More Van Worries

I'll try not to go all woe is us here, but here's a recent update on how things are going. Any and all advice is certainly appreciated.

A month or two ago, the van started slipping out of gear and we suspected that the transmission was going out. Although we work constantly and spend rarely, we were still caught with no money available to take care of the cost of replacing the transmission. Prices range from a ballpark of about $2,000 for a used one to twice that for a brand new one.

We did our share of worrying and stressing and were blessed and lucky enough to raise some dough from generous friends and family and then we took the van to the repair shop. The owner ran a test and found nothing wrong with the transmission, but did suggest a fix that would run us about $500. We were pretty happy to get such a relatively cheap fix and signed off on the job.

However, the van kept doing the same thing afterward. My wife would drive it and it would slip out of gear at around 30 m.p.h. or so. Now school is starting and we're feeling quite screwed if our only reliable means of transportation fails us. She's the breadwinner of the family and needs to get to her school each day. Josh is starting kindergarten and Ari attends daycare and we need to be able to get them to school each day as well. (My car is also in bad shape, but I'm fortunate to be able to rideshare with friendly co-workers.)

Assuming the van really does need a new transmission put in, does anyone know anyone who would do the job and work out a payment plan with us?

I'm also interested in finding a part-time job (or maybe a well paying job to replace my current one) ideally in the Hermitage area. I've spent the better part of the last hour looking online at civilian jobs in Iraq and I'd honestly prefer to work somewhere slightly closer to home and a tad bit less dangerous. I'm just tired of being poor. As Springsteen sings, I've "got debts no honest man can pay."