Did you think to pray?

I love the words to this hymn. My dad played it on the piano all the time and it was one of his favorites. As I get older the meaning of prayer and the realization and true testimony that our Father in Heaven not only hears our prayers..he answers them, gets stronger and stronger. After the experience we had this weekend I am truly convinced (AGAIN) that my Heavenly Father loves me and my family. We left on Friday, 3/6/09, to head to California to my brother Kurt's home. We had to get the kids to the Oakland airport to head out to Hawaii and my brother lives close by. So we were going to hang out with him and his family for a few days before we left for the islands. Well, all the way from Idaho to Cali we were having car trouble. Our brakes kept locking up. And of course it was all through the night. We were very nervous and didn't know what was happening. We would pull over and the car sit and cool down. Allan would release the cap to the brake fluid resovoir and it would seem to be ok. But it would do it every couple of hours. We noticed the rubber seal in the cap was totally breaking up and figured maybe a piece of the plastic fell into the brake fluid and was clogging the line. We had a prayer before we left (which is tradition) and although the trip took longer we were able to still push forward. We had to drive over Donner pass right outside of Reno on I-80. If anyone knows that pass you know how scary it is. It is 7500 feet up!!! This pass gets closed all the time because of snow and is very dangerous. We had to stop half way over this pass. The car didn't seem to recover this time and we were very scared. Allan offered another prayer. The whole time, I am praying, "Please Heavenly Father, let us get to my brother's house". Well, our prayers were answered and we made it--finally--after about 14-15 hours. We took the Yukon into the dealer down from brother's house on Monday. This is where my testimony of prayer REALLY comes to the surface......the mechanic was in total "awe" that we made it all the way from Idaho alive!!! He said our brakes could have totally gone out at any minute. He couldn't believe we made it. VERY SCARY to hear that. So....the short version of this story is: somehow transmission fluid was put into our brake line and it was totally "eating" away the entire brake system. We would have to replace the whole entire brake system to make sure it was ok. They couldn't tell how far the damage was done throughout the system. Total cost......$4700!!!! Can you believe it? I totally fell apart...We don't have the money to fix it, we don't have a credit card etc. NOT to mention the fact that we could have gone off the 7500 feet cliff at any given moment!!! We had our car serviced locally in Boise last week in preparation for the trip--oil change,, check fluids,etc. The mechanic in Cali says this type of damage happens rather quickly, so we feel it happened then--but we can't prove it. The place here totally denies doing anything with the brakes (of course) even though they did report everything looked ok. Anyway, we had to leave the car at my brother's, after we had it towed--the dealer wouldn't let us drive it off the lot, we had to rent a car to get home, my sweet sis-in-law got up to drive us to the airport at 4:30 in the A.M., and by the way, we had a small U-Haul trailer attached to us as well. The kids made it to Hawaii yesterday--and have already been to the beach, Allan and I made it home, SAFELY, last night. We are now ready to start the next phase of Operation move to Hawaii. Does Heavenly Father answer prayers? YES. Does He know you and your needs? YES. Does He love every one of his children and wants them to be safe? YES!!!! Of this I am certain. I am so grateful for the knowledge I have that God lives. He blessed my family this weekend. He blesses us everyday. In a world of woes right now, please take time to thank your Heavenly Father for all the gifts you have been blessed with...even those that test your endurance. Did you think to pray? I am so glad we did!!!!