Things have been pretty busy around here (funnily enough) over Christmas and with Cameron's third birthday. All is well though, the kids had a wonderful time throughout the Christmas week, and we even got to head away camping with the boys on Cameron's birthday, which was a real highlight.
A wee catch up, as a huge number of things happened all at once around christmas...
Firstly, HUGE thanks to the Sunrise Rotary Club. They applied for a grant on James' behalf, and got it, which added considerably to the funds.
Secondly, the Wainui Youth Group told us that they fundraised over $1200 from their concert! Absolutely amazing! You guys really are an incredible group of people.
Thirdly, thanks heaps to Ray from JagAir. His auction of a scienic flight over Queenstown, among other things, raised nearly $3000 for James' ears, and was an amazing donation.
And last but not least... We have been trying to get more information about funding through the government, thanks to a comment from a Little Treasures reporter who is writing a story on James. It turns out that the government funded both implants for a wee meningitus girl in Auckland, with pretty much exactly the same details as James. This led the Southern team down at Van Asch into a frenzy, trying to find out what was going on. And if this was the case, then what made this case special and other children not. This is still going on, and we too are writing to our new government to see what can be done. However, it led to the Southern Hearing Charitable Trust calling a few days before Christmas, and saying that though they can't write off our whole debt, they can halve it, in the interests of ensuring equality between the Northern and Southern groups.
So, just like that, we have all the money we need to pay off James' implant, and pay for the first upgrade needed in 5 years. ($10,000 every 5 to 7 years)
Suffice to say, it was a pretty Happy Christmas for us here.
Due to the sudden reduction of our debt, we also have a little money left over now, from the $25,000 it turns out we needed. We are very hopeful we can continue with a Charitable Trust set up by the Sunrise Rotary Club, and sometime in the future, help another Meningitic Child to get their second implant. If we can get something good for someone else through all this nightmare James has been through, then perhaps there can be a positive in this after all.
Have a wonderful new year everyone.
