Trials and blessings

Somewhere in the middle of North Dakota

Another 12 hour day. I just cannot explain how very vast and open this land is. Hours of sagebrush and rolling hills. A dot on the hillside where a lone house stands, deserted by its owners. I have to wonder what it must have been like long ago when it was traversed by wagons and cattle and a strong willed people. What a long journey.

   We scraped the bottom of the barrel to find new things to do today. Ian fought with everything in him whenever he was headed back to his straps of confinement. but once it clicked, he gave up. He has done really well overall as have the rest of the children. I am savoring the hours of chatting with my love, and the scenery, though a lot of sameness, really is amazing. At one point we stopped at a scenic view area to stretch our legs and run off a little energy. A fellow traveler asked if I could snap a picture of him on his camera, and we were happy to oblige."What is your name?" my husband asked.  "Marcus"......  the former extends his hand for a warm handshake and says, "you've got to be kidding me...". He was from Germany ~( interesting, as we were currently listening to 'Corrie Ten Boom'. )  He had came over as a student and was now traveling cross country by himself. So we had to take a picture of Marcus and Marcus. :)

A few more hours under our belt, I am enjoying another nap, when I am startled awake by Marcus stating "something is wrong, the van has no power". I sent up a quick prayer, hoping for nothing major. We coast to a stop and pop the hood. Dallas clambers out to help and the hot smothering air quickly takes over the coolness of the van. Marcus's first thought is the transmission as it is the one thing our mechanic hadn't replaced before we left. lol :) We were instructed to turn off all fans and yet a high pitched whine continued to emit from somewhere. Dallas thinks he's sees something. Yes, under here, its dripping. Papa confirms that it's just condensation from the A/C. But that sound ~ it's coming from somewhere under the van, near the rear. Our ride sits too close to the ground, so we dig out some blocks and Marcus pulls up on them while Dallas directs.
"Whoa, too far!" Dallas hollers. We need to back up just a little and he dashes up under the bumper to help give a shove. NO DALLAS!!!!  GET BACK NOW!

So now what?  We are well aware of the desolation, and the atlas confirms that we are about the furthest from civilization that we we'll get on this trip. We wish we could make some calls ~ but there is simply no service to be had out here in the middle of nowhere.
OK God, we're all yours. We let things sit as we discuss our options. Being on the top of a hill, we decide we can start out coasting, and hopefully limp it to the nearest town, more than 50 mile away
Our hopes had been to get as close to Glacier National as we could yet tonight. We're thankful that we have no reservations, so we're flexible right?

Here we are, more than 250 miles down the road. We drove slowly, not pushing it too hard, and until we pulled into that little town, and talked to a couple mechanic friends, we decided it was simply a vapor lock in the fuel pump. We eventually put it to the test again on those long uphill grades and everything seams to be running smoothly.

We feel so blessed.

And God showed us in person that he keeps His promises.

He gave us a rainbow.

Thank you all for your Blessings and Prayers!!!