Update On The Rolling Foal Hospital

Recently I was asked about the status of the “rolling foal hospital”.  It has been quite an interesting adventure, with an emotional roller coaster of ups and downs.  Initially, and with the auction of the print that was won by Carol Steele, we raised enough funds to cover what we have done so far.  After picking up the van and bringing it back to CA, we were finally able to get it registered and enough work done on it to get it to stay running long enough to pass smog.  It had died about 20 times on the way home and we were pretty nervous, but as usual God blessed us and we got home safely.  We knew she was going to need some work, but it was a bit hairy getting home.  Once we did get home, thanks to y’all, we were excited and felt like we were on the way to “gittin’ ‘er done” and getting the van ready for our babies.  This is when things got complicated.



A wonderful gentleman told me to take the van to his mechanic, and he would pay to get it fixed so it would be roadworthy and ready to go for the babies.  However, with everything that needed to be done, mainly a new transmission, heater core, air conditioning repairs, some electrical and some general TLC,  he decided that he would rather find a different and newer van.  Of course we were excited to have something that would be more reliable off the bat, but things became even more complicated.  He found a 4 x 4 van and told the dealership to change the motor to a diesel.  Well our friend then had to have surgery.  Unfortunately the doc managed to mess it up, and while he was dealing with the aftermath of a messed up surgery, another man bought the van he was looking at.  To make a long story short, with the complications of the first surgery, it caused not only a great deal of pain and illness for our friend, but also the need for another surgery.  So at this point, the focus became survival and trying to heal up.



Unfortunately, we need to get our “Rolling Foal Hospital” ready to go immediately.  The weather has already changed and the roads to picking up these babies are often treacherous this time of year.  Although this is not normal birthing season, we still can get a baby at any time.  We picked up Precious the day before Thanksgiving one year ago, and it was 12 degrees and snowing.  Even though we pulled our good comforter off of our bed in the trailer to help warm her, she was still breathing the frigid air and her body temperature was ever so dangerously low.   This is not a great way to start and we need to do better, so we simply cannot wait and we need to be ready NOW!   Our job is to make sure that we are as prepared as we possibly can be when we get these babies.  In this case, it means working with what we have and we need to continue to fix the van we actually have, even if it takes a bit.  The reality is that this is the van we have to work with, it is actually in our possession, and with some TLC it will be an awesome tool in helping save these babies.  The difference it will make in the lives of the babies we pick up could be tremendous for so many reasons.  One of the biggest is our response time will be so much faster.  It wipes about an hour if not more off of our commute, and since I can work on the baby on the way home without stopping every 20 minutes, we can get them home and safely settled in the nursery much sooner.  We can also control the temperature as opposed to them dealing with riding in a cold trailer.  This also will eliminate pulling our big trailer and sliding around the mountain roads on the ice and snow.



So we wanted to let y’all know why you haven’t heard any news about the van for a while.  We were waiting and praying that the other one came through, but if that is not meant to be we will just have to continue to do what is needed to make this one reliable.  It definitely has the space to work with, and I have faith that eventually it can be what we need it to be.


So now y'all know what is happening with the "Rolling Foal Hospital" at Chilly Pepper - Miracle Mustang :)