Much needed help

Over the last couple of months it has become very apparent to us that Nathan is going to need some extra help getting around. He heavily relies on his wheelchair when not in the home and a lot of times in the home will only move if he is in his wheelchair. We have had friends ask us periodically what we need and I have always told them I don’t think we’re going to know what we need until we need it and we’re going to need it right away. That seems to be the situation that we found ourselves in recently.
About a month ago Nathan started taking the lift on the bus to school. Once he returned home from school I would push him up the driveway into the garage and beg him to stand up and walk up the four steps into the house. Some days were easier than others and some days it was just pitiful. He would scream and cry that he was scared, his legs would shake so bad that you could see them move and there was nothing I could do to calm him down. Once in the home he demanded that we bring his wheelchair into the house in order for him to get around.

Nathan is only 13 years old but he is 5 feet 10 inches and weighs 140 pounds. He’s not the easiest kid for me to maneuver. We realized that our immediate need was a ramp to get him into the house safely. The next step will be converting my van to be wheelchair accessible.

A dear friend of ours contacted one of her friends and told him about our situation and immediately he offered to come and build us a ramp. Within two weeks we had it set up for a group of guys to come and build a ramp in our garage so that Nathan could safely get into the house. Today they showed up, dropped off the lumber, built the ramp and left without requesting a thing from us. Their time, their talent and all the materials were donated to us.

Jay and I are beyond thankful for the generosity that was shown to us in this great act of kindness. It will enable us to be able to get Nathan into the house without meltdowns or fights or even him being scared. It’s times like these where words truly don’t describe our gratitude and all we can really say is thank you, but it goes so much deeper in knowing that it improves the quality of Nathan’s life and at the end of the day that is the most important thing to us.

From the bottom of our hearts, to Eric and Rob and the guys that donated their time we thank you.

Jay and Stacey