The New Mini Bus!!!

I wrote about an urgent need in our life a few weeks ago.  The grey van that had been perfect for our family and served us so faithfully, for many years, was no longer safe to transport Antonio in, in his new adult sized wheel chair.  Every time I had to go somewhere and take Antonio, I prayed we didn't get in a wreck, as I knew it was not safe but we had no other options, at all, to get him to his therapy and doctors appointments.  We prayed and prayed about how to get into something safe and as quickly as possible.

We had nowhere to pull funds from, in our budget, to buy anything.   We looked at loans and even if we could get a loan, the payment would have been over $800 dollars a month.  We just don't have that kind of extra money in our monthly budget, ever.  That is when we realized we could not meet this need on our own and needed help from God and friends.  We prayed and started the GoFundMe account.  Our local news paper did an article on our urgent need for Antonio and about our family.

We had been looking at mini buses on the internet for months.  We looked at buses all over the nation.  We knew we needed one that did not require a CDL to drive it and be very reliable.  One that was handicap assessable and had a good working lift.  One that would fit our whole family and have working heat and air-conditioning.  The buses we found, that fit those requirements, were around $36,000, older and had mileage over 120,000 and all of them were sold as is.  So we did not know how reliable they were or would be long term.

Then we found a mini bus in North Carolina.  It was a 2008 and only had 43,000 miles on it.   It met all of our needs and requirements and the place told us that they would sell it to us for 29,800.  They said we could have it checked out anywhere we wished to make sure it was safe and reliable and they had a three day return and ask no questions policy.  They also said they would give us $7000.00 trade in on our current van.  But one of the best features about this particular bus, to me was...this passenger seat.

In the past, every bus we had, had no passenger seat and if I drove, I had to yell back and forth with Tim to have a conversation.  My hearing is not great and it made for a frustrating time when we went places as a family.  No big deal but it is always nice to be able to talk with your spouse as you go places, especially if we hardly ever get to see each other and it is one of the only times we have to talk together.  For some reason this little bus is designed in a way that left the passenger seat in tacked so Tim and I could sit side by side and talk together as we go places.  :)

We were humbled and over whelmed with the outpouring of love and support from strangers, family and friends.  Not all people donated thru the GoFundMe.  We soon had $6000.00 in very kind and generous gifts.  Between the van trade in and the 6000.00 down we were able to get a loan for this mini bus and the payments are $440. a month.  Though this will make our budget much tighter, it is doable and we were able to get into something quickly to be safe for Antonio. Our goal is to do our best to try to pay it off early and not have a car payment again. 

It has a drivers and shotgun passenger seat...eight back seats and one wheel chair position.  It also has a flip down seat that holds two but cant be used when the wheel chair is in.  So we cant use that seat.  If we replace it with a single seat it would be usable with Antonio's wheel chair in.

I wanted to share this with everyone to keep everyone updated and to say a huge thank you, from the very bottom of my heart, to everyone who gave, passed this need along to others and prayed for us.  May the Lord God in heaven bless you all back 100 fold for your gifts and prayers.  They were felt deeply and excepted with a very grateful and humble heart.

2 Corinthians 9:8  And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:

Abundant Blessings,
susan