Hey everyone!!!

!Hey!

This is Jade writing, Cassie, Dada and I are having a photo shoot for father/grandfather daughter day. This photo is going to be in the newspaper sometime this week I think. Cassie had her party today and it was super cool. We went to see band slam and it was sooooo funny and really the best movie I have ever seen. Then we went to intercity for a while. If you play and game depending on your score you get that many tickets which you can by things with. I got this green slime stuff that looked like green gooey water but it was actually this weird Gooey stuff. Tara and I have been playing with it madly since we got the slime.We got this whole packets of new clothes from our friends called Taylor and Rhianna. We are going to go to the Uthers house for dinner tonight with another one of our friends called Isla and Sasha.

Whew and Phew...

Whew. It's been a crazy, wonderful, fabulous time...with a little scare in the middle of it all. But firstly - the marathon: Tara and friends ran amazingly! She didn't stop once!!! Just ran her little heart out for 2.25km. And got in 8 minutes faster than last year when she did it on her crutches AND a few seconds faster than Jade and Cas's previous record!!!!

So huge CONGRATULATIONS to little Tarakie and a majorly huge THANK YOU to all her friends and their parents and all those friends that Tara's never met who supported her. It couldn't have been a better experience.

You know we even owe a huge thank you to Qld Premier Anna Bligh. She mentioned in interviews that Tara was her hero. That is such a beautiful, huge thing for a person in her role to say about a little 9-year-old. And it's something that's so valuable and empowering for Tara to tuck up in her soul and carry with her thro' her journey in life. The Premier also very sweetly held Tara's hand all the way thro' their post-marathon interviews, alongside gorgeous best-job-in-the-world Ben.

The Premier, Ben and almost 1,000 other people all showed their support for sick kids by wearing Tara's red wrist bands (with the 'If I can, You Can' motto embossed on them). Pretty amazing!

And then just days later - Tara used the motto to learn to cycle without her trainer wheels! We laughed SO hard watching her tryna master it. She just couldn't trust her prosthetic leg enough to take her other leg off the ground - but eventually she got it! Her motto was "If I can, I can!!!" And to celebrate - the whole family cycled from Main Beach to Surfer's Paradise - sooooo gorgeous...but then it all went horribly wrong. We stopped for sushi on the grass banks - and the girls started throwing water on Tone - so like a typical dad he started chasing them around and, argh, Tara fell really badly - her prosthetic kind of twisted to the side and all her weight landed on her stump. She SCREAMED. It was awful, awful, awful.

And so last week she couldn't put on her prosthetic again. Was just on crutches or crawling around. So horrible. All of a sudden we were reminded of all the things she couldn't do on one leg. We thought she'd broken a bone - but a couple of x-rays and hospital visits later - and PHEW - all is good! SUCH a relief. So much to be grateful for! Just days before we'd been whining that it was gonna cost $800 to replace the foam around her leg (which is looking pretty torn and ugly since they cut the foam to lengthen the rod inside) - but after her fall, you just realise THANK GOODNESS she's normally well enough to wear a prosthetic, no matter how torn and ugly it looks. It gives her freedom! (Pic here actually has nothing to do with the fall - it's of Tara and Cassie with Richard & Bridge on Gold FM!)

So the doc gave the go-ahead for her to wear her prosthetic again on Friday (in fact - strongly recommended she put it back on because the leg quickly forgets how to walk with a prosthetic) - and yesterday she was already putting it into ice-skates! It was Katy's birthday - and Tara's first time on the ice. Soooo exciting. She loved it...and it was made soooo much easier by a lovely senior girl from St Hilda's who held her hand and whisked her around and around.

Kim sent Tara an amazing gift this month - Oscar Pistorius' book "Blade Runner" WITH a special personal message he's written inside the book for Tara. (He's the South African 'blade runner' who caused controversy at the last Olympics when he - as a double amputee - wanted to run in the Olympics with his super-fast Cheetah blades.) Tara just grinned HUGELY when she got the book and has been reading it so carefully. She keeps finding things she relates to.

