vehicle crisis

Reports on Patience and Garty will be forthcoming, but right now we'd appreciate any prayers you'd like to offer on behalf of our cars. We've been trying to sell Peter's Isuzu. It's not worth much anymore, but we just want to unload it before the water pump breaks and we have to pay for the repair. (Don't worry, we're telling people the water pump is about to break. We're not being deceptive.) The plan was to go down to one car for a while so we can save some money for a mini van. Monday night, on my way to a funeral, the oil light came on in the Camry. When I got home Peter determined that there was a leak coming from the engine, so we dropped it off at the mechanic yesterday. This afternoon we got the call. They're pretty sure it's the head gasket. Because it's such a labor intensive (i.e. very expensive) repair, the mechanic doesn't recommend fixing it on a car with nearly 200,000 miles. Plus, it's possible that they would get in there and find that the problem is even more serious, requiring a major engine overhaul. The car is obviously getting up there in miles, but we weren't stressing yet because it's a Toyota. We thought we could probably hang onto it for another year or 2 without any worries. Anyway, the point is that we now have no reliable vehicle that we can drive any distance without fear. Peter helped his dad replace head gaskets in other vehicles, so he'll be looking at manuals tonight to decided if he wants to put the time into ripping ours apart to see what's going on. Thankfully, we got our tax refund last week which means we have enough cash in the bank to buy half of one of the mini vans we've been looking at. I'm voting for the front half. If you happen to see one of the first generation (1995-1998) Honda Odysseys for sale with under 100,000 miles, please let us know. That's our first choice for a variety of reasons. Being stressed and asking for prayer about cars seems so trivial, but we do have to get out once in a while. We'll fill you in on car news as things develop.