We always take our big van on major road trips; however, our recent trip took a different turn. Right before we were supposed to leave, I was taking our boys to Big Woods State Park to hike with a friend. The van started acting strange on the road, and I thought maybe I hadn't put it into gear correctly. It struggled up a hill, and when we got to a stop sign, I put it in park and put it back in gear. I tried to accelerate, but no progress. I revved the engine a few times (my big mistake) and then realized something was majorly wrong when the engine light started flashing. I called Eric, and he came out to take a look. It turned out that a transmission fluid hose had broken. Since I had kept trying to accelerate, I basically ruined the transmission. We got the van to a shop, but there was no way it would be ready in time for our big trip to Oregon. We brainstormed what to do. Finally, we decided to take Eric's car for the trip (he gets great gas mileage!). However, we could only fit three of our four boys in the back seat (Becca had already made plans to fly out). We asked Sam what he'd like to do, and he decided to stay home and take care of our little farm while we were gone. He did a fantastic job of keeping up on everything with the house, land & animals! He also did extra things we didn't ask him to do, like trim trees and mow the lawn. I'm so thankful for a responsible son! And our younger boys did just fine in Eric's car. They read books most of the time. Also, like Eric said, it was better that the transmission went out a few miles from our house rather than in the middle of Nowhere, Montana! Life is often unpredictable, but God is always good!
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