And she also received some fantastic news from GAPbuster Worldwide, a company that's the world's leading customer experience agency. They've announced that they're "proud to be associated with the Tara Maria Fund in support of the Gold Coast Hospital and Tara's brave efforts in the face of adversity. Tara's strength and determination are a source of inspiration for all of us at GAPbuster Worldwide." So through various initiatives they're going to be raising funds with their staff and customers for the Fund - which will be distributed to Tara and other children in need. Isn't that amazing??? (To learn more about how GAPbuster Worldwide helps the Tara Maria Fund click here.)

Other news - Cas was voted Form Captain! Jadie got her first modelling job! I turned a year older! And Tony made us all laugh out loud when he collapsed against the fence just after the marathon and had to be asked to move on by the Emergency First Aid guys! (He was fine - just didn't wanna run a metre further than he needed to!)

Happy Week Everyone! And thank you to all those who've phoned or sent such beautiful messages - particularly Joe, Anna and Butterly Kissez (read their comments on the previous post) who read about Tara in this week's That's Life magazine. Every encouraging word you give Tara makes such a beautiful impact - so thank you.

Marathon Mayhem!

The girls have packed more into the last month than I think Tone and I did during our entire childhoods! Their fundraising for the Gold Coast Hospital children's ward has been AMAZING - with the Paton girls joining them, and selling bands at a hospital BBQ, outside Australia Fair Cinemas, at the Convention Centre etc. And WOW - soooooo impressive to see them go up to strangers and sell their bands and their cause.

Tara's had to totally step up and be a real Junior Ambassador - talking to the media! She's had press, TV and radio interviews with the kindest journalists in the world. Too cute for words. Especially when, just like a kid, Tara says things like "I'm so proud of myself for being an inspiration." ARGH!

And the rest of the family went along with Tara last night to the Gold Coast Marathon Official Dinner. Absolutely fantastic. Their first real grown-up event! The three of them spent all afternoon getting ready - painting nails, brushing hair, painting nails again (many times! they kept smudging them) and putting on lippy...which was all made worthwhile when the MC announced they were the most glam there! And very exciting - they got to meet Ben of best-job-in-the-world fame (see pic above).

Tara had an appointment with Dr Pincus 2 weeks ago and he said how fab she's doing. Referring to her amputation, he said "sometimes you have to make a huge decision...and sometimes you make the right one".

Later on we went up to Rehab for a meeting...and met a gorgeous 10-year-old girl who has just had the lower part of her leg amputated. She honestly shone - just so beautiful inside and out. And today she sent Tara an email wishing her luck for the marathon tomorrow and saying "It was really nice meeting you. It is nice to know that there are other people out there in the world that have been through the same thing as me." Tara's definitely going to stay in touch.

Busy, busy now getting everyone ready for an early night (!) at Granny's tonight...so we can be up at dawn for the marathon. Tara's gonna be interviewed on the live web cam on www.goldcoastmarathon.com.au shortly after noon tomorrow (Aussie time) if you happen to be near a laptop.

No photos of June because we lost the camera! But we've got it back now...

Merry Month of May

May's been very, very merry - but instead of going into details - here are some pics instead...

THE TWIN'S 9TH BIRTHDAY!

Had a fab day in the park with family & friends, as well as a big 'jol' with schoolfriends at Strike Bowling. Funniest moment - Tara's leg coming off in the wheelbarrow race...



CROSS COUNTRY

As Jade mentioned below - she made it into the Andrews' Cup (inter-school team) which was fantastic...except that the competition got rained out. Tara also did so well on the day - running the 1.5km without stopping once. And Cas was a real hero - running with a broken arm that she held the whole way AND she stopped halfway to help a friend.



TARA MET THE QUEENSLAND MINISTER OF HEALTH

The Minister, Mr Paul Lucas, came to Tara's school for a chat and photo ops to announce that Queensland Health is sponsoring the Junior Dash this year.


MOTHER'S DAY WALK

We all did the 4km Mother's Day Walk to raise funds for breast cancer research. Alec was a very supportive cousin to Tarakie!


