A Day of Answered Prayer - Saturday Feb 28

Yesterday was a day of answered prayer. First of all as I posted earlier in the day, we found out one way or another Jerry's equipment needs will be covered.

Later in the day I got a phone call from Kathy, one of Jerry's therapists from Valley Med. Kathy saw a flyer for a handicap van for sale and thought it was worth us looking into. Dennis called and arranged a time last night for us to go check it out. It worked out nicely because we had to go to San Jose anyway. As I said in a previous post Jessica purchased a Jetta from a couple in Danville and we were meeting in San Jose at 8pm to do the exchange. Thank you Gretchy, Gabe and Gevan for sitting with Jerry while we were out. After picking up the Jetta, Mitchel and Jessica drove our suburban home and Dennis and I drove the Jetta over to look at the van. We met a wonderful family who was kind enough to let us bring the van home to test if Jerry would fit in it. What a blessing, not many people would be so trusting. After getting through the morning routine this morning, we got Jerry in his chair about 2:00 and loaded him in the van for a ride to see if it was comfortable for him. There are a few issues, the door opening is only 53" which is pretty standard we expected that. The problem is Jerry is so tall he has to tilt significantly to fit him in the door opening. The wheelchair won't drive in tilt so once we have to push the wheelchair in manually and it's kindof heavy. Once inside the van with Jerry sitting up straight he only has about 1" of clearance between his head and the ceiling, his hair actually does touch the ceiling. The van has a 6" drop floor and what we really need is a 9" drop floor. Jerry has to tilt back a little to avoid hitting the ceiling if we hit a bump. All that being said, we really need to get Jerry mobile and it may be quite some time before we come across a van with a 9" drop floor. This van is not ideal for Jerry but it will work for awhile. We decided to make an offer on the van, our thought is we can use this van until Jerry's new permanent wheelchair comes in which will probably be at least 3 months. We are hoping Jerry's new chair will sit lower and he will fit better. It was a hard decision for us to decide weather or not to purchase this vehicle it would be ideal if it had the 9" drop floor. Do we settle for something that does not fit him perfectly so we can be mobile or do we stay house bound longer until the right van comes along? The sellers were asking $8,950 for the van, we decided we didn't want to spend more than $7,500 for this van because it wasn't exactly what we needed. We thought if it was meant to be then the offer would be accepted, if not then maybe God had a different plan and we would need to be patient a little longer. God blessed us, the sellers accepted the offer. We will drive to San Jose tomorrow and finalize the deal. Halleljah!!! Thank you Jesus!!! We are now mobile, just in time for our first visit to outpatient rehab in Pleasenton.

Katie