I've had the new car for a couple of weeks (and according to Adam, way too many miles) and I can't express how amazing it feels to have a new car to spend so much time in.
It's funny though. As I got the car cleaned out and ready to leave forever at the dealership as a trade in, a mere bargaining piece, I did have some emotional moments.
I didn't know that I would. I mean, that car was NOT running well. The noises and issues that car had were an endless source of stress for MONTHS. I worried about the engine, and the tires, and the oil leak, and the broken suspension, and the fact that I KNEW the car needed brakes badly. Plus, it was a mess and it was never going to look nice again. The leather was cracking and discoloring. Paint was chipping off parts of the interior. The ceiling was irrevocably stained. In fact, the backseat, no matter what I did, felt like it would always look like it had been through something terrible. There were stains and crumbs and sticker residue and old candy glued to parts. There were scratched and dings on the exterior. And it was small, so small for our family of four to travel in for any amount of distance. I was not planning on missing this car.
However, this was the first car Adam and I bought as a married couple.
It was the car that drove us to the hospital to have the babies, and home with those babies.
It was the car that Madison and I spent hours in together when I was working and my commute was 45 minutes each way.
It drove us to every vacation we took as a family of four.
It took us through every stage of car seat, through the years that the DVD player saved my sanity, through the years where I was toting around portable potties and changes of clothes and extra towels and diapers and snacks.
It was the car of my babies, and my toddlers. It looked like it had been through something terrible, because it WAS the car that was going to deal with those exhausting years of baby and toddler hood, and there is a lot about those years that is messy and exhausting and overwhelming. You come out of those years messy and tired and changed. Yes, you're definitely ready to have nice things again. But those messy years get you there.
So I WAS a little sad as I prepared to say goodbye, and it turned out the girls were too. It was, really, the only car they ever knew. They'd been just as excited as I was to get that new car...but change can be hard, even when it's the right choice. Sometimes, even when it definitely time for out with the old, it's ok to get a little teary when you think of goodbye.