TARA FEATURED ON MARATHON WEBSITE

Queensland Event's newsletter featured Tara as the Runner Profile and it's on the website too - if you click here and then scroll down to where there's a pic of her on crutches - you'll see the piece. (There's actually another little pic of her higher up too.)

TARA PAINTED 10 TOENAILS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HER LIFE


OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF THE 2009 GOLD COAST MARATHON

The whole family and Tara's teacher were invited to the event - fantastic. Tara went up on stage and answered some questions, in her role as Junior Ambassador. Very sweet. Lots of TV cameras etc. The girls giggled lots and had heaps of fun posing with the Premier Anna Bligh - who yet again was so inspiring.



TARA TO RAISE MONEY FOR CHILDREN'S WARD

Tara's decided to raise money for the sick kids at the Gold Coast Hospital (where she stayed when she had the initial infection) and for a proper running leg for herself - and is gonna be selling red wrist bands inscribed with "If I can do it, you can do it" - www.GoGCKids.com. She's sent out a letter to all the girls at her school about it and has pre-recorded an interview on the local radio station about it. And coincidentally, Premier Anna Bligh mentioned in her speech at the Launch that when wakes up in the morning and it's too cold to run, she always thinks "if Tara can do it, I can do it" and she uses that as inspiration to get her up and running...so quite apt that those are similar to the words Tara chose to use on the band.

So that was some of the merry month of May! There were other things of course - like our wedding anniversary, Johnny Clegg concert etc. etc.

Hope you all had a fab month too! And am gonna make concerted effort to update the blog more than once a month in the future!!!

Jades Cross Country

Hello, Jade speaking.

On the 24th of April it was our school cross country ages 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. I am in the 9 years because I am turning nine in 1 day from today which is the 1st of May. I trained really hard to get in the top 20 if I could and if I did, I wanted to get in the top twenty. The cross country course goes all around the school and half of the oval. I came 20th last year...and this year i BEAT MY RECORD and came 7th and got a black ribbon. One of my best friends came 6th just before me. During the race, when I came to the tennis courts I just ran my fastest and was coming 20th but I speeded up and then I was coming 10th and finally got 7th so YAY. Being a part of the Andrews cup swimming and Andrews cup cross country training is lots of fun and it gives me a chance to represent my school. It is lots of fun training for the Andrews cup cross country. we run 5 kilometers and it goes across owen park which is the big humongous oval across to our school.

By Jade

Happy Birthday Stumpie Star!!

We had a FAB birthday party for Stumpie Star - went to a chocolate bar restaurant at the Mirage - deliciously decadent. They put a little candle in the middle of Tara's choc fondue and we all sang for Stumpie. Can you believe it's been a whole year since Tara's amputation! Wow.

On Stumpie's birthday Tara happened to win a prize for her amazing progress in swimming. Such a great sign of how much her life has improved in one year.

As you can see in the pic - she's currently wearing a pretty thick sleeve around the top of her prosthetic - it's because she plays so much that the thinner ones were getting destroyed too quickly. It's funny coz now people will ask her what's wrong with her knee...and get a small surprise when they discover that the rest of the leg isn't quite real!



Other news - I by mistake bullied a photographer into taking a photo of the girls at their Sunday School play on Easter Friday - I thought he was the church photographer and saw he was leaving as we arrived so I did the whole "I don't think you got my girls yet" blah blah. Soooooo embarrassing - turns out he was from the Bullie (The Gold Coast Bulletin) - and apparently the girls featured in the paper yesterday...but we were away in Yamba with Micky Blewitt, Gav etc. - so the newsagent's gonna order in an old copy for us.

Yamba (a town that's like South Africa in the '70s) was fab - including brilliant rainforest walk during a major downpour!

Tara received another lovely letter from Queensland Premier Anna Bligh - after Tara had sent her a Good Luck card for the elections (Ms Bligh won). And Queensland Events phoned last week to discuss an event at the end of this month where they may need Tara to be present in her role as Junior Ambassador of the Gold Coast Marathon. The Premier will be there as well. Will keep you posted.

The girls are happy, lovely and very, very sweet. They even made Granny's bed when they stayed there the other night - without her even asking. Cas had a fantastic adventure in Sydney with her form for a couple of nights, learning about Aussie history.

