“How did I get HERE?”

Seriously.  How did I get here?  I am sitting in the waiting area of a “Mercedes-Benz Campus”.  I feel very uncomfortable and yet so pleased at the same time.  But mostly horrified and not surprised by the voice in my head that says “You don’t really belong here.”  

But I LIKE it here. 

 Everyone should be able to come to a nice place to get their “home on the road,” or car, looked at.   We are all intrinsically worthy of this kind of treatment: complimentary snacks & drinks, a clean & bright atmosphere and courteous & capable employees.  My husband (My financial contribution to our situation is marginal.  My emotional and partner-empowering support, epic.) worked just as hard his entire life as he has in the last 7 years that our financial situation has gotten better. That means we can usually, at some point, afford the debt, be it medical or auto/house maintenance, that we get into. And we have no consumer debt because it has scared the pants off us in the past and we just really have made ourselves live within our means. And we can do some nice things with his employment perks. But let’s be real.  Despite the fact that my brakes have squeaked on and off for the last 4 months, I only came in today because I got a recall notice.  That means they will update something vaguely important for FREE.  I’m still a frugal chic with an eye for quality. We’ll see how frugally I get out of here.

 

See we bought this car used about 5 months ago.  It’s 9 years old and has reached 100K.  But to me it’s nice.  Really nice. And thanks to my husband’s Scout leader of ages past, we got a really nice deal on it too (we also traded in a car that we gratefully owed nothing on). So instead of the totally fine other cars that I drove that would have been really good deals too, we picked this Mercedes-Benz.  Because I dared to get in it. And our family will fit comfortably in it.  And the price was good and it was his parents’ car and they took really good care of it and you get the picture.  I needed several reasons to allow myself this luxury. But mostly my husband would not see anything else after it caught his eye.  So we took on a car payment  when we were really hoping not to. And here I am in the lap of a luxury waiting area for MY car. And I’m wondering how I - how we - got here.  

I think it’s pretty much a matter of work ethic and talents meets lots of personal life and family trials, meets economic setbacks, meets lots of humility, meets learning curves,  meets the divine scales of balance between justice & mercy, meets repentance and once in a while (lots if you’re lucky 😉), in this life, a tender mercy wins.  

That’s it.  Life is like a box of chocolates.  You never know what you’re gonna get so be grateful when you get some good stuff - some caramel filling.