had to be a hatch back with ample cargo space. It had to have keyless entry, and keyless ignition was preferable. It had to be safe driving on MT roads. We looked. We test drove. And we found the perfect car:



Yes, it's another Prius! Prius II is a 2008, brand new. They just happened to have a red one on the lot, with the same package that Prius I had been equipped with. AND they could give it to us for a couple thousand less than we paid for the original Prius. The interior upholstery color is different (gray instead of tan) but other than that it is just like our old car! Now, on Friday at Bible Study I asked the ladies to pray that our car shopping experience would go smoothly and that we would know what to do about a new car. Then, right after Bible study we went car shopping and found Prius II. God is so good.

So here's the part that really got me about this whole thing. A couple months ago our bank got shut down by the FDIC. Everything is fine, and our accounts have been switched over to a new bank, so it wasn't a really big deal. BUT we had some money in CDs that we couldn't access until they matured. Since the bank shut down and all that, though, we have the option to access it now if we want to through the new bank. That means that not only did the dealership have basically our exact car brand new for a great price, but we have access to money now that we wouldn't have earlier and we could actually walk in and pay for it so we won't even have car payments!

Yes, God is good. Very, very good.