More recording of special events.......

I would like to return to more photo's of events that have occured recently.

On Tuesday March 2nd we were invited by Kate Robertson (Charlton) to have a "behind the scenes" visit to Melbourne Zoo. We were attending the Royal Children's Hospital that day and the zoo was only 5 mins away.
Kate's fiance is a zoo keeper with the giraffes, but as we were to learn he has worked in many areas of the zoo in the last 14 or so years.

The experiences we had that day can only be described as "amazing".
I will never forget that day myself and cannot wait until we can take Scott back to see it all (YES! Howie said we can go back another time !).

Inside the giraffe enclosure, feeding the carrots !!!!

Look at the size of their heads !!!!!

The AWESOME Howie with Amelia and Tom .....

Sharing the Love !!

Anyone want to feed the Lions ???!!!!!

Such majestic creatures.....

Thank you so much Kate and Howie.
xxx


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On April 2nd, Anna Ellam and her gorgeous children, spoiled us to a visit at Silvers Circus in Frankston.

Katie, Tom, Poppy and Amelia

Anna came prepared for Amelia. Loud sounds or explosions scare her, so this was a perfect solution.

Amelia and Tom with the Ringmaster

The kids enjoying the show !!!

For Frankston the tickets were very expensive but the show was spectactular !!!!!
Thanks Anna, Stuart, Katie and Poppy. It was Amelia and Tom's first circus and they LOVED IT !!!!

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What a week !!!

Every week is a big week and this one was no exception.
My apologies for not writing sooner but I have been collapsing into bed every night.

On Tuesday morning I had a very productive meeting at school about Amelia.
It was informative, interesting and soothing, all at the same time.
The compassion shown towards our situation was obvious.
I love the school we have chosen and am very grateful that the main staff care about Amelia.

Wednesday we drove into Melbourne to meet a genuinely beautiful person.
Holly Detman flew from New Zealand just to meet us.
She had read our story and felt a connection. There was also an urge to meet us.
We had a delicious lunch and she gave Amelia a gorgeous handmade "photo album" to take to Disneyland.
I feel that we actually had the pleasure of meeting an extremely kind and caring person that day.

Thursday something happened at school that does not need discussing.
It made Amelia cry.....lots.
This made me fall apart in front of two people I honestly respect.
Thank you to those people for crying WITH me.
It made me realise once again, that I am human and need to grieve.

The friendships that are being established in so many areas of Amelia"s Project will last forever.
Not only for me personally, but for many others too.
Here is a little girl......a daughter, a grandaughter, a niece, a friend......a child, slowly fading away.

So very, very upsetting........ BUT at least we have been given the chance to make her "lifetime" beautiful and amazing.

Thank you to all of those kind souls that are helping me.

xxx

Lets start at the very beginning....A very good place to start (sound of music !!)

So much has happened in the last few months in our family.
After downloading lots of photo's I thought I may start "recording" it all........

In December 2010, Amelia was admitted to The Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne because we were concerned with her overall decline. She supposedly had Cerebral Palsy and CP does not get worse.
What was meant to be an overnight visit became a four night stay.

The school sent us off with some beautiful gifts.....

This card was from Amelia's Grade 1 class.

This HUGE teddy came from Jay, the maintenance officer at school.

They did lots of tests and sent many departments in to give their opinion.
We made a wonderful friend, ate lots of Macca's and hated showering there.
As the week passed, we all got sadder and scared. Scott and I because of the information we were receiving, Amelia because she wanted no more needles.

I joked that this was Amelia's first experience with "recreational drugs"........ waking up out of sedation to 2 clowns dancing around her room !!!!

On December 10th 2010 we were told it was highly likely Amelia had Ataxia Telangiectasia (this was then confirmed on January 6th).

When we arrived home from hospital we were devastated.
Many presents, cards and Facebook messages came over the following days.

One was this card (2 metres long!) from Amelia's school.

