Anna Bligh Day!

Sorry - it took us (Tony!) a little while to scan the article in The Gold Coast Bulletin - but here it is - Tara with Premier Anna Bligh!

SUCH a fantastic day! One that'll be etched in their memories forever...and will inspire them I'm sure. It could not have been better - on all fronts. The school was amazing. The speeches by the Head of School Peter Crawley and the Junior School Captains were amazing. The singing of the national anthem and the school song was amazing. Premier Anna Bligh's speech was amazing. It was all just amazing! So inspiring. I wish I had copies of the speeches. About excellence. About how everyone's special but some people do just display that extra bit of specialness. About making the most of what you have. Striving to be your best. Having a smile on your face and in your heart. And how fantastic exercise is - makes you look and feel good AND gives you the kind of discipline it takes to become a Premier!

We met with the Premier before and after the presentation. She's truly inspirational - eyes that light up and connect, and so totally in the moment. She had such a hectic schedule for the day, but you would never have known it because while she was with us - she was with us. She shared some personal stories with us of friends who've also had amputations or challenging legs; and presented Cassie and Jade with fantastic framed photos of their Gold Coast Marathon Junior Dash finishes. Isn't that sooooo thoughtful of the organisers? All 3 girls had the best time - posing for pictures with the Premier and with Mr Crawley (they could not stop giggling!).

And aaaaaaah - Tara's speech. Wow! She did us all (well, herself) so proud. I wish each of you could've been there. It was just so beautiful. At first they forgot to call Tara up - and I thought "well, maybe it's for the best. Would be awful if she gave a speech now and got tongue-tied." But I knew it would be a waste for her to miss this opportunity to step up & I knew she'd be sad since she'd rehearsed it. So we quickly alerted Mrs Kirby (who was on great form) - and the Premier called Tara up to the microphone. And instead of listening to me go on about Tara - here's what Mr Crawley said about her speech in the school newsletter:

"She stood before the audience of Premier, staff, officials of the Gold Coast Marathon, parents and fellow students and delivered a word perfect, tone perfect and manner perfect speech. She was already in the role as ambassador for the marathon. Positive, encouraging and not a sign of being self-absorbed by the abundant praise she had just received. If she had not been so impressive we would have shed a tear. I would like to think that the explanation for this extraordinary story is that Year 3 clearly prepares the girls well! I suspect this is really a story of family love and support."

Such lovely words. And to be honest - Mrs Donohue (Tara's fab teacher) was actually instrumental in preparing Tara - last week she cleverly asked Tara to thank a guest speaker for coming to visit their school - so it gave Tara a taste of public speaking!

And Michael Denton from Queensland Events sent us a lovely email afterwards, which included these words: "When we saw Tara run over the finish line we knew she was something special. When we saw her speak yesterday and how she handled the whole day, it left no doubt in our minds that she is destined to achieve great things in her life. What an inspiration to all of us she is and what great and genuine support she has from her family and the school."

We're so, so lucky - to have that support - from all of you and from the incredible St Hilda's. Isn't it amazing how high a human can be lifted...when she (or he) has so many supporting hands holding her up. Thank you!

So now Tara is officially the Junior Ambassador of The Gold Coast Marathon - and her next challenge begins - to encourage and inspire as many people as possible to join her at next year's marathon! (Anyone keen for a visit to the Gold Coast next July?) The Premier also set a challenge to Tony to start training to take part next year...and he's set himself an extra goal - to convince Mr Crawley to join him!

Run, Baby, Run

Hello!!! Haven't updated for a while coz we lost our camera (which a kind gentleman found and returned a few days later) and have had problems with our internet connection and and and...just been kid/business busy - choir competition, friends, parties, throwing frisbees on the beach, trip to Noosa (for Tone), move to new office blah blah blah.

Anyway - very exciting - tomorrow morning is Anna Bligh Day! As in - she'll be at school to present the honorary ambassadorship for the Gold Coast Marathon to Tara! Aaaaah!!! Tara's been soooo cute practising her little thank you speech all week - sitting in the shower, holding a shampoo bottle like it's a microphone; or delivering it to anyone who wanders in to our living room - like Bill who stayed over last week; Gela, and Linda (beautiful old school friend over from Canada) and her daughter Michelle.

And it's so typical - as the day's drawn near - we've all fallen apart - Tone and Cas woke up with sore throats, I've got a spot on my nose and Tara's licked her lips so much she looks like Homer Simpson. Plus she's developed a sore on Stumpie Star - so today she went to school on crutches without LouLou. Argh! Only Jadie's ok (altho' she's got a sore chest at night). Jadie's actually doing so well in terms of handling all the attention on Tara. We've made a special effort this term - signed her up for tennis on her own and changed our evening prayer from "please heal Tara's leggie for me" to "please help Jadie be more confident" - and the result is amazing - actually visible, and she says she can feel she's got more confidence now.

Coincidentally she won an invitation to a modelling course at one of the birthday parties she went to. She's so not into modelling BUT we saw how incredible the course was for Cas's confidence - so Jadie (who used to FREEZE if anyone looked at her) says she now does wanna do the course.

A huge hello and thank you to Jessica and Lucy - gorgeous twins we shared a garden with in Sydney - who've been SO divine in their support of Tara with cards and letters...and who did the Sydney City2Surf last weekend with their parents, and dedicated it to Tara!

