Move over, Bessie.

When we discussed the possibility of bringing our 6th child into this family one of the first consequences we discussed was the vehicle situation. With 5 children, no matter how we split the kids up for outings (for example, soccer games that will inevitably be scheduled at the exact same time on opposite sides of town) we had enough seat belts between Brad's truck (Vern) and my van (Bessie).

And, with 5 children, my van would have enough seats to carry our entire family anywhere we needed to go.

Bringing home our 6th child meant that we would need to: drive 2 vehicles any time we wanted to go anywhere as a family (at least church every week and family dinner at my mom's every week), rent a car big enough to accommodate us all for any long drives (like visiting family in Utah, Arizona, Southern California, or visiting the beach/snow), and if we ever needed to split the kids up evenly, 3 and 3, we would need someone else's help.

We knew this going in.

However, completing our 3rd adoption in 3 years time did not leave any discretionary income to run out and buy a vehicle. As usual, we seemed to have "just enough" for each step of the adoption process and travel. So the vehicle situation had to wait.

But the day after arriving home when we were all desperate to spend some time together and needed to run errands for all the family members reality set in a bit. Then 2 days later we left for Utah and reality set in a bit more. We could not transport our family together. And there were a lot of situations right away that kind of required it.

So, may I introduce you to our newest addition:

"Bertha"

We looked at several options: Honda Odyssey, Toyota Sienna, Chevy Suburban, etc, etc, etc. Pretty much every vehicle on the road that carries 8 people. Unfortunately, while they all have 8 seat belts, none of them seem to actually be designed to carry 8 people. Especially if 3 of those people are in car seat/booster seats. And forget about cargo space. Eight seat belts seems to translate into zero cargo space.

So, we considered passenger vans. Eleven/twelve seats should have been enough. But there was that darn issue of cargo space. The back row of the 11/12 passenger van was literally inches from the back doors. And if we took out the back row that would take us back down to 7 seats, which is what we have now.

So, 15 seats it is. We took out the back row for cargo/grocery/dog/bike space so that we can continue to do what we do: experience the world as a family.

Brad put Justin to work cutting carpet to cover the seat mounting hardware. 

Bella approves.

We all fit! 3 car seats, 8 passengers, 1 Great Dane and a little room to spare.

Bertha is perfect. We just have to get used to the idea of having a car payment again...