On the to-do list...

....to wrap up two miraculous times with one great big bow.

We had this Ginormous foof chair on loan for Merrick's recovery.

Now that our boy is cast-free and mobile, our desperate preparation times seem so far away!

But at that time we hunted for a large bean bag to give him another surface to lay on.  (Rather than his only option to go from bed to couch each day).  Little did we know that even the smallest bean bag starts at $80.  We could pay that and keep it around as a reading chair, but then what about our other 2 kids? 

My motto is 'Life is not fair, deal with it...'  but really, we would need 3 bean bags for sure if this was going to stay in our house. And $300 was just not in the budget.

Then we thought they could share one of those bigger bags...but um, those cost the same but for ONE bag.

So a friend put out the word on one of her yahoo groups (she is uber networked around here!)

And Foof!  Two days later a complete stranger was dropping off this HUGE chair to our house.

 

I was blown away by the generosity......I really don't know if I'd be able to loan out such a unique piece.

But she assured me we could keep it as long as we needed it and that it wasn't too precious for the random dog hair it might accumulate in our home.  Ok......

And enjoy it we did.  Especially after I found the white paint handprints on it (not from us)......it was obviously not a super prized possession.  It turned out to be a fantastic alternative for our semi-immobile boy.

So we rolled that puppy around our front room for over 2 months.  Then this whole move came up and I knew we needed to return the foof chair to it's rightful owners.

Thankfully, I picked a day that the kids were with Marmar, as, you'll see, they would NOT fit into this equation very well.....

Let me start by asking...have I mentioned how heavy this thing is?  It's full of foam, and is atleast 5 feet round.

I used to have to force it onto the couch with a roll-tuck-full-on-press maneuver when I swept the floor.

Now it was time to take my moves outside.

On this fine afternoon I heaved and ho'd and rolled it out to the van.  Unfortunately, Jarrod was on his way home from work so the truckbed was not an option.

Then I proceeded to shove.

And I have to tell you, I must have been a sight to see.

I am no small person, and in this chair, I had a formidable foe.

I pushed SO hard I was rocking the entire van.....and by now I had the giggles.

The thing would not budge through the doorframe. 

I tried every trick in the book, save one. 

I pushed, I squeezed, I  hugged, I pleaded, and think I even promised it a new cover....

Ten minutes later I called Jarrod to see if he was nearby to help me.

That and I just needed someone to laugh with.

Literally, there wasn't a soul around anywhere to appreciate this madness, my entire block was silent. 

The darn thing just stuck there in the doorway of the van.  When I called Jarrod he suggested laying down the back seat and pushing it in from that entrance.  Um, by now it was a bit too late for that.  We were halfway in.  Some might say we were halfway out...but that is neither here nor there ;)

I finally stopped laughing at myself long enough to tip that front seat forward and with a few more shoves....Wa la!  Success!

I will say that foam chairs are NOT pliable like a bean bag.  Which is a good trait for furniture.....but not when you're loading them in a van.

I actually waited the extra ten minutes for Jarrod to arrive and go WITH me to drop it off. 

It was priceless watching the reverse process.

Jarrod had to tug pretty hard to coax that beast out of the van.

I couldn't help him from my position on the curb laughing my butt off!

The funniest part was how helpful the lady was when we returned the foof chair.  She had all kinds of househunting advice for us.

I tell ya, it's a mighty small world out there.....and  most people really are rooting for each other.

Sometimes it just takes the tragedies in life to bring us out of our shells and to lend to a total stranger.

By the time it was over, I was praising God for His provisions in comforting my son with this perk, to keep us smiling along the way and to bring a community to rally around us.

To-Do List:

1. Nurse Merrick back to health- CHECK

2. Return Giant Foof Chair- CHECK

3.  Make strangers into friends- CHECK

4.  Rent out house and move to Marmar & Papi's- CHECK

5.  Share of all the good God has done along the way- CHECK