It's Arrived!

Back in the fall we had started looking for a new stroller for Karter. The one we have now is getting to small for him and it is starting to no longer serve its purpose.

Although Karter's wheelchair is AH-Mazing, there are some places that his chair does or will not go. Grocery shopping is hard with the wheelchair, so I generally take a stroller. The pea gravel, sand or rough terrain are also some of the other places the chair will not go.. Since we knew we were planning a vacation to a warmer climate, with inevitable beach time, we decided that a new stroller was something that we needed to look into.

Since the search began in the fall, we knew that Christmas was coming. We decided to have the family put money into his stroller, since he did not really need any more clothes or toys at the moment. In addition, there was still some money left from his birthday that needed to be put towards something.

To my dismay, special needs strollers are extremely expensive and most are really UGLY! I came across some, if you can believe it, that were over $3000! Long story short, I found the one that would suit Karter and our needs the best and also fit into our budget.

• It had to be small,
• It had to be a jogger,
  
• It had to be light enough for me to fold and lift with ease and
• It had to not look blatantly like something for a child with a disability.

Online ordering was my best option. Ordering it from a store here in Canada was going to cost me double what I could purchase and ship it for in the USA. So on the 15th of November, I found the best price online and put in the order.

Excited about the gift that would sit under the tree for Christmas, we waited for it to arrive. After two weeks, I had called to find out that the stroller was on back order for 3-4 months. YIKES! No worries...it just HAD to be her in time for our vacation, after all, that is why we purchased it for.

After a bit of emailing and working directly with the company, I received word that the stroller had been delivered to my friends place in Bellingham, yesterday. YEAH!

So this morning, I met her at the border and paid the taxes and brought it home. After all was said and done, we saved about 50% ordering it this way, PTL!

The stroller is called the Star Axiom 1.5. It is made by Adaptive Star. This new model just started production in December (hence the back order). The company was so outstanding with their customer service and accommodating my need to have it shipped in time for our vacation and my request for special paperwork for the border. You can check them out here.

I saw it in person for the first time I pulled it out of the box. I had seen one special needs stroller at a store in the fall, so I had an idea of the size, but had not seen this model in 'real life'. It is quite tall and is definitely bigger than your standard stroller, but I would suppose it need to be to hold well over a 100 pound child or small adult (wink). Everything on the stroller is heavy duty. It will last for a long time. Not to mention it has fantastic cargo space! Included in the price is a rain cover and double swivel wheel and kit. (they will arrive in a few weeks, they are still on back order - no need for them now anyhow, so it is fine)

Here are a few pictures. I took one beside our old stroller so that you can see the difference in height and size.

For all of you who contributed to the stroller - THANK YOU! Karter is really going to love it. What a fantastic addition to his quality of everyday life.