Trials and Tribulations

We all have bad days. Times when things seem to go wrong through no fault of our own. Thankfully it doesn't happen too often. My daughter and her husband have had more than their share lately, all having to do with their cars. It started back in late June. In preparation for driving to Tennessee to pick up her son for a summer visit, Monica took her car to be given a once over for the sixteen-hundred round trip and have the air conditioner serviced. The shop where she has been taking her car for quite awhile found several things needing attention which would cost over two thousand dollars...money they did not have. So she okayed the more important repairs to the radiator and had the airconditioner serviced. They picked up the car and drove home, a few miles from the garage. Later in the evening they were headed to the grocery store, but they didn't quite make it. Suddenly the car went dead. They pushed the Jeep Cherokee into a parking lot...no easy feat...and called for a tow back to the garage where the work had been done. They found out that the problem was the clamp connecting the radiator to the transmission had not been properly attached and they lost all the transmission fluid. The garage was able to correct the problem with no damage to the transmission and they were able to make the trip to Tennessee. Three weeks later, Monica and her husband were running some errands in his car when it would not start. So they had to have his car towed to the same garage where her car had been repaired. They thought it was the generator but were told it was the battery which was replaced. A few days after they had Sam's car back, they noticed a strong smell of gas and a puddle of gas from under Monica's car so they took her car in to the garage. She had noticed a few days before that her car made strange sounds when she turned on the airconditioner. The garage informed her that the compressor would have to be replaced. That alone would cost a thousand dollars. She decided she would have to live without airconditioning, not easily done in Houston, Texas, in August. The gas smell was coming from the fuel pump, which had to be replaced for nearly three-hundred dollars. Today she called on her cell phone, angry and frustrated. Her husband called to tell her his car would not start and asked her to come get him. That was an hour-and-a-half drive across town in heavy traffic. By the time she got to him, her husband discovered that the connections to the new battery were so loose he could hand-turn them without tools. Now they are wondering how this could be a coincidence in such a short time that these types of mistakes could happen in the same garage.

Nothing is more disconcerting than to think that people you trusted might now be taking advantage of a lack of mechanical knowledge and causing these incidents. They certainly don't want to think that is the case. For Monica's father and I, it is upsetting to see our kids struggle to make ends meet only to have these things happen. These days with the high cost of everything, it doesn't take much to push a young couple over the edge.

They are a resilient couple who put their trust in God and leave all things with them. I pray their days will get better and they will find the blessings hiding beyond these trials and tribulations.