They call it a Datsun but I called it a good ole cup of humble tea. It was the car I drove when I was pregnant with my third child. The year was 1981, that's the year of the car, not the year I drove it. The car had two doors, perfect for getting children in and out of car seats. You know I am lying. The passenger seat, which I sat in every time the hubby drove because this was our ONLY car! Anyway, the passenger seat was not bolted down all the way so the seat rocked back and forth like a rocking chair. If I wanted to see where we going then I had to really flex those stomach muscles to sit upright. Most women lose muscle in their stomachs when pregnant. I developed a six pack. I know you are all green with envy for an '81 Datsun.
The car did have a good price tag. We got it in exchange for a king size head board (foot board, too). When I was 18, and bought the bed for $800, I assumed it came with a mattress. Teenagers... what do they know? Well, come to find out the mattress wasn't included. That would be another $800, so we never bought a mattress. We simply hauled around the bed for several years until our neighbors (who had a king size mattress but no bed) asked us if we wanted to swap their '81 Datsun for our king size bed. Considering our car had just died it seemed like a good thing to do. My husband was weeks away from graduating from college and we were trying to buy a house so we were avoiding debt at all costs. We made the swap.
And it would have been okay....if the car would go when you pressed down the accelerator. The car had a mind of its own. It moved if and only if it was good and ready. Patient the car was. Now I was officially Jesus crazy at the time so I was determined to exercise all faith required to master the driving of the Datsun. I prided myself in the humility I displayed as I drove the thing around town. I mean could there be anything more humiliating, I mean humble, than driving that thing around? I thought I must have been the most humble person in the whole city, make it America....or maybe even the WORLD!
The car broke down several times a week but that was an "opportunity" to trust Jesus. Did I tell you I was Jesus crazy? I can't tell you how many times we had to get out of that car and lay hands on the thing. I remember on one occasion Santa Clause stopping to help us get the car started. Seriously, it was the man who did Santa at the mall. His picture was hanging up in our house - I mean two bedroom duplex. The duplex will have to have its own post one day because it doesn't seem right to have lived in a two bedroom duplex with three children in the middle of America. Was that even legal?
Anyway, Jesus put up with us. He got us from place to place, Datsun and all. And out of pure sympathy to our situation He laid it on someones heart to get us a car. She was a woman we met on the side of the road. The Datsun wasn't even broke down, we had just stopped to look at something. She loved our family and did the math - three babies won't fit in that car. She called me one day and asked where we lived, saying she had a gift for the soon to be born baby. She dropped off a bag filled with diapers, clothes, car title and keys. She didn't even stay. She left the car parked outside our duplex. It had four doors! It wasn't brand new but next to the Datsun it looked like it came right off the assembly line.
Do you know it wasn't long after she gave us that car that someone bought her a brand new Toyota Celica! She also went into a shoe store and won $500 the very next week. The woman has the gift of giving and God gives back to her so much more. Her name is Ladonna and I for one want to follow her example. She is a cheerful giver AND I'll never forget what she did for my family.... and now neither will you, I bet!
