Van woes

Well, it looks like we are not going to be able to afford a new van in time for the new baby. So we are stuck with our minivan, and it is about the worst kind you can have for lots of kids. Not only does it have only one sliding door, but it has those idiotic "captains chairs". SO you truly, truly cannot reach the back seat as an adult. Also, the back seat, the thrid row, has no head rests! It just didn't come with them, the 1996 Ford Windstars' third rows just are a bench, so if your kid's head whips backward, I guess their head comes off? Sheesh.

Right now we have Mickey and Casey in the back row. We have Greta and Charlie in the middle 2 chairs and I drive. There is no way we could get the fifth child in there without...well, I really don't know. I guess we could do the baby-bucket-carseat in the middle of the back row and have Greta and Mickey sit on either side, but then the whole no-headrests thing...and who is going to get her back there? I cant reach, certainly, so I guess we would need to hire a miniature chauffeur to do that. Then we would have to put the 2 little boys in the captains chairs, and again, who would reach all the way over to do their straps?

I wanted a full size van, like a church bus. But our tax return, again, went to the heat bill and a few household items and 300$ in copays/medicines from being sick.

So I thought of an idea. I was thinking that Greta could sit up front with me if we got the airbag disabled. So I looked it up online and it turns out it is kind of controversial. But I found this article and thought it was quite interesting. On the occasions when we all go out as a family, Steve can crawl back and do all the seatbelts, I guess. I sure cant. I will seriously get stuck.

Even if I couldn't get a nice big van, I wish we had our old van. It was also a 1996, but it had 2 sliding doors and the middle row was a bench seat that sat 2 kids. I could easily access every seat in the car, and they all had headrests, thank you very much! It was a Dodge Grand Caravan and it was awesome.

Heres the thing, though: How do you sell you own van to get a different one if it is your only vehicle? How do you get your only vehicle sold and then go look at new ones when you now are without a vehicle? Do you see what I mean, there we are, lets say, standing in our driveway with $2000 cash in our hands from selling our current van-- what now, roller skate? I just do not understand.

I see other minivans and vans online all the time that are the same monetary value as ours, but how to negotiate the transaction is blowing my mind. Never, ever get a one-sliding door minivan. You cant access most of the seats in the car. Even if you are willing or able to crawl through the ketchup and legos and baby wipes and grind your knees into the snow scraper and the leaking sippy cup and the spilled sunscreen, even if you don't care who sees your pants spilt or what happens to your spine or sanity, can you really run to multiple stores in a scenario like this? And what about when it is snowing, and the whole floor is black water?

Who invented the 96 Windstar, and why why why?