It did not take long for me to realise that crying and being depressed was not going to help anyone.
This "angel" of a daughter deserved the best possible life I could give her.
If you are handed the responsibilty of someones life .....then you make it amazing.
You saviour every day and have NO REGRETS at the end.
So Amelia's Project went into overdrive.
Amelia's Angels began researching and we began the journey of hope.
Along the way we also realised the generosity of friends and strangers.
Personally I began on a road of self discovery and learning about what was really important in life.
I know that I have been handed this extrordinary little girl with a heart of gold and my full time job is to create memories for my 2 children.
Recently a lot of you have been telling me about how our situation has changed your own perception of life.

A loan wheelchair arrived for the Summer Holidays (thanks SCOPE)

Then the AMAZING experiences began...........

Build a bear

(thanks Mara xxx)

Hairspray the musical

(thanks Michelle, Shannan and Helena xxx)

Where we recently received a letter from Jaz (above in red) who played Tracey.

Then the publicity of Ataxia Telangiectasia and Amelia's Project began.
First was The Herald-Sun here in Melbourne.

Amelia became a model for the photo shoot !!

And to finish off tonights recorded experiences.............

A Harley Davidson Ride

(Thanks Donna, Shane, Morgan and Georgia Davies xxx)

There will be more tomorrow night !!!

xxx

BIG Blog and lots of Photo's!!!

This afternoon I taught myself how to download photo's from our camera on to the new laptop.
I should not be surprised but there were 250 photo's since January.
They cover all of the special experiences we have been so fortunate to have.
Some big, some small.

Tonight I feel it is only fair to talk and show the events of this weekend only.
It was very exciting and special.
Over the coming days I will show the last 5 months.

So many people are assisting us in creating the most amazing life for Amelia.
I also appreciate everyone also thinking of Tom.
He is on this emotional rollercoaster as well.

Yesterday we went to the "party planner's" house.
Her name is Anna Ellam and she has taken it upon herself to decorate our house for Amelia's 8th Birthday Party on the 4th June.
Anna is very pregnant with her third child and has been a power of strength to me in the last few months.
As have many people..........
Anyway, lots of paint, glitter and glue later we headed to Bentleigh East........

Someone I had met on "Amelia's Project" asked us to go and see their shop, Aquariums Plus.
Amelia has been asking for a fish tank for 12 months and Scott and I have always wanted one. Tom......well he gets excited about anything!
Dale Mundy was fantastic.
Choosing a fish tank and the fish can be very confusing but Dale was a great help.

Dale arrived after work with our 97cm tank, 8 fish from the goldfish family (a fantastic assortment of sizes and colours) and all the accessories we could possibly need.

Who would ever think it would be so exciting to have a fish tank???!!!!
I still need Dale to write the names of the types of fish for me and then I need the kids to tell me what they have named them again. I have heard Love fish (Amelia) Batman (Tom) and Herman (Scott) but am very confused !

After Dale left the kids set their seats up in front of it.

Serious discussions were had and the observation intense.

Then we chose to wake up at 6:30am Sunday morning (definately not my choice!) and eat our breakfast in front of our new family members.

And of course lunch too !!!!!!

Thank you so much Michelle and Dale Mundy for helping us create another wish off the list...xxx

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Today Vicki Adams and The Langwarrin CFA asked us to come down to the fire station for a morning tea and "presentation".
When we arrived there was approximately 25 people waiting for us.
After becoming aware of our situation from Vicki and the Anaconda sausage sizzle, they asked us to come so that they could open their arms to us.
How beautiful is that ??????????
They wanted to present Amelia and Tom with very rare "trauma teddies" and "junior firefighter certificates".

And ........

Then we were told we are welcome anytime for any reason and the kids experienced all the vehicles.

Such kind and caring people that went to so much effort.
We ALL had an awesome time.

But at the end of it all (1pm) Amelia was exhausted, so she had an afternoon of DVD's while Tom (and sausage!) played Junior Firefighters!!!

Thank you for helping create memories to remember forever xxx