My heart sank when I opened the email containing the settlement sheet for the van this afternoon.  Total Loss. I let it sink in for a minute. We paid off the van less than a month ago, and now it’s gone.

The accident Tim was in on Monday wasn’t horrible. The damage didn’t look that bad, but I guess when they opened everything up there was more than we anticipated. $4700 worth of repairs on a 2007 vehicle with 181k miles on it. I’m not surprised they wouldn’t fix it. Sad, but not surprised.

With the van gone, we will have to deal with the annoyance of loading all three kids in the smaller car. Tim is able to borrow a car for a little while, so we won’t be getting a new van for at least a few weeks. Luckily we will have a chance to look around and avoid any impulse buys. I’m particularly thankful that the settlement amount is higher than the money we just spent to pay it off, so it isn’t a complete loss in financial terms.

I fought back some tears today, and I sighed from disappointment, but in the end, things happen. Life throws us curve balls, but if I have learned anything over the past year, it is to not linger on the frustrating or difficult things. So instead of complaining I’m going to brush myself off and keep moving forward. God is good- oh so good, and because of that I’m good too. 🙂

Tim never got on board with my name of “Clifford the Big Red Van.” For him the van was always “The Red Baron.” Clifford or Baron, no one knows, but whichever it was, it will be missed.