Adventures in Odyssey

I'm not sure how many of you remember Focus on the Family's "Adventures in Odyssey" series (which I loved as a child) but that's not what I am referring to today...


I am referring to the new adventures we will have in our HONDA ODYSSEY!! When we moved to Birmingham last summer for Brandon's sales job, we knew that his Camaro would not be the most ideal car to drive around all of North Alabama in everyday! Needless to say, he started driving the Ford Explorer in the Fall and started looking for me a new car. (New to us, not "new" as in fresh off the lot. For those of you who know us well, you know that we are more of the 'Dave Ramsey' mindset and do not plan on ever buying a brand new car. Ha!) Anywho...around December is when the search got serious. Brandon would come home from work and get on the computer to continue his research. 


Just to recap, our first "big purchase" as newlyweds was a queen size mattress, then our house in Nashville, then our most favorite sectional couch ever...but this is our first CAR purchase! We knew we wanted something with great gas mileage, ideally less than 100,000 miles currently on the car, and we eventually narrowed down the search to a car that sits up "higher" than what I call a "car that sits low to the ground". I know that you like what you get used to and the only car I'd ever driven was a Ford Explorer -- but even when testing out other cars that are lower, I felt like I was constantly stepping down into a hole. Maybe it's me being tall, who knows. Bottom line is...I didn't want to sound picky but if B was asking me to be honest, I had to say that I liked feeling like I was up higher. We looked at Ford Escapes, Honda Pilots, this that and the other, and finally our search narrowed in on the wonderful "Honda Odysseys". I never in a million years imagined how jazzed I could get about being the proud driver of a mini-van. As I've told many peoples, I still don't even feel like it is a van! 


So our search was narrowed down to the specific car we liked and we had started going out and test driving some on different evenings and weekends. Then we come to one of the first Saturdays in January when I hear Brandon on the phone with a dealership in Memphis. I knew by the end of that call that I better get up, put my contacts in, pack some snacks, and get ready to hit the road. Memphis is about a 4 hour drive from us -- which would be 4 hours there and 4 hours back. Oh, and we had just done that exact drive a week prior when coming home from a friend's wedding!! SO...it was time to put on my big girl panties and deal with it! HA! I knew that the outcome was something that was worth going for, especially since the planner in me could look at our upcoming calendar and know that we had 5 weekends approaching where we were both in different cities in January/February. 


Off to Memphis we went. I was praying that we would actually return with the car, otherwise I would feel like this was a total waste of time. Brandon was reminding me that we had to be open to this not working out and that we couldn't put all our eggs in one basket with this car. We got there and the guy at the dealership was the best we'd worked with yet. He gave US the keys to the car and told us to come to him if we had any questions. No joke, he was not pushy at all and let us do our thing. We were comparing two of the cars on the lot. I knew the minute we got in the sage blue one that that was our car. I had such a peace about it from the get go. Turns out that B had the same peace. He was so precious in saying that he was so thankful to find one (in our price range) with all the bells and whistles (sun roof, automatic doors, heated seats) because he "wants to give me the world" and this is a way he can love me. Precious! 


After test driving the car, taking this purchase before the Lord in prayer, and talking it over...we went inside to buy our first car together and sign the papers. Off we went, back to Birmingham with our new (to us!) car!!! It had each specific item we had been looking for (within the budget, under 100,000 miles, only had one previous owner, good gas mileage and so forth)...amazing to see God provide! 


We knew we couldn't make a peep about the Odyssey before we told you about the baby on the way, or it would be pretty obvious! I was even hoping not to pull up next to any friends at a stoplight between the first of January and middle of February, otherwise they would put two and two together that we MUST be starting a family!!! HA! The Odyssey has two seats in the front, two seats (can be three seats if we want) in the middle, and three seats in the back. As Brandon said, we have one baby on the way and need to work on filling up the rest of the seats. Love him! All in God's perfect timing! 


Here are a few pictures of our recent purchase. Thanks for being excited with us. It's been a great car for road trips and we look forward to the many more to come! Hope to see you on the road sometime!! 

Closing comment from the man of the house: "As you know, making big purchases as a married couple is a big deal. It meant so much to me to have Whit's patience and support as we did our research to make the best, well-informed decision. We could not be happier about our new Honda Odyssey. It's been fun to find out other friends who are in the 'Odyssey Club' as well. We even get excited about driving to the grocery store now!! Very cool to see how the Lord is into the details and provides what you need and more. Team Nall is so excited to have plenty of room for our new addition!"