Sunday, August 23, 2009

This is Toni - She is wonderful
















I have shared some about our lawyer/facilitator in Bulgaria. She has become a real friend and kindred spirit... a sister in Christ. I know some of you have noticed that she is in a wheelchair and I wanted to share about her and ask a question. She was in a car accident and it left her a paraplegic.... she is very capable and caring individual who now gets around in a wheelchair. She never once complained and is actually grateful for what happened to her because of it she was lead to give her life to the Lord... she was a real blessing and honor to be with when we traveled on our first trip....
Paul and I want to bless her and because my father just died in May my family has a motorized wheelchair that she could use to get around. We already asked her and she would love to have it. We would give it to her but need a way to get it to her.... While we were there she had one of her brothers travel with us as well as her mom or cousin to help with her personal needs. One of our hotels she could not even fit her wheelchair into the bathroom and when we ate out her brothers very lovingly and willingly helped move her up flights of stairs to the restaurant. Bulgaria is not handicapp accessible . It is a very hard life for anyone in a wheelchair... but you know she never once complained.... as I shared she was a blessing to us and has a strong spirit and a deep faith.
So if any of you know of a way to help us to get Toni this motorized wheelchair... maybe even when we travel to pick up our kids for free or not to costly we would be grateful.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi,

As a wheelchair user myself, I found that while most airlines carried my own wheelchair for free, that wasn't true with a second (power or manual) wheelchair or donation wheelchairs. However, other airlines were fine with carrying them free or for a very reduced fee. The shock came when the airlines of the connecting flight asked for €9 per kg to transport it.

Just ask the airlines you are traveling with, and check any possible connecting flight airlines.

When traveling to Bulgaria a few summers back we drove but didn't want to carry the power wheelchair with us in the car, so we checked it in at he Budapest railway station and it went all the way to Burgas for a surprisingly low fee. So that could be an option for in-country transport if you need to do that.

mommajeane said...

Thanks Hevel...I am in the collecting info. stage at the moment and your experiences have been helpful.

Shelley said...

I have no idea how to actually get it there...other than figuring out a way for it to travel with you on the flight. Can you pay for it like you do for extra luggage?
If it turns out that you need to pay to get it there, let me know. We'd be more than happy to help you with the expense.

mommajeane said...

Thanks Shelly I will remember that and do appreciate it.

Valerie said...

I'm not sure how you would go about getting it there either, but, like Shelley, we would LOVE to help pay to get it there if that is the only option. Toni has been such a blessing to us and we would love to take part in blessing her life in some way as well!

Kelly said...

I would love to help as well. IF we was traveling soon I would be happy to tow it along... but we will gladly help in anyway we can too! :)

The Keno Family said...

Jeane did you get to go to church with Toni? We went to her church when we were in Bulgaria to visit our son in May, but she was unable to attend the day we were there.

mommajeane said...

No we did not get to visit her church.. those were travel days for us... since we arrived on a Sunday and we are adopting 2 kids from diff. parts of the country...We wanted to.Thank you to all of you and as soon as I find out how we are going to do it I will share...