Belated Merry Christmas to all

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.

Wainui City Life Church Youth Group Concert

We had a wonderful night out on Saturday night at a concert organised by the Youth Group of the Wainui City Life Church. This wonderful group of young people completely planned, organised, ran, and performed in a concert to raise funds for James' implants.

It was a great night, with all the Hutt Youth groups taking part and performing songs, dances or musical peices. It absolutely ROCKED!!!

Cameron had the time of his life dancing away, and we literally had to drag him out well past his bed time to head home. It was so wonderful to see such a motivated and caring group of people going out of their way to help someone else. The world needs more people like you!

So thanks heaps to the Wainui Youth Group, and all their helpers and family and friends, for a wonderful night.

Yay for James and Yay for the Lions Club!

Some more great news...

First of all, James and i went back down to Christchurch last Wednesday to see the lovely people at Van Asch, and all went so wonderfully well that Joanne didn't see any need to set more goals for James, as he is exactly where he should be for his age! He is even a little ahead in some things (brag brag brag!!!) and, God help us, is crawling! Cameron is totally unimpressed with this, as James now follows him everywhere, and wants to play with what ever Cameron is playing with. It's very cute to watch, but i know first hand just how annoying little brothers are, so can sympathise. (Sorry Alex, but it's true!)

Secondly, i met with two of the lovely gentlemen from the Tawa Lions Club this morning, and they had the most fantastic news - they applied for a grant from a Lions NZ Charitable Trust (and i can't remember the name - will try and find out) and they got it! The whole $6000. of it! This, along with all the amazing work the local Lions have been doing, means that they have fund raised almost ten thousand dollars so far, and are still going! They are a totally amazing group of people!

Which brings me to the last note. The Lions are doing a fundraiser here in Porirua on the 10th of December. It is a movie night at the Reading Cinema, Porirua. Tickets are $20 each, with spot prizes, lucky tickets etc. All the money raised goes straight to James. And the movie? Well James Bond of course! The latest installment of the 007 movies 'Quantum of Solace', which should be a fantastic movie. I will e-mail everyone as well, but please tell everyone you know. It's a great excuse for a night out for those like us who are stay at home nana's, and as i said, all the money raised goes to James.

All going well

Hey there everyone. Just a wee note to say that all is going incredibly well in James' world. He is right where he should be developmentally according to our neuro-development lady, and he is up on hands and knees rocking, just gagging to be following Cameron around now.
Hearing wise - James is loving his implants (and loving the taste of them! they spend a lot of time in the drying kit at the moment, having been liberally smeared with baby spit) and is 'talking' like every other nearly 8 month old. We have noticed quite a difference between right and left, however, as we have had to leave one then the other off for a few days at a time. (James' favorite form of motion is to arch up on heels and the back of his head, and shimmy around the room. Unfortunatly this keeps rubbing raw the top of the implanted part. And he looks down right silly, but he doesn't seem to care.) He seems to hear very well with his left ear, and will turn to us or the tv, and hear the quieter sounds, including voices. His right ear, while i think he can still hear out of it, is no where near as good, and i think he misses all but the loud sounds with that one. Together I'm pretty sure he can hear well. It is an interesting point however, as i am almost certain that had we gone with only one implant, it was the right one that they were going to do. So had we not done both, James would have very little hearing at all. It is a great justification, had we needed one, that we did both ears. Because the look on his face as he waits for us to switch his ears on in the morning, then the huge beaming grin as he hears our voices... well, in the words of the mastercard add - PRICELESS!

Pumpkin Patch Fashion Show

Our latest fundraiser was fantastic, thanks to a great group of kids (and their parents who lent them to us, or helped out dressing them).

James Whale presents... Spring/ Summer '08 Pumpkin Patch Fashion Show!

Patch provided the clothes from their new season stock for us to run a fashion show to raise more money. St Peters Church let us use their hall for free, and friends gave up their saturday afternoon to model all the beautiful clothes, which looked stunning. All up, it was a great afternoon, though pretty manic, and the kids had a ball as well as fundraising.

Thanks to Jacinta, Chelsea, Abby, Ethan, Oliver, Jacinta, Jake, Josh, Molly, Isobel, Brooke, Jorja, Jack, Cameron, Amalia and of course James. (And to Melanie, Rachel and Merridy who dressed the kids in record time between sets, and to Devon working the rather tempermental sterio)

Loud Shirt Day

Here is a wonderful picture of James and the Naenae Bunning's crew who came to work in lovely shirts for Loud Shirt Day, supporting Deaf people throughout New Zealand. Thanks heaps to you lovely people who made goobers of yourselves (particularly you, Aunty Jenni - man that shirt is sexy!) for people in need.

Baracuda Baby

And a picture, because who can resist such a cheeky little man!