I’ve wanted a convertible for as LONG as I can remember.

One of my good friends in high school had a convertible and I would finagle my way into her car as often as possible, begging for the top to be down. Yes, sometimes that meant driving with the heater on, but who cares.

Throughout our married years and the 10 vehicles we’ve owned, my mantra has been the same “If it’s not a convertible I really don’t care what I drive.” This hasn’t been some whiny, manipulative plea for Mark to buy me a convertible, but rather a – “you pick what makes the most sense” kind of thing. He loves to research vehicles and hunt for the best car at the best deal. Me? Not so much.

Sure I’ve had some input like “the next minivan MUST have four doors” and “leather would be nice for the kid spills”, but that’s where my enthusiasm ends.

Ten years ago when we first started paying off our debt we made a deal. Mark wanted to refinance the house on a 15-year mortgage. I was a little freaked out about the higher payments and how tight our budget was going to be. So he sweetened the pot.

“When we pay off the house you can have the next 12 months of mortgage payments and buy a convertible – any convertible you want.”

At least I remember the “any convertible you want” part, he may beg to differ 🙂

If you’ve been following our journey, you know that the 15 years turned into six! We paid off the house in November 2007.

Then we started the adoption process.

Then Mark left his job.

Now we both work in full time ministry.

And we have four kids.

NONE of those things are conducive to buying a convertible, especially the latter one.

The other night at dinner (with my parents and brother as witnesses) the topic came up.  I mentioned how someone needed to make a convertible mini-van. Surely I wasn’t the only kid-toting mom that dreamt of the wind in her hair while she carpooled sweaty elementary kids around?

Then someone, I think maybe Noah, pointed out that we could trade Dad’s car in for a convertible – thus still having the six passenger van for when we were all together. The convertible could become my primary car and the mini-van could be dads.

Mark laughed and said, “Sure, if you can buy a convertible for what my car is worth, go for it.”

It was kind of the same laugh he used when he said “If you can go a year without clothes/shoe shopping I’ll buy you an iphone.”

As in “good luck with that”.

This morning, in what can only be a moment of divine intervention, I saw a news article about this, the first “SUV-inspired” convertible.

It’s the new Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet. Beautiful, no?

Unfortunately not equal in value to our 1997 Toyota Camry.

So I’ll be picking up a copy of AutoTrader soon 🙂

Mark should really learn to stop issuing challenges 🙂