I want to thank the Folse Family.  For an awesome holiday gift.  A much needed laptop computer.

Here is a photo of Lori, Lou Online friends from Louisiana.

Lori and I became fast friends when we found we had a few things in common, one was our love for Do It Yourself (DIY) Home repairs and projects but it went further than that, we both do our DIY projects using as much salvage and recycled supplies as we can find.  We barter and trade skills and services for labor since we both deal with disabilities and our non disabled family members can’t do DIY projects alone.  A few other things we had in common was our love for children, animals, nature and rural living.  We are seperated by distance but we keep contact by email, cell text and the occasional phone call.

I had become sick in November with a run of the mill flu with bronchitis and coming out to my office was a real challenge.  My home is not wheelchair accessible, but we converted a portable building into a an open space which I use as my office.  I spend about 16 hours a day at my computer as I run two of my own websites, I am the designer and admin for the Dixie Thunder Website and I’m also the Admin of all the Dixie Thunder social networks and discussion groups.  I am also the MicroGiving Community Leader and an Administrator on the MicroGiving Team.  I take my positions very seriously and I dedicate my time to my positions as the organizations I work for also help me and my family.

Anyhow…I was sick in November and just when I started to heal I got sick in December with Mono.  This left me with serious joint pain and overall weakness.  I am not wheelchair bound, but my walking is seriously limited.  I try to do whatever I can do on foot before resorting to wheels not only for independence reasons but to prevent my leg muscles from becoming weak.  I underestimated my weakness while sick and tried to handle my normal daily on foot activities.  This didn’t go so well, I fell twice coming out of my office.  The first fall was to my knees, my walker went flying away from me.  I managed to crawl to a pole…we have several poles strategically placed so that I can use them as supports when walking across the yard.  I pulled myself up…just as Amy was yelling out to me to see if I needed help.  I said nah…I got it.  Retrieved my walker and started a few steps then everything quit and I went down onto my left hip, right in a nice puddle of freezing cold muddy water.  I yelled in that NOW I needed help.  There was no way I could get up.  My walker raced off too far ahead of me and after just smashing my knees I wasn’t able to roll over onto my belly to get to my knees and haul myself up using another pole.  She came out and picked me up and I got into the house and knew I had bruised my better hip pretty bad, and my knees were in trouble.  I had my ankle braces on so thankfully I didn’t sprain my ankles again, managed to spare my wrists too.

The next day I was just too sick and too sore to come to the office.  I fretted about this and contacted my supervisor at MicroGiving apologizing in advance for my possible absence.  I whined and complained to Lori that I was stuck in bed and had no way to keep up with my work or with my friends.

A few days later Lori leaves a message on my FaceBook page telling me they had a laptop for me!!

Here was the message:

Hey Becky………..Guess what????????? Ya know pay it forward??????? I need you to email me your mailing information so I can mail you A NEW DELL LAPTOP COMPUTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lou said MERRY CHRISTMAS! We love ya’ll and know you have needed this for some time now. I got photos to email to ya too! YEEE HAAAA~~~~~~~~~~

This is the laptop she sent to me:

It is a Dell Latitude D510 with Windows XP.  Excellent condition and I can connect to my wireless router which is connected to my cable modem so I can access the internet from my room and I linked the laptop and desktop so I can access my desktop files and still do everything I need to do even when I can’t get into my office.

Within days of receiving it I was already healing because I was able to rest and there was no worries and no need to push myself to do more than I was physically able to do.

We had been hoping to be able to get a used laptop around income tax time because this was becoming a necessity rather than a luxury but with needing truck tires and some electrical work done on the truck the reality of getting one was pretty slim.  This was a well needed gift and our family thanks the Folse Family for their generosity.

In addition we also had some extra grocery money to cover us for the last of the month.  A Friend whose name I don’t have permission to mention publicly sent Amy and I a Gift card for the holidays.  The card was used just when it was needed…we always run short on grocery money at the end of the month and this time we have a fridge full of food to take us till the first.  It’s a wonderful Holiday Season for the Rayhawk Family.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 25th, 2009 at 5:41 am and is filed under Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.