Van Fund for Gabriel

Goal:

 USD $45,000

Raised:

 USD $29,399

Campaign created by Caleb Miller

Campaign funds will be received by Caleb Miller

Van Fund for Gabriel

As with most people, we don’t enjoy needing to ask for help, but here we are. Our Pastor recently talked about how pride gets in the way of so many things these days and we need to get pride out of our lives. This is our attempt to drop the pride and reach out to our village.

This fall we did a road trip out to Colorado and it made several things very apparent. The biggest was that our Yukon XL no longer cuts it for transporting Gabriel and the rest of us in a safe or feasible manner. We have loved our Yukon and we bought it with the purpose of having space for our family and for cargo, but we did not know at the time that we would be having Gabriel and all the complexities that come with our good little man. In the fall of 2023, we came to the realization that realistically, we will never be able to fly again with Gabriel. His oxygen machine ran out of battery on the flight with 20min left till landing (due to sitting on the runway for 45min prior to take off) and luckily they had a tank we could use, but it is a risk/stress that we don’t need to take. With the massive amount of (non compact) equipment we have to bring along with us and scenarios like occurred on our flight last year, we decided that our only travel option as a family is road trips, where we are in full control of our situation, at least as much control as God allows.

Because Gabriel cannot communicate like you and I, he has found his ways of expressing his feelings and communicating in his own way and he doesn’t hide them when it comes to being restricted in a car seat. Like many of the problems Gabe struggles with in life, he can be his own worst enemy and fights so hard when in a car seat, making things for himself much worse than they need to be, and frankly can be unsafe to himself. This has made transporting Gabriel a two person job and then traveling anywhere more than across town is made very tricky even in the space of the Yukon and will only increase as he grows bigger. 

While in Colorado after our drive there, we were brain storming how to resolve these issues, because it is not as simple as buying a mini van or even a wheel chair van. In talking to friends and family, we came to a place where we feel the best option is a larger van, like a Ford Transit, in which we can basically outfit the interior to have a large couch/bench in which we can sit with Gabriel comfortably and still have him safely secured in a harness (which one of our friends found). Not only will this help immensely with road trips, but we will be able to safely and comfortably secure him for therapies and appointments, while not requiring two adults every time, no matter the circumstance. Of course, we prefer to try and go together to these things anyways, to support each other, but when life and work happens, we need to have a sustainable option to do this with just one adult. 

Our plan will be to outfit said van to be similar to that of a class B RV/camper van, where we will have a healthy inverter to be able to run his equipment and will have a little kitchenette to be able to prep his food and wash his supplies when done. A class B camper van would be perfect to be able to buy already outfitted, but we will likely need some open space for a place to secure a wheel chair in the future for him to ride in, when he is larger than we are able to easily transfer. Unfortunately this means that we need to buy a van, strip it down, and then outfit the van to have a couch, normal seats for lucy and another passenger or two, and then the kitchenette with a sink, and counter space for getting food and everything prepped, while maintaining some open space near the side door, for future wheel chair storage/transportation.

We have been fortunate enough to be in a program that TN offers for medical assistance for special needs children. And during our extensive times with hospital social workers and therapists in the region, We have asked around as much as we can about if there are any programs which provide assistance for vans, and the consistent answer is “no”. Our Yukon at this point is valued around $8000, (which we will be selling and putting towards a van), but that doesn’t provide much of a down payment. In shopping around, even though we are looking for basic passenger vans, which you wouldn’t expect to be very expensive, we have found they are incredibly expensive and knowing what we will have to add to the vehicle once we purchase it, will increase the cost as well. For a used transit that has all-wheel drive, which is a necessity for us, they are sitting in the $40,000 range. Even being open to a higher mileage option since Caleb can economically repair it if ever needed, it still is very difficult to find anything reasonable. 

All that said, and in an attempt to put aside pride and recognize we can’t do this on our own, we have been encouraged to do this campaign to raise support for a van that will allow sweet Gabe to be transported more comfortably, as well as for our family to have the ability to create memories together still through road trip travel instead of nothing at all. We are asked all the time how people can help and the first answer is and will ALWAYS be, prayer! We would not be where we are today without the prayers of all of you. But now we find ourselves in a place where we are humbly asking for help financially so we can find a vehicle option that is reasonable but also means we can help Gabriel to participate in life more than he has been able to due to the transportation battles we face. Thank you for considering. Thank you for donating! Thank you for continuing to stand in the gap for Gabriel Levi! But most of all, thank you for continuing to pray, and if that is all you are able to do, we are FOREVER grateful.

Recent Donations
Show:
Anonymous Giver
$ 464.00 USD
15 hours ago

We love you guys and are praying for Gabriel!

Anonymous Giver
$ 300.00 USD
7 days ago

With love!

Taylor Nichols
$ 50.00 USD
24 days ago

Anonymous Giver
$ 50.00 USD
1 month ago

Anonymous Giver
$ 100.00 USD
1 month ago

Anonymous Giver
$ 200.00 USD
1 month ago

Katie Wright
$ 100.00 USD
1 month ago

Thinking and praying for you all!

Samantha Monk
$ 5000.00 USD
1 month ago

Jordan Smallwood
$ 1000.00 USD
1 month ago

Anonymous Giver
$ 250.00 USD
1 month ago

Merry Christmas Millers and Happy Birthday Gabriel! We love you guys!

Anonymous Giver
$ 150.00 USD
1 month ago

Emma G and Noah B
$ 100.00 USD
1 month ago

Your family is in our prayers

Anonymous Giver
$ 500.00 USD
1 month ago

Anonymous Giver
$ 100.00 USD
1 month ago

Praying for your family

Anonymous Giver
$ 1000.00 USD
1 month ago

Colleen Ellis
$ 100.00 USD
1 month ago

Anonymous Giver
$ 100.00 USD
1 month ago

Kay Scharch
$ 100.00 USD
1 month ago

Continued prayers for Gabriel and your family !

Danielle Ice
$ 50.00 USD
1 month ago

Always praying for you and your sweet family!

The Bells
$ 150.00 USD
1 month ago

Updates

Hearts of gratitude

December 4th, 2024

We don’t really have updates per se for this, but Meg and I are so amazed by the generosity and kindness everyone has already shown us and our little Gabriel! We don’t know quite what to say except for thank you! We know things are tight for so many people these days and the smaller donations are just as much of an impact on us as the large ones! Thank you everyone for reminding us of the community we have, even when it sometimes feels like we are in this battle alone! What an incredible reminder this has been of just how many people we have in our corner! 

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