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7/15/03 The Mazda Is Sold From:
Rob Payne <rob@everydayisprecious.com> Marcy has been out of bed a few times since last update Answered Prayer: Sold the Mazda Tennessean columns now posted on their own page And here are the details: Marcy has been out of bed a few times since last update The new van is still working great. Marcy can roll right up into it. The only problem is that it is too uncomfortable for her to stay in her wheelchair for more than about an hour. So
one of our first trips was to the Vanderbilt wheelchair clinic 6/16.
Marcy was out of bed for about 5 hours. By the time we got home,
she was hurting badly. The good news is they had a demo wheelchair
that was very comfortable for her. They will build one like it for
her to keep, using mostly parts from their loaner closet. The parts
they have to buy will be funded by MDA. July 9 they told us her
new wheelchair will be ready in two weeks. June 22 Marcy was out for about three hours as we went to Michael's to have some of Darcy's artwork framed.
After Michael's, we went to PetSmart to see where Darcy is working. Darcy is helping Abandoned Angels, an animal shelter, at their Saturday adoption days. She helps clean the cat crates and helps show kittens, cats, and dogs to prospective adopters.
For the Fourth of July, Marcy sat in her sling on our back deck and watched the Franklin fireworks. Thank
you for your prayers concerning the new
clinical trial for ALS patients that was our prayer request
in our last update. We contacted the doctor in St. Louis, then our primary care physician, and started taking Teveten June 23. It is a medication approved for people with high blood pressure and is designed to lower blood pressure. The doctor in St. Louis has a theory that it will help ALS patients. We were to monitor Marcy's blood pressure to make sure it didn't get too low. By July 5, Marcy's blood pressure had not gone down much, but she was feeling lethargic so she stopped taking the Teveten. Her energy picked up for a few days, but was feeling lethargic again yesterday. We have decided not to continue in this trial. Answered
Prayer: Sold the Mazda In our last update we told you about having found a wheelchair accessible van. We knew God would provide the means to pay for it. Saturday, June 28, I received a call from a woman who asked if we still had our Mazda for sale. I said yes and asked how she had heard about it - it had been over a week since the last ad had run. She said she had seen the ad in the paper last Saturday. She
wasn't ready to buy a van, but was planning to do so in September.
Her income is greater during the school year. She was looking in
the paper to see what she might expect to have to pay for a van
in September. She
had seen the web address in the ad in the paper and was drawn to
the everydayisprecious url and had written it down. She finally
went to the website the morning of the twenty-eighth and just had
to call. Her business partner has ALS and is about one year into the diagnosis. She knew that this was much more than a coincidence. She wanted to get a van for her family for trips: her husband had been injured in an accident and her Honda didn't give him the leg room he needed for his injured leg. Also, for some time, she had been wanting another car so her 16 year old daughter could drive her Honda.
She came to the house the day she called and test drove the van. She said again that she wasn't looking for one now, but there were too many things drawing us together to ignore this and she knew the price was right - more about that in a minute. She hadn't talked to her husband about it, she didn't know how she would pay for it before September, but she wanted the car. She wanted to put a deposit on it so I would hold it until she talked with her husband, to the bank, and to the insurance company. I told her that wasn't necessary, I wanted her to talk to whomever she needed to feel comfortable. I told
her I wouldn't sell it to someone else without talking with her
first. She said, "If someone comes up and gives you the cash,
take it." Ruth
called back Monday morning. She had talked with everyone she wanted.
She wanted the van and came with her daughter Monday night to pick
it up. We have corresponded since and everybody's happy. About the price - we had originally priced the van at almost $17,000 to try and get out of it what we had paid the dealer when the lease was up. But the Holy Spirit had told me this was to be an even swap. We were supposed to sell the Mazda for the same dollar amount He had given us the wheelchair accessible van ($15,000.) I'm convinced that's the reason we didn't receive any calls from the first ad. It was overpriced, spiritually.It was also overpriced in the natural world – the Kelley Blue Book Value was $15,543. So we changed the price to $14,900 to answer the Spiritual call, the secular call, and to keep it in a "less than $15,000" buyer's search. We had bought a transferable service maintenance plan from the dealer when the lease was up. At the time, we were thinking that as soon as a car is paid for, things usually start going wrong. I knew in my mind that the service plan had some value and thought the purchaser might see the value. It was part of the advertisement at the higher price. When we lowered the price to $14,900, we made the service plan an optional add-on. In my little natural mind I was thinking I could still make a little money on God's gift to us. Then
someone told me that most service plans will refund cash for unused
time – if we sold the car before the end of the contract, they
would refund the unused portion. My calculations showed this would
be about $1,400. So even if the buyer didn't want the service plan,
I would still make over $1,000 on this deal! But
God knows more than I. I found out where that money was to go when I went to have the Voyager's title changed to our name. You probably saw it coming: the sales tax on the Voyager was almost exactly the dollar amount refunded from the service plan! We still have the RV available for sale and have increased efforts to sell. We've parked it at The Factory in Franklin with sales information and have been getting some calls on it. If you know someone in the market for a motor home, please send them to www.everydayisprecious.com/rv to check it out. The service company providing our respite nurse changed nurses on us the end of May. June 12 Marcy asked me to call the service and ask that the new nurse not come back. The new nurse suctioned Marcy's lungs improperly a couple of times, hurting her and causing her to bleed. The
original nurse (Juanita) has been able to come back, but not every
week. The service needs her in other places. We are still battling Blue Cross Blue Shield to try to have in home nursing care covered under the insurance policy. We are writing our third appeal now. Judy,
a friend from church, is also a sales rep for Arbonne
cosmetics. She has offered, for friends of Marcy, to donate her
share of sales to Marcy's care. Arbonne
cosmetics are all natural, no animal testing, products. If
you would like to consider helping us by buying cosmetics from Judy,
please go to the Arbonne
website, pick out the products you want, then email
Judy. Tennessean
columns now posted on their own page The column "Every Day Is Precious" is still appearing on the Faith page of the Williamson AM every Friday. Four more have been published since our last update. We have put all columns on one page and plan to update this weekly on Fridays or Saturdays. If you like reading these, you can save this page to your favorites and check it each week. The Blockbuster extra rental time program mentioned in our last update has been going well. Friends have not only brought us new releases, many have opened their own personal libraries to us. If you want to be part of this network please email me and I'll send you the permission form. Also in our last update we mentioned we would be honored if you would let us pray for a need in your life. Not many people have asked us to do this. If you have a need, please email your prayer request. I'll print it and put it right next to Marcy's speech synthesizer. New specific prayer request: Marcy gets her new wheelchair quickly and it gives her the comfort needed to get out of bed more often. Thank you again for your prayer and care. Rob
& Marcy |