Jadie was placed third in a local drama competition (how's that for increased confidence!) and a couple of Tara's pics have been chosen for a school Art thingie that's coming up.

Tomorrow Tara and I are off to Brissie for a check-up with the surgeon. She wrote him a card to say thanks for the op. Here's a transcript:

Dear Paul Pincus Thank you for looking after my leg so well. Everyone thinks my stumpy is one of the best stumps that they've ever seen! I really like my stumpy and I am really happy with my stump. I couldn't put on jeans before. I couldn't run fast and keep up with all my friends. I couldn't even play certain games that I loved. Thank you once again. I am so happy with my stumpy and now I can do all the stuff that my friends can do. I'm going in the marathon again this year, and in some other races too. Thanks so much. My stumpy means so much to me. Lots of love Tara xox

Soooo sweet. Hope everyone's well, well, well! Some extra Yamba shots below...

Our Little Tumbleweed

Tara's been totally gorgeous the last few weeks (well she always is) - but she's just doing the cutest thing - she's discovered tumble turns (something she could never do before) - and so now she 'tumbles' everywhere - up the corridor to her bedroom and across beds, floors, lawns and the beach. She's like the happiest tumbleweed you've ever seen.

Sometimes you forget she's even had an amputation - and you think she's forgotten too - and then she'll say something...like we were reading her notes about the Olympics last year and she saw again how the torch was lit on the 25th of March - and she immediately said "oh, wow - that's the same day I had my operation". So it's there - imprinted on her mind. And the other day she found the tape recorder with the conversation the whole family had before her op - and she cuddled up on the daybed outside and listened to the whole thing again.

Last week also - the girls had a swimming carnival and 2 days before she said "to be honest, I'm worried I'm going to be left behind after the races when I'm putting my leg back on - and the other girls will go back to the tents without me". Of course it turned out the school had everything beautifully organised with someone to accompany Tara at all times and hold her leg while she swam etc. But it was sweet that she was concerned coz sometimes she just gets on with it so well that you forget to ask if she's doing okay. (She did fab in the swimming races btw - and came first in her freestyle race! That's her with the blue cap waving at the camera before the race. )

We keep needing replacement parts for her leg because she plays like any other 8-year-old (LOVES the bars on the school playground) - but instead of getting cuts and bruises that can heal - she kinda damages her leg - and then it stops working so well and it falls off when she's running! Not a great situation!

Cas and Jadie are gorgeous too. Jadie's been invited to possibly represent the school in breaststroke - so she's off to a carnival on Saturday. And Cas is LOVING all the new stuff she's learning at school. Did you know there's a type of fly (gall midge fly) that's born inside it's mother's body? Well - when the babies are born, they eat Mum's insides...and within 2 days they've devoured her whole body?! Thanks Cas for that info!

Jadie was voted Class Student Representative for the year which is a big responsibility and fantastic for her. She was very nervous to try out for the position - and almost didn't - but at the last second she thought "I have to do this to help my confidence" - and hey presto, she made a speech along with some other brave girls, and Jadie won the job. She's loving it - having to help organise events like selling ice-lollies to help raise money for the fire victims. (All the girls at school also had a Free Dress Day and were asked to donate $1 or $2 for the fire victims - Tara donated $10 of her own saved-up pocket money - which was just so, so sweet and she totally inspired Cas who also then donated $10 - Jadie managed $5 - and they said they didn't just want the money to go to the children, but to the grown-ups too "because grown-ups are also people and they also lost a lot in the fires".)

Tara was voted Form Captain & is taking her role very seriously and giving stars to girls who behave well (even Jadie got one yesterday). Cas tried out for the same positions in her class and didn't get in - but she's got such a great attitude about how the girls who were voted in deserve it just as much and what a great contribution they'll make.

Tone's doing well - tryna lose a little of that weight he gained with his mum's fab cooking over the past 2 months - so he's out power-walking, and surfing when it's dark and the sharks are hungry. Argh!

And Granny Paula's just officially become an Australian Permanent Resident! Very exciting!

