Micaiah (my 8 yr old) and I have talked about owning a Mini Cooper or a Smart Car for a couple of years now. We laugh about how it could be our fun little “date” car and we would zoom around town with the windows down and the wind blowing in our faces.

A new car is fun…especially when someone else picks up the tab!! Our new car is not quite a Mini Cooper…we have 2 car seats still to contend with.   But it is just perfect for our family. I never knew a car could have a story, but ours does!  I’ll tell that in a moment. But first, here she is!

(Photos by Gray Photography. These guys are killer photographers!)

Micaiah got her wish…a sun roof to feel the wind on her face.  I never thought about the fact that our kids don’t know what that feels like since we drive a minivan! Their windows don’t roll down!

The inside is my favorite!  It makes me smile every time I’m in it!

Now, for a name…

After getting a good look at her,what would you name our car?  We are taking suggestions!!  Read the story below and tell us what you think!  Leave your comments so we can vote on the best name.

Now, for the story…

In January of 2009 Nathan lost his job.  He had been a youth pastor for 12 years at this point. 3 years prior we lost our son, Hosea Nathan, unexpectedly in his sleep to SIDS.  Several months later, we left that job position and moved to start afresh.

At this point, it felt like losses were stacking up.  Our hearts were broken but we were trying to move forward, find peace, and start over. After this last job loss, we knew there was something different in store for us next.

We went nearly 8 months without pay. We were doing odd jobs here and there, but I look back and do not know how in the world we made it through the year after except for God.  At one point we had eaten beans and rice for so many meals and were rationing out toilet paper squares to our kids…no lie.  So many months we didn’t have any money to pay rent, and then we would open our mailbox and would find 100s or once even $1000 cashier check from someone anonymous. One night I got a text message that said, “Check your front porch. Love, God.” Things like this happened over and over. Our church had a food pantry that helped get through those tough months.  I also sold almost $3000 worth of furniture, decor, clothes, etc. to help offset bills.  This was a serious “purging” time in our life.  We were truly learning how to “be content in all things, in little and in much.”

I have to say though, even though I couldn’t even buy a pack of gum or stamps to send thank you notes to those who blessed us, I’ve never been so happy, full of faith, and at peace. I knew God would take care of us.  I was constantly seeking balance in my own heart of working hard, yet not striving to make it all happen in my own strength, but trusting.

We knew we weren’t to go back into full time ministry at this time, but all we kept hearing was “work what’s set before you.”  It took us 8 months to realize God was talking about Shaklee. We weren’t doing anything with Shaklee other than consuming the products at this point so we laughed at the thought of actually making money, especially enough money to feed a family of 5.  Plus we were on a time crunch.  We needed money NOW.

In August of 2009, Nathan’s parents invited us to the Shaklee Global Convention in St. Louis. I went “kicking and screaming.”  I had no desire to investigate the potential opportunity Shaklee provides at all.  Little did I know that everything in my world was about to change.

Roger Barnett, Shaklee CEO, got up on stage the first day of the conference and unveiled a brand new opportunity…something called FastTRACK, a way to earn $100,000 in 15 months through Shaklee. Nathan and I literally started to cry when we heard about this.

Several months earlier, we had gone to a new church and a stranger sitting behind us said, “Hi, I don’t know you, but all during the service I kept seeing the words FastTRACK over you. I just wanted you to know.”  We thought, “Cool.”  But it didn’t mean anything to us at this time.

A week later, at church again, a man in front of us (another stranger since we were brand new to the church), turned around and said, “I don’t know what this means, but I keep hearing the words FastTRACK for you. Does that mean anything to you?”  At that time, no, it didn’t.

About three months later, a dear friend came over and was sitting at our kitchen table and said, “I see that God has you on a FastTRACK.”

Haha!! I guess 3 is our magic number!  Fast forward 3 months and there we were, in St.Louis, at the Rams stadium listening to Roger announce this incredible opportunity called FastTRACK.  We knew it was for us.  This was our chance to take a risk and go all in with Shaklee and achieve something we never thought was possible before.  We had a choice that day to stay stuck in the mud with our grief and losses, or get up, brush off the dust and begin to move forward.

Thirteen months later, we finished FastTRACK. Along the FastTRACK journey, every 3 months, we were earned extra incentives in addition to income…tickets to next years conference, $1000, $3000, all expenses paid cruise to the Western Caribbean, $5000, and then finally, at the end, we were given a $25,000 check. Click here to see us receiving that from our CEO. Those FastTRACK bonuses allowed us to create two business from scratch and for Nathan to stay home and not go back to work.  Shaklee propelled us to dream even bigger and our FastTRACK bonuses helped us start another dream, our online fitness community called BurstClub.com.

We have worked harder in the last 18 months than I ever have in my life. It has been an amazing journey of dreaming and learning to put “feet” to those dreams. We chose that day in St. Louis to not just survive life, but to truly live. We didn’t even know how to dream before we were introduced to Shaklee. We were so stuck in our reality that we didn’t know how to get outside of that box and dream of something different.  This opportunity has allowed us to meet and work with the most incredible people. Our team is amazing and they have become family to us!  Many of them are now on FastTRACK themselves and enjoying the benefits of their hard work!

Losing a child causes you to value every moment. That is why I am so thankful we have gotten to do this together. Nathan has been home for over 2 years now full time.  He is my best friend and we’ve gotten to truly know each other in this process.  We have both grown so much personally, developed new skill sets, and learned how to lead. We have freedom to be our own boss, we get to be home with our kids, and our most recent fun “happy” is our new car!

So the story of our car is that we dated 2 years long distance before we got married. We never got to hang out or date like alot of people do. Then we got pregnant 2 months after we said “I Do.”  I had 4 babies in 6 years, lost one, and lost 2 jobs.  Life for us got very serious, very fast.

We test drove several cars, but none made us laugh and feel like kids again like our Soul.  Our whole family sat down in for the first time, we all started to laugh hysterically!  We knew we had to have it!  We wanted a car that represents what Shaklee has done for us.  In so many ways, this company has been used to restore fun and laughter to our lives.  I want our little car to be a symbol to others that if you are willing to work hard and keep moving forward, even through tough times, that amazing things can, and do, happen!  There is Hope for a better tomorrow!

Thank you Shaklee for rewarding hard work and helping us, and so many others, change their future!

Who Knew a Car Could Be So Fun?? from Nathan & Jenni Oates on Vimeo.

Nathan and I are looking for people who are serious about their future, want to grow personally, work hard, and want to be invested in. We’d love to connect with you at info@healthyoates.com.