We love our new minivan! We bought it just over a year ago with our daughter’s needs, and frankly a few of our own, in mind. This new van does just about everything with the simple touch of a button or a touchscreen, and in some cases even a hands-free sensor or voice control. Yep, I don’t mind sharing that we bought the more top-of-the-line-kind-of-minivan this time around with all of the little perks that we could possibly afford. We did it because we knew we needed a car that would last, and one that could help make our lives a little easier as we continue to care for our daughter in the coming years as we get older. Thankfully, we’ve found that all of those little things that sold us on this new minivan have totally paid off. Frankly more than we could’ve even imagined. But then, in life it often is the little things that can surprise and bless us the most. 

Minivans:

When you live a life that’s complicated it really is all about the little things. Our new van has sliding and stow away chairs that allow us to easily access the back seat and safely latch our daughter into her 4-point seatbelt harness. No more reaching up into a tall SUV to seatbelt a tantruming teenager, who from that vantage point is towering over you and appears to have more moves than an octopus in a wrestling match. Our new minivan also has handsfree sensors that automatically unlock the doors and automatically open the trunk. I can’t tell you how much both of these little features have come in handy when our hands have been full caring for our daughter. This van also has a blue ray player and sound system built in to keep our girl entertained on long drives. It even has a back-seat camera, so we can watch her every move from the front seat without having to crane our necks and twist our backs to turn around and check on her. Best of all, drum roll please, it has a sunroof! I’m telling you; this one little feature almost makes it feel like I’m driving around in my very own sports car and not just the proverbial family minivan. Seriously with that sunroof wide open, and the windows rolled down, and the wind blowing through my hair I feel completely carefree. I can breathe in deeply and I can hear my own thoughts sitting there in those leather washable seats we chose to buy surrounded by my very own cup holders. In that space up front, that the salesperson called “the cockpit”, I can even play my own music. It really is all about the little things.

We actually used to have another minivan when the kids were younger, however in the summer of 2011 someone ran through a red light and slammed into me from the side, tearing across the engine block, totaling our van, and leaving me with a permanent back injury. But that’s another story for another blog. That first minivan was perfect for us as a young family. It was affordable and didn’t have allot of the little perks this new one has, but again every little thing about it was perfect for us, and we drove everywhere and did everything as a young family in that van. We changed our babies’ diapers in the back of that van, and we potty trained our toddlers on a small potty in the back of that van. We moms will go to great lengths to spare our babies tooshies from yucky germs won’t we? We towed our trailer up and down the west coast, out to Wyoming, and all the way up to Canada over several summers with that van. We piled all of our beach gear in back and headed out to the coast and then loaded little sleepy sand-covered siblings into their car seats at the end of the day in that van. We removed seats so that my husband and son could go on father-son overnight camping trips to the dessert with the men from our church in that van. We drove our son to his first day of kindergarten in that van. And later that same year, we sat silently driving home from children’s hospital having just received the news of our daughter’s diagnosis, as she sat playing contentedly in her booster seat in the comfort of that van. There were so many precious and pivotal memories made over those years in that van. What a big impact that one little thing had in our lives. 

Road Trips:

Another little thing our whole family loves is taking road trips. Road trips just have a way of helping you relax and reset. We love to take Sunday drives as a family where we can all be together in the same place to talk and do a little sight-seeing. And when things get tough and we need a break, we just load our girl up into the backseat of our minivan, pop in a movie, open up that sunroof, and head out over to the coast, coffee in hand, for date night from the “cockpit”. Road trips like this have now become a staple for us. It doesn’t have to be a long road trip either. In fact, we often just take a drive over to the coast and cruise along the Pacific Coast Highway for an hour or so and then head back home. Another road trip we enjoy is taking a drive to see the horses that are out in the corrals and pastures around our area. Our daughter loves listening to the ocean and watching the horses, and we love the peace and calm that these little road trips bring us.  

Drive Throughs:

During these times almost everything has become either a drive through or a drive up, but the funny thing is we were actually taking full advantage of this little convenience long before COVID. We’re not just talking about fast food restaurants here either. Oh no, I mean anything we can drive through or drive up to, we do: The Post Office, the Drugstore, Target, Walmart, our favorite eateries, and our favorite coffee shops. We probably go to a coffee shop at least 3 times a week. Sometimes we even drive out of our way just to get a drive through coffee. That may sound bad for the budget, which most of us raising children with special needs have to watch due to an abundance of extra expenses with therapy and medical co pays, advocate bills, and respite care rates to pay for, but it doesn’t have to be. We just order the smaller, little less fancy, and allot less expensive coffee or tea on the menu. And then there’s our daughter. She’s got this budget thing down. She just loves to order herself an ice water. Yes, I said, “ice water”. It’s the sweetest thing, for some reason she thinks that that small ice water from that drive through window is the most amazing treat ever. She cracks us up! But I have to say honestly even if these trips to the local taco shop or coffee shop cost us a little bit more it’s still totally worth it to us, because it really is all about that little thing allowing an even bigger and more important thing to occur. Spending time together. Sometimes this is the only time in our day that we get to talk to each other or catch up with our son uninterrupted, because in the back seat of our van sits our girl contentedly watching a movie and drinking that ice water. 

We thank God for those little things in life that help us not only survive but even thrive in the midst of the hard. How about you? What are a few of your favorite little things?