PJ's Wheels

For those of you who know Pam, you understand what a challenge it was for her to admit that there is something that her family needs, that she alone cannot provide, that will bring her family together in ways they have never been able to enjoy.  Working next to her each day both inspires me and makes me feel in adequate in many ways.  I also feel the frustration she faces in so many of the daily tasks most of us take for granted.
It is my hope to raise enough money to help Pam's family purchase a dependable wheelchair van so that her daughter PJ can be included in their family activities - and that they all can enjoy time together.
Also driving this effort is a desire to prevent terrifying situations like being stranded roadside when she and her daughters were evacuating for the recent hurricane and their current aged, retrofitted "converted" van broke down. Yet again.
It took a while but I finally asked Pam to share a few words about how a van might make a difference in her family's lives...

Since PJ was diagnosed, it has been a process of rebuilding.  When you think about it, our kids are born and we as parents think, hope, and pray the sky is the limit.  The worry sets in you when you realize that the choices you or (even more scary-they)  make can determine how far they will go in life. 
With PJ, we hit that wall pretty early (9 months to be exact).  When you hear the words spastic quadriplegic for the first time, it is  a punch to your soul. 
Since then though, instead of watching what limitations come up, we watch what progress she makes.  We kind of started back at 0 that day and from then on, we are grateful for what she can do.  She can turn her head to hit a switch to turn something on - someday hopefully she may be able to let us know if she needs something.  13 years later the progress is slow, but at least it is progress not regression.  No one knows how far she  can go: probably not going to walk or talk or use her hands purposefully ever, but we are thankful for what we have and what she can do, enjoy or learn.

That is why the van is so crucial.  As she gets older, she gets heavier and barriers to the world around her are more difficult to overcome.  
If something is in the way, it is not as simple as lifting her over it.  What a mother could do on her own now requires help for just the simplest of things.  PJ has an older sister and a younger sister and we have always worked so hard to make sure PJ’s disabilities don’t become a handicapping situation for the whole family.  PJ likes to get out and go to the beach (we have a beach wheel chair that her grandparent had custom made for her), she likes to be towed on an adapted bike, go out to dinner with the family, to the pool, even just go to the grocery store. 
Without the van, she cannot do that and the family is fractured because someone has to stay home with PJ while everyone else goes about their lives. 
There are no Thanksgiving trips to see family that is out of town because the van we have just won’t make it.   A reliable van would be one of the things that allows our family be a family – just be together and be part of the community and world around us.