Help the growing Owen Family get a 12 passenger van

We know we have so many family members and friends who know our situation, but maybe some of you don’t, so I’ll start by briefly sharing our story. Tyler and I have been together since 2018, married in 2020, and quickly welcomed our son in 2021, making us a family of 4 that includes our daughter, who Tyler would eventually adopt.

Early on in our relationship, we talked about becoming foster parents. It’s always been something in my heart that I wanted to do and Tyler was along for the ride due to his family’s history of helping and housing kiddos in need. We both are passionate about being involved in our communities and helping others, this is one BIG way of fulfilling our passions.

After becoming licensed foster parents in late September of 2022, we quickly accepted placement and since have had 13 children in our home. Some have been here for a long time, and some a very short time, and we even have some adoptions on the horizon. However, that hasn’t stopped us from growing our family either (as you can see from our earlier post ). With that all said, come September, we will have 7 (yes, you read that right. SEVEN) children, and 6 of them will be 4 and under (I promise we’re mentally stable MOST of the time).

You’re probably thinking.. what’s the point of this rambling. Well, I’ll go ahead and cut to the chase. That’s a lot of car seats. More than my very loved mini van can fit. We do not want to disrupt any placements and we certainly aren’t going to not adopt some of our foster kids over a vehicle. As a stay at home mom, it’s very important that I’m able to fit everyone safely in the car to be able to get to appointments, transport children for visits when needed, and run other errands throughout the day. Taking two cars will not be an option for us, as I’m solo parenting at least 2 nights a week while Tyler completes Law School (so proud of him, btw ).

And this is where we thought our village could help us make a difference! We’ve been on the hunt for a 12 passenger van. Just typing that out is a little intimidating.

For the sake of transparency, our goal is to trade in all our vehicles (besides Tyler’s daily driver) in order to help us to have some sort of payment for what we need. But again, as some of you know, Tyler’s old car isn’t usable and we’ve put a lot of money into while still owing on it- I’m not counting on his car being a money marker (actually it’s definitely the opposite ). We will trade in my van, but it has high mileage and I’m not sure how much we’re going to get for it either- while also still owing on it. Therefore, we’re reaching out for help to be able to safely transport our big family. If you’re able, please consider donating and sharing our post. If you know of someplace that is looking to sell/donate a reliable 12+ passanger van, please let us know. It’s very important to me that this vehicle is safe and reliable as it will carry all our precious cargo (yes, I’m taking about the kids, not all our riches and jewels ). Thank you for taking the time to read! ❤️