To Go or Not to Go - OR - the blessings and burdens of having only one vehicle

Tomorrow Glenn has an exam to complete the 6th unit of of MSII. After that he has a week off for spring break. We had made plans to go and visit my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew during Spring Break because they moved to South Carolina this past summer. They built a house and just moved into it recently. We really want to go and see them and their new house...

BUT..... we only have one car. It is nice to only have one car most of the time. We don't use it much and that way we only have to pay insurance on one vehicle, only have to maintain and put gas in one vehicle, etc. The problem is our 2002 Ford Windstar is giving us all kinds of problems. The check engine light is on, it shakes and rattles all the time, the light sockets keep blowing, it doesn't like hills or bumps, there is a recall on it that can't be checked on until the first week of April, we still haven't been able to get a new tire rim since leaving our mark on I-80 so we have no spare, inspection is up at the end of the month and I am afraid of how much it is going to cost to get it to pass, etc. (OK, stop hyperventilating!) I would love to take our car to the shop but they won't let me bring our school stuff and sit in the waiting room while they work on it which means we have to leave it there and figure out how to get home and get back there to pick it up. One of the difficulties of having only one car is that it is impossible to take your car to the shop without inconveniencing someone besides yourself. If you know me you know that I would bend over backwards for someone else but I really don't want anyone else to help me because I don't want to inconvenience them. I don't even want to inconvenience Glenn for him to take the van in. It is a big pride (SIN) issue that I don't want to let go of.

So.... our van is unfixed and not trustworthy to take us the 900 miles to Charleston. I really don't want it to break down on the interstate in the middle of the night on a Friday night. :(

We looked into plane tickets, train tickets, rental cars... all are more than we have budgeted for this trip (actually we hadn't budgeted for the gas for this trip either but we do have a little extra to cover that). Sadness. Glenn offered to have us rent a car and have just the 5 of us go and leave him home but the reason we were going this week was for extra time with him as well. I talked to my brother this afternoon and for right now we are not going to go see them this week. Is my pride the reason that my kids cried this afternoon? Or my fear of the unknown? Oh, Lord, please forgive me. Help me not to fear and help me to ask for help. I am sure that there are people who would run me from and to the car service place if I would only ask.

{sigh} I guess it is not really all a money thing. Glenn is really stressing about how much studying he needs to get done over break and we are behind in our homeschooling so I guess it may be for the best that we not go. We'll be able to do some things around the house that really need done and hopefully get our car fixed without having to worry about Glenn being at school at a certain time. Lord, may we glorify You this break whatever we do. Thanks for some extra time together as a family.