I’ve been MIA for a minute. I feel only now relatively settled enough to sit down and write, as we made it through an entire whirlwind to get back to the US, all 4.5 of us.

Third trimester exhaustion is the realest thing, coupled with traveling halfway around the world. And that is not for the faint of heart.

And we did it.

Not without a lot of tears over unknowns (and that just was leaving Togo) and obviously some tears here too. Some of it, hormones, some of it just the still unknowns regarding our little baby, and drama with our home in Memphis.

I’ll explain later.

Either way, something that both H and I enjoyed was giving a stroller a second chance at life. In my post about baby items, I wrote about a Cybex stroller that we bought at a consignment shop for only $100. It finally got it’s upgrade, just in time before we left, and we couldn’t be more excited for it.

If you’re wondering what we’re using here, we ordered our Joolz Aer travel stroller, since we’ll be doing a lot of traveling, even before we leave the US for Togo with the baby. It’s just easier to manage and we will be able to take it on the plane in the overhead as well.

Let’s dive in to our dear Cybex:

Because Togo doesn’t have the best medical care in general, I had to leave to come back to the US for the 20 week ultrasound, or the anatomy scan. We stayed in Alexandria, VA in the Del Ray neighborhood, and while the visit was only 3 days worth, we made the most of it. On a walk exploring the neighborhood one day, we saw that there was a baby/kids consignment shop about a block or two away from our Airbnb. Outside were plenty of strollers, a Bugaboo chameleon with all of the attachments, an Uppababy Vista, and a Cybex.

There was a lot to think about because we had already ordered our Joolz, but after thinking about our transportation situation in Togo, we realized we needed or wanted a more durable stroller, and the Joolz was purchased with Europe and travel in mind. Not necessarily the sand, tore up streets, and lack of sidewalks that await the baby in Togo.

The owners at the shop were ready to rid themselves of the stroller inventory due to the weather changing, so they were willing to make even more deals. This was our chance.

In my research, I really liked everything Bugaboo. This chameleon stroller was recently discontinued, however had all of the attachments, bassinet, foot muff, rain and mosquito cover etc. However after further looking into all the pieces, the buckle that the shoulder straps lock into, was missing. So that was disappointing.

The next to look at was the Uppababy Vista as it seems to be a cult favorite brand. It was a little older but was in a pretty green and included the bassinet attachment. We made sure to check how and ease of folding because it was pretty important to us. This Vista did not fold easily and a wheel fell off….

The Cybex Platinum Priam stroller was in really great condition for being a 2017 Luxe model. Because it was part of the Luxe line, the seat folds back completely flat, eliminating the need for a bassinet attachment. It came with an unopened mosquito net, and folded like a dream. The only thing it needed was a cleaning.

So needless to say, we walked it around and it moved like a dream. $100 and it was ours, marked down from $300. A steal because in it’s prime, it was a $1000 stroller.

The next obstacle was getting it to Togo.

At the time, we didn’t have one of the diplomatic mail options available to us. So we had to make the package as small as possible to get it through and make the regulations to get mailed to us. We thought about bringing it and gate checking it at the airport, but we were spending a few days in Amsterdam, so we figured the best move was to mail it. So to the UPS store we went.

It was a lot of disassembling and rearranging, but we did it.

After a long journey and $167 later, it arrived halfway around the world, to a delighted curious cat, that thinks that the basket was a gift for him.

By this point we removed the washable parts for the wash.

Next came reimagining how it could possibly be made into something special. Since the stroller was all black, we wanted something a little more stimulating for the baby to look at. So what other option did we have, other than to use all of the fabric we collected over our time there, to cover some parts of the stroller. The decisions were really endless over which to choose.

We ultimately settled on a fabric that H picked up while on a trip to northern Togo. It was loomed by a Women’s Cooperative near the border that often has to deal with violence coming from Burkina Faso. It was simple, not over stimulating, and one of my favorite fabrics, so it only made sense to use something special for this stroller.

The Cybex logo on the seat chair had also been washed at some point maybe with bleach, and turned brown. It needed to be covered, so we scoured the internet for a patch large enough to cover it.

We chose this embroidered bee for it. The bee became a symbol for the baby when we found out I was pregnant, at that point, it was very early and she was just a blastocyst. So “little bee” became our name for the baby, until we found out baby was a girl, and we could start considering names.

We asked a local seamstress about the cost to get the fabric and patch cut and sewed on, as my skills are not as advanced as I’d like them to be. It cost us just $20.

After some reassembling, and adding the essential fan, it was ready! After a final inspection by Caspian of course…

And here is the final result:

The vision is now. a reality. H is really proud of this stroller. I am too, but really proud of us for making this happen.

In our effort to be more eco-conscious, we took a stroller out of the risk of being thrown away in a landfill, cleaning and reimagining how to make it special so it can be a mode of transportation for our little girl for years to come.

We used sustainably made, fair priced and compensated fabric to help women from Togo, and had the sewing done by a woman-owned operation.

It sits inside the house in Togo now, next to the front door, waiting patiently for the itty baby.

We are excited for it, and of course her.

And of course thank you to the family that took great care of it, and thank you to the child that loved it previously. What a memory is to that family and child, will now be loved and used again by us and ours.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Carrie