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.