Growing Pains

This past week has truly been one of growing!

As you can tell, my belly is rapidly growing. This is my lovely 22 weeks shot. It's so weird looking back at old pictures just from a few months ago and thinking that I looked so skinny.

Aside from my body working extra hard to carry another person, we have had many "growing experiences." I don't even think I can begin to encompass everything that has gone wrong this past week, but I'll try and give you a small taste of what we've gone through.

1. Take car into shop Wednesday and find out the next day it needs a new computer, which they said is very rare in any case, but especially for a car with only 70,000 miles on it. And yes, car computers are more expensive than many laptops!

2. Decide to start looking at possibility of trading in old car for a new one. Meanwhile we are stuck with only one car and having to take each other to school and work, which was a bit of a hassle and extra gas.

3. Dealership supposed to call us with an update on the car, but no such luck. We call them on Saturday only to find out that they ordered the wrong part, and now it wouldn't be fixed until Monday.

4. Saturday afternoon/evening we purchased a 2007 Toyota Camry. I, being the savvy researcher I am, found that the car was priced significantly lower on the Internet, so I printed off the page and took it to the dealership. They had to, begrudgingly, honor the price since we had brought in documentation, so we were very excited!

5. We worked out that we would pick up the car on Tuesday afternoon because it worked best with our schedules and to get our other car fixed and cleaned out.

6. No call from the dealership on Monday, so we had to call on Tuesday morning, only to find out that the part was on its way, and the car would be ready by 4 pm. This was a bit of a setback because we had arranged to pick up the new car at lunch, but we figured we could swing it. The serviceman was supposed to call back in 5 minutes to confirm the details.

7. I was crazily busy at work because our credit card wouldn't work, and I was supposed to purchase some things on Monday, and it still wouldn't work on Tuesday. I was very frantic, but I found a spare moment to call Kyle to get an update on the car. It had been well over an hour, and he hadn't heard back from the dealership. So, I had to take matters into my own hands.

8. I called the service department, and after being on hold for 15 minutes, found out that the part was, in fact, not there, and that it was now on its way from the East Coast, and wouldn't arrive until Thursday! I was vexed indeed!

9. I called Kyle in tears (yes, I've been a little extra emotional this week) and tell him we were going to the dealership to speak to a manager. I quickly wrote up a few of the complaints we had with our service experience, which haven't even all been mentioned on here, and off we went.

10. After about 15 minutes of waiting, we spoke to the service manager and voiced our concerns and disappointments. He 100% agreed with how ridiculous everything was we had been through. He had only been in the department a week, and he was genuinely shocked when he found out we had been loyal clients for four years. Anyway, we worked out getting a small amount knocked off our bill, but now we had to go explain to Toyota that we couldn't trade in the car yet because it wouldn't be ready until Thursday.

11. We went to Toyota and explained the situation, but we still managed to pick up the Camry. Of course, it mysteriously didn't have floor mats, so they had ordered some on Saturday for us . . . because that is when we paid for them. We were told we would be able to pick them up the next day (Wednesday), and we would receive a call.

12. Surprise, surprise, no phone call Wednesday. Thursday goes by without a phone call, and so does Friday. So Friday afternoon I take matters into my own hands again! The salesmen says he needed to check with someone, but they should definitely be there. I also had to give him a friendly reminder that they had failed to give us a temporary license plate. He began to blame someone else and said he would call back later on Friday.

13. Of course, no phone call on Friday. So, Saturday morning we really took matters into our own hands and drove to the dealership because phone calls just simply aren't enough to get things taken care of. The salesman we worked with was conveniently not there, but I asked to speak with the person he was supposed to be finding out everything from. To our surprise, this man had never heard anything about floor mats. We went to check the inventory, nothing was in stock, nothing had even been ordered!!!! Why do people have to lie?

14. Anyway, having a new car without floor mats in the snowy winter is not the greatest experience, but they ordered some and they will get here on Tuesday. And, we finally got a temporary license plate as well.

15. All in all, I have repeatedly cried this week because everything has just been stressful and a complete nightmare. I just kept saying to myself, "It can't possibly get any worse," but amazingly it did! We received the rudest and most absurd note on our car about parking in someone's "spot," even though there aren't assigned spots. It was seriously so cruel that I cried twice about it. There are so many other details and things that went wrong this week, but I figure that I have vented enough for one evening!

Thankfully, our church meetings today focused on how we can rejoice, even through trials, knowing of our Heavenly Father's love for us. I really can testify that Heavenly Father knows and looks out for all of us individually. His love for us is unfathomable! It is important to remember through our trials to not ask why they are happening, but to figure out what we can learn, and how we can grow. I'm still trying to figure it all out, but I have learned and grown a lot this week. I'm grateful I have such a wonderful husband who supports and loves me no matter what!