Inspiration is a Funny thing

I've been thinking a lot recently on inspiration. There are things in life that I have just felt like I needed to do, not knowing why, but I have done them and gotten multiple blessings in return. Well, some of my recent inspirations have not seemed to be reaping the expected blessings, and therefore have resulted in some serious pondering of my situations to find a good resolve in my mind. For instance:

• When we first started looking for houses, the neighborhood we are in seemed out of reach, so we never visited it. When we came to see it, my husband and I both had the distinct impression that this was where we should be. We weren't even close to buying, but then we were offered financing that made it not only possible, but comfortable, so we closed our eyes and jumped (figuratively). A couple of months after closing, the market crashes, and now we have a "nut job" neighbor who is being vocal about the HOA and causing turmoil in the neighborhood.
• When I got pregnant last winter, I know it was inspired. You could have asked me even a few days before if I wanted to get pregnant and I would have laughed at you, then one day, all of a sudden it was right, we needed another baby, and it was time to start trying. Well, if you have been reading my blog, you know what happened next.
• My car. Once again, people who know me and read my blog know the issues I have had with my car recently. But, it has been more than that. We have been feeling for a while now that we were paying WAY too much for our car. We had a lousy interest rate and really high payments. We also were starting to get the feeling that any day now, something big (bigger than the key dinger) was going to go out, and we would have to come up with the cash to fix it. When we started looking at financing, we realized that we could get our interest rate cut in half, and keep the same or smaller payments on a much newer (and warrantied) car. So we started looking and doing our research (lots of research). We thought we would still make a profit on our CR-V, and we went into the "car shopping experience" feeling pretty good. When it came down to talking about our trade-in, the guys at the Honda dealership discovered some frame damage on our car that significantly reduced the value putting us unbelievably upside-down in our loan, (AAAAAARGH!!!) when we were thinking we would get a profit. (I'll write more on the car subject later)
  

So looking at all of this on the surface one might think I could be a little depressed. I promise I'm not! When I ponder things a little deeper I come to these conclusions:

• Had we waited to buy the house we couldn't have gotten our excellent financing (it just isn't available anymore). And we wouldn't have been able to meet some really nice neighbors, and be in a ward (church congregation) that we really like. (Many blessings coming from the decision to buy the house)
• I have learned so many things from the loss of our baby girl. I found out I was stronger than I thought I was, and I have gained a whole new appreciation for others whose struggles are much harder than mine. I have definitely gained a much stronger spiritual conviction and a closer relationship with my savior. Plus it has changed my views on family planning (also a story for another day). In the end, we are getting many blessings from a really SUCKY situation.
• In the end, we still had this really strong feeling that we needed to be done with the CR-V. It was a good car for us, but we couldn't be affording to pay so much for something with significantly less value than we had originally believed. We were willing to walk away from the dealer to come home and talk about things, but they kept coming back to us with offer (after offer, after offer) until we got something we feel really good about. We got a really good deal. We ended up with the same payments on a really cool car that will much better suit the needs of our family, as well as an extended warranty (solves my worry about cash flow for car repairs) and my dear husband was able to talk the dealer into eating a large chunk of the deficit on the old car. (we just had the tack the rest-a very little bit-onto the new car) I promise my next post will be about my new car (It ROCKS!!!).

Overall, if my recent experiences have taught me nothing else, I have learned that when I have that personal revelation, that I need to act on it. Sometimes bad things will happen, but good things will happen too, and aren't we here to experience good and bad? It was and epiphany for me that changed my perspective significantly, therefore something I don't want to forget about soon - thus the reason I am putting it in my blog and you are currently enjoying (or maybe not) reading it.