Sian's also been amazing - her mega-support (along with Terry) has enabled us to set up a tax-deductible trust fund for Tara - AND she's gonna be running in the Sunday Mail Suncorp Bridge to Brisbane fun run on 7 Sep. She's raising funds for the hospital that looked after Tara so beautifully - the Royal Brisbane Children's Hospital - click here for more info.

Last night Tara played tennis for the first time since her op - just divine! She didn't wanna get off the court she was loving it so much. The sun was gone, it was dark - and still she insisted on playing, saying "I'm having SO much fun". Sooooooo much more freedom than when she wore her brace. And she was so sweet - when I kept hitting the ball into the net - she said "it's okay Mum, as long as you're doing your best, I'm still proud of you". And she meant it.

Heaps of other news but don't wanna bore you. Very proud of Cas - she's gonna be competing in a French-speaking competition against girls two forms above her this weekend. Go Cas Go! (Allez, Cas, Allez! - oops, don't think that really translates!)

Pics today are from the Gold Coast Arts Centre - they've got this fab outdoor circuit with gym equipment & special places to meditate - so you get to exercise the body and soul.

Tara had a blast - wearing TWO crocs for the first time in her life! Tone tried to teach the girls to skip stones across the water (I thought of you Cam) & Tara ran her heart out - see video below.

Lots of love to everyone! Wish you could all be here tomorrow! And please hold thumbs/cross fingers that Tara remembers to say "Premier Anna Bligh" and not just "Anna Bligh" when she addresses her! (We only found out the protocol today - so we've been bribing Tara with marshmellows to help her to learn it!)

Ice-Cream, Shoes and Prosthetics

Whew. So it's been pretty full on - mainly with a fab trip to Brisbane to see King K and Gela and an amazing school choir concert at the Gold Coast Arts Centre. Some of the mums were quite tearful (with joy) seeing Tara walking around with long black pants on - she fitted right into the crowd and was walking SO well you'd never have known one of her legs was LouLou in disguise!

In fact - for the first time EVER - we went to Aus Fair the other day and not one person turned to look at Tara - because she blended right in. That's the first time in her LIFE! Altho' it didn't last long - she spotted the escalator and BEGGED us to let her go up and down - so for about 15 minutes straight she walked up and down the escalators having the time of her life (in the beginning holding hands and then finally letting go) - first time ever being able to do that on her own. So that kinda drew a few stares!

Apart from all the usual stuff (tennis, swimming, dinner with friends etc.) - also had a lovely mothers and daughters day at St Hildas, Granny moved into her brand new flat nearby (very exciting!), Jadie and I got colds AND Tone's blood pressure has almost returned to NORMAL!!!! YAY!!!!! Cholesterol still a blah.

Cassie's been very creative - made an ice-cream recipe (heaped with caramel koalas and Dairy Milk) and then cooked it herself from scratch (including making the ice-cream from cream and condensed milk). Very yummy. She also made this small clay Little Miss Sunshine shoe...and the only thing it fits is Tara's stumpy star...so Tara insisted on the photos that are here today. She forced me to photoshop her right leg to also be small - and she just laughs everytime she sees this pic below.

Our visit to the prosthetist yesterday was great (except you know when you're dying for your 8-year-old to be entertaining...and they just suffer total personality-loss instead. Argh!). Anyway - it's amazing how quickly things are changing and improving in the prosthetic world. Altho' Barry (the GC prosthetist) made 2 legs for his other patient (whom we met) just a few months ago - a walking leg and water leg; he now has a far better method. Prosthetics are made up of various components - and he now advocates rather creating ONE component for the main part and then different feet for the various activities Tara wants to do. (So it really is like a Bratz doll where you can put on feet with skates on, barefoot waterproof feet, running feet etc.) So he says he'll specially create Tara's next walking leg to have its main component be all waterproof - this will be the James Bond-like leg - where she puts a gel liner over her knee & thigh with a pin below the knee. Then the leg slots into that pin and you can only release it by pressing on a secret spot on the prosthetic. This means she'll be able to run so much better, trusting the leg that it won't fall off (as velcro-belted LouLou has on occasion!). He'll then create a walking foot and a separate waterproof foot. He says this method is much better because it means the stump only has to get used to one leg; and obviously it's a lot less costly - because the second the stump grows too big - it means only one main leg component needs to be replaced rather than two or more. So it's REALLY exciting and hopefully we can start on that asap - will speak to the hospital on Monday to find out when Tara can stop using this interim leg.

Very sweet. Without us saying anything - Tara's wearing LouLou a LOT more. Like today - Saturday - she hasn't taken LouLou off - and usually when she's at home she does. So she's obviously enjoying the independence and freedom she gets from being able to walk around and carry things at the same time (unlike hopping - very dangerous with a glass of milo or scissors!).

OK - gotta rush. Hairdresser coming in 20 minutes. St Hilda's Dinner Dance tonight at the Sheraton and then 9am start tomorrow - the girls' school chapel, followed by birthday party etc. etc.

Hope you're all having a FAB weekend. Will do emails tomorrow night I promise. Thank you again to EVERYONE for such divine support - wish you could all see Tara in real life (Janet - we'll see you at Xmas!) - just a blossoming bundle of happiness and love.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Just a quickie to say we've been super-busy - and will update the blog later tonight/tomorrow. (I know you normally check on Friday Zigs - so this message is for you!).