Other than that - the usual parties, beach, tennis etc... Happy Weekend everyone! Happy Belated Birthday Filipa, and HUGE thoughts and hugs Kim!

New Year Catch Up

Happy (belated) New Year to everyone! Hope you all had a fab festive season and have a divine 2009! And let's hope we all get to see each other this year!

The last couple of months holiday have been soooo busy but also gorgeous. The girls have had almost daily visits with their grandparents (and we've had lots of delicious dinners c/o YiaYia!).

So lots of family stuff, plus all the usual parties, beach, pool, ice-skating, movies and sleepovers with their mates.

We had a fabulous camping trip with the cousins to Broken Head - sooooo beautiful. The kids climbed trees, walked along cliffs and explored caves - the whole Enid Blyton thing...except for the wild turkeys that kept waking us up and the humungous Joanna the Goanna who took a daily stroll through the tents...

YiaYia, Bapou and Granny came thro' for a day for YiaYia's birthday - lovely bbq and afternoon in Byron Bay where we were spoilt with dolphins, turtles and even a lovely harmless snake.


Tara was amazing. Climbing the tree obviously wasn't as easy for her - you had to keep stepping over branches where balancing on each leg was vital - but she persevered (even when we told her she could be proud of what she'd already accomplished) - she was just so determined to do what the others could do - and finally - about 24 hours later - she could reach the most precarious parts of the tree, parts that even courageous Cas was scared to go to.

Fab parenting tip: look away. Also had to look away when Tone took the girls surfing. Argh! Very cute tho' - and Tara again was just so adamant that she could do it too - so she did.

Her new leg hasn't quite been a dream yet. Part of it broke before we even left - so luckily she still had old LouLou altho' it's too short for her now. So cute to see how she's grown since having two legs - so it seems exercise really does help you grow! The broken part of new LouLou has now been replaced so hopefully it'll be okay now. Hold thumbs/cross fingers.

So crazy - we had to go back to the prosthetist last week to get a microchip put into LouLou - apparently Queensland government insist on it - they have such a shortage of funds - and then they waste money on stuff like this.


Jadie's confidence has improved SO much - but she still won't let us stop praying for her confidence because she says we spent years praying for Tara's leg - so she's owed at least a few more months. She was a little star at her modelling graduation show - which was fab because Granny, YiaYia, Bapou and Janet were also all there to cheer her on. You should've seen after the show - Jadie, Cas and Tara jumped up on the catwalk and were doing their own show - and then suddenly Jadie started dancing across the stage, doing faux ballet and really just performing with absolute abandon - and you could tell that she was physically feeling the joy and freedom of what she can do if she doesn't let shyness get in her way.

Cas is lovely and gorgeous (hmmm, feels like my word for today) and just keen to save the world and save the environment and win at rummy. She nearly went on a fantastic NIDA acting course...but she broke my $4,000 laptop with her ipod (forcing the earphone thingie into the wrong place) - so all theatrics remained at home.

There's been lots more - a lovely night with twins Lucy and Jessica who raised money for Tara's leg earlier this year - such fun for our girls to really get to know them coz they were babies when we were neighbours in Sydney. And from their holiday apartment - we watched the most amazing mini-cyclone - with chairs flung into the pool. We've also had a brilliant weekend down at Yamba with Mickey and Michelle who've just moved over from SA; Tone's been to Adelaide with his folks to visit relatives and eat fresh food from their garden and more, more, more.

Not sure if you saw the lovely message left for Tara on the last blog entry from a little girl called Aijana (10). She wrote "my grandmother read about you in a magazine. I also have CP of the Tibia and also see Dr Pincus. We have been reading through your blog over the past month or so and you have inspired me to write one for myself. We also have other things in common, like dancing and singing and I also love puppies like you. I have a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Dixie and she had puppies in August this year. You and your family look like you have lots of fun. Keep smiling!"

Aijana - if you're reading this - Tara just LOVED your message. Thank you, and she looks forward to meeting you one day.

OK. That's the big catch-up caught up.

Again - happy, happy 2009 to everyone! (Pic of us on the beach on New Year's Eve - our first grown-ups only NY for YEARS!)