The Making of M.O.M.

Baby D still sees his birth parents twice a week. They are making slow progress in their case plan, however they cannot seem pass a drug screening. We did get permission from them to take him with us on our vacation next week. It frustrates me incredibly that we must ask permission from people who cannot get their act together for their son. On Monday, they canceled the visit because birth dad wasn't feeling well and birth mom was tired. It took everything I had to calm myself down. Seriously?

Until last week Baby Girl had not seen her birth mom except for 15 minutes at the very first visit. She showed up last week only because the social worker told grandma (b/c she's yet to speak with birth mom) that if she didn't show up all other visits would be canceled until court in December. Today, she was a no-show again. Still no word on whether we can take her on vacation or not.

Baby D has been sleeping through the night very well. He usually wakes up about 5:00 or 5:30am to eat, so with the time change it has been 4:00 or 4:30am. Otherwise, he's doing very well. He's just a big, fat, happy baby boy.

Baby Girl still wakes up several times throughout the night. She has been eating about every 3 to 3.5 hours. She HATES being wet or dirty and insists on her diaper being changed immediately. However, she HATES having her diaper changed. Poor girl can't catch a break.

Two Saturdays ago, the wonderful Kassakatis family came over to watch the kiddos while Luke and I had a full day to ourselves. We had no idea what we would do, but we found stuff to fill our time. We did go and see Fireproof. It was a great movie, with a great story, IF you can overlook some mediocre acting. Kirk Cameron and the main woman character were good, even though every time I saw him the theme song from "Growing Pains" flashed through my mind. Oh, I had such a crush on him when I was younger. Anyway, I would highly recommend ANYONE going to see it, married or single.

On Wednesday of next week we will be making the 700+ mile trip to Tenessee/Arkansas to see family. I am excited about seeing everyone but very anxious as to how the driving will play out with all 5 kids. Most likely, my internet access will be limited, which for me will be a good thing and hopefully be a time that I can read, catch up on some scripture memory I've been trying to do and just have a blog free week. My BFF Amanda does have the internet, so I might be able to squeak in a quick update.

Luke took Big Red in today to have it looked at the before the trip and we were told it needed $1,100 worth of work done to the shocks and ball bearings. *Sigh* I've called the dealership and I'm hoping that I can haggle my way into having them do the repairs. Guess we will see.

Yesterday went well. Those of you who said you hate to haggled would have been very comfortable on our adventure yesterday. With only Elizabeth in tow, we headed to Charlotte. I had found quite a few vehicles online that I wanted to look at. Most of them were at smaller dealers, and very, very...seasoned.

Once more, we knew we were buying a used car, paying cash only, plus our trade. No financing here.

We visited the first place, and the car was less than promising. I think Luke would have really considered buying it, but I just felt uneasy. They claimed they'd just had $3,500 worth of work done to the van, but random things didn't work like the blinkers. Plus, they had to jump it to get it started. Hummm....

Next, we drove around Charlotte and randomly perused car dealerships. Woo-hoo (say that in your best monotone voice). Nothing. Finally, I had printed off a page for a car about 30 minutes outside of Charlotte. It was a 1995 Dodge Conversion Van and they only wanted $1,350. Off we go.

Because my husband loves to find a deal, I think he was the most excited about this one. However, when we got there, we realized a few, very important things about this "gem."

1. It had no back seat. The guy kept saying he'd bolt one in for us. Creepy.

2. The inside flashed me WAY back to 1985. How a '95 van could look that straight from the 80's I'll never know.

3. The tires didn't match.

Once again, I think Luke was really ready to consider this. However, I knew that we only had a week before our big trip and that was NOT enough time to "fix it up." When the salesman finally referred to it as a "fixer-upper" Luke got the point.

Tired, beaten and ready to call it quits, we loaded up and started home. Just for laughs, we decided to drive by a bigger dealership. You know, the ones with 300 new cars all in the different colors and always claiming to have a "S-A-L-E."

We figured it was a lost cause, but when we saw a nice conversion van sitting out front, we figured why not?

We climb out and begin inspecting this van. It is BY FAR the nicest one we've seen all day. We'd probably driven by 5 or 6 like this one already because we figured they were out of our budget. When the guy came out, I casually asked the price. Naturally, he had to go "check."

Let me just say that as much as I love to haggle, I do hate that salesmen try to act like they are stupid.

When the salesman returned, he told us the car was $7,900. WOWzers. WAY out of our price range. I immediately shut the door to the car and told him such. I mean, why look a something you can't buy? I don't like to torture myself.

Upon realizing that we were gettting in our car, he says,

"So how much are you looking at spending."

Luke says, "Whatever $3,000 plus that (pointing to our minivan) can get us."

The salesman oh so graciously asks us if he can look at our van and "See what he can do."

I turned to Luke smiling and said, "Let the games begin." This is my favorite part.

Luke and I both knew that there was no way they'd sell us that van for the price we could pay, but we played along.

He brought us the first offer, and I told him that it was a no-go. Realizing that I was serious, he said he could "check one more thing."

"You do that", I thought.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth had to go potty. Luke is always her first request for bathroom duty. I have no idea why. While they were in the bathroom, the salesman comes back.

He shows me that paper. Even though it's a terrific deal on the van, it's $1,000 out of our price range. Instead of haggling, I catch myself being brutally honest (a shocker for most of you, I'm sure).

"Look, we've been looking at cars all day. We saw this one on your lot as we drove by and thought we'd check it out. I realize that you are cutting us a great deal, but the truth is, I have $4,000 cash and that van we drove in. With 5 kids at home, I can't go take more money out of the bank, and we don't finance."

The salesman stares at me. Now, let me tell you that this guy is really nice, but he is doing his job. He tells me something about 45-60-90 grace period or something. I figured it meant borrowing money so I didn't really listen. I told him that when my husband returned, I'd show him the paper, but it was out of our budget by $1,000.

He said he had an older conversion van "up on the hill" that he would show us. Out of exhaustion, I said okay.

Luke returned with Elizabeth and we walked outside to find the ugliest thing I've ever seen. Seriously, we'd looked a lot of cars that day. No-backseater van had this one beat. It was terrible.

We shook the salesman's hand and told him thanks but no thanks. As we buckled up Elizabeth, I asked the guy for our car keys (by the way, I LOVE this trick at car dealerships, it always cracks me up).

He goes into get them but instead of coming back out himself, the manager returns.

By this point, we are exhuasted and just ready to leave. I recant everything I told the salesman to the manager. I tell him about the money in my purse and how we know it's a great deal, but it's just too much. He offers financing, we refuse. At last, he says,

"Well, let me have one more person look at your van and see if we can squeeze anything else out of it."

(In my mind, I picture a large juicer (thanks Cathy) squeezing the life out of our minivan.)

Oh me, enough already. Please, just let us leave. As another guy and the manager circle our van (which Elizabeth is buckled into and we are all but sitting in) they retreat back into the dealership.

I look at Luke and we both show the same signs of fatigue. We are SO ready to GO. Mr. Salesman comes back out and stands in front of us. He looks across the parking lot at the conversion van we've been discussing for the last 1.5 hours. He extends his hand and says,

"If you promise to tell everyone where you got a great deal, the van is yours."

Shock, sheer shock I tell you. I just knew we'd never drive off in that van. I still can't believe it.

With $4,000 cash and a minivan worth only about $1,800 (trade in) we got an $8,000 van. I've never loved driving a BIG red beast so much.

Oh, and if you need a new (different) car, I know just the place to send you.