The Van - whose name is Max

      The kids named our vans.  Yep, the Mini Vandals named our minivans.  The blue - excuse me - "slate" van is Vanny.  And for some reason the green (cypress pearl) van is named Max.  I think it is because my BFF said it was "Vanny to the max".  The kids liked it and, thus we were named.
      In any case, about 2 weeks ago, "they" came to take the van for it's modifications!  YEAH!   Part of the bid for modifications was that they come and get the van.  The pick up time was between 1 and 4.  Yep, as bad as the cable guy and, just like the stereotypical cable guy,  they came at 5:15.
    BUT they came to get the van!
    Finally!
    On September 30, we went to Van Products for Jarrad's first "fitting".  We spent 2 hours there. He did two transfers, made adjustments on seat height and placement of all of the "things" - latches for chair tie down, accelerator, break, emergency break etc.  The mechanic was awesome - he was willing to take things out and learn to do new things (ie put the chair swivel switch on a remote).  He took lots of notes so that it will be "just right".   
     It has been a long time coming for us.  At least it seems that way.  And it seems like every time we turned around there was another hitch.  But finally, the good news, we actually have a date for the van to be DONE!  And we have a date for Jarrad's final driver training.  It is NOT Christmas!  Although, I am still not holding my breathe that we will get it. . .
     Sigh.
     So why has it taken so long?
     Well, we started the process in the fall of 2012.  Jarrad was supposed to get training that spring but that got delayed due to carpel tunnel surgery.  Then the state made policy changes - YEAH for bureaucracy!   That resulted in more paperwork and the delays that correspond with paper being sent to different places for signatures.
    FINALLY!  We were told that we had a van.  We finished the paperwork, took possession of the van and it came home.  And we enjoyed it.  And waited for more paperwork to be completed.

    The timeline, as it was explained to us, seemed pretty straight forward.  However, it is never that way.  What you need to account for is human nature.  Our engineer had a personal issue - that is understandable - but what isn't is that when we called about it - which we did after 2 weeks of not hearing anything - we were told that no one could get a hold of him.  This was a  trend that continued for a month until finally, another engineer said he would be out to do the evaluation and write up for us.  THEN the original engineer said he would get on it.  That still took 2 weeks.  So we got the van in April (I think) and now it is the very end of July and we (fingers crossed) should have it by the end of August. If the original plan had been followed, we would have had the van last year at this time.  But it was not and we have the van this year.  I will be grateful.  I will be patient and I will celebrate this new addition.
     Just in time for school to start.