Wonderful day for Jack (& our family!)

Back in March, our dear friends Katie Rae & her husband Jez along with Kate's parents and many other wonderful friends decided to organise a Lawn Bowls Day to fund raise some money for Jack.  Craig and I didn't really contribute to it at all other than to turn up on the day, only to be completely overwhelmed by not only the people they had managed to track down and invite but also the amount of effort and work they had put into it.  There was a silent auction, a game of lawn bowls and even a wine tasting competition along with a beautiful spread for lunch.  These amazing souls managed to raise just over $8,000 for Jack's needs and made us feel so incredibly loved!  It has meant that the last few pieces of equipment that Jack needed has been able to be purchased without having to beg and plead for funding and that his bank balance is looking quite healthy!!   Taking that financial pressure away is such a relief and knowing that friends that care so much for our little man took the time and effort to organise that for him is so heart warming.... I don't think I can truly put it in to words.  Thank you everyone who contributed - we will be forever grateful!!

Easter in Yarrawonga 2011

Every year at Easter time we head up the Hume Highway to have a stay at Yarrawonga.  We have our own 80s campervan that does the trick and Jack and Lucy just love camping in it.  And it's something we're determined do with Jack because he always has such a great time.  And as for Lucy, it's girl heaven with all the other kids around (most of them girls) with playing games of fairies, riding bikes, doing drawings and of course visiting everyone's camp site!

 On this particular night, Loz and Craig were the 'last men standing' so had to capture it on film!  Good job Loz!!

 Dinner time is another fun thing where all the kids get to eat together.  It's a kind of organised chaos but good fun as you can see!

 Above is Craig and Jack on Easter morning, which just happened to also be Jack's 6th birthday!  So birthday presents and Easter bunny on the same day.  Here are the boys inspecting Jack's birthday present.  It's a bead frame which doesn't really do much but Jack loves feeling the beads in his fingers and pushing it backwards and forwards.

 Birthday cake time ....!

 And then there's the Easter egg hunt - look at all these kids!!  And the group seems to be growing!!  Sure makes for a fun Easter!!

 After handing in their find, they then get rations so it's as fair as can be ....

 The boys enjoying some lunch outside our camper annexe

 Lucy goes next door to visit lovely Kath - always ends up doing some drawings or enjoying a snack!  Such a great neighbour!!

Lucy and Lauzie enjoying the party horns for the birthday party ... one of those things you ask yourself later, what was I thinking buying those...?!!  Another great Easter and already looking forward to the next.

Beautiful Lucy ...

Toffee girl ... growing up!!

Run for the Kids 2011

Team Jack 2011 came out strong again this year for Melbourne's 'Run for the Kids' fun run which we have supported since it's very first year.  Obviously Jack has received a lot of care from the Royal Children's Hospital and we've been incredibly lucky to have the very best doctors and nurses look after him and it not cost us anything.  We're incredibly grateful to have such wonderful medical care available so it's the least we can do by participating in their fun run.  And it's such a great day!!  Our team is steadily growing too which makes it even more fun.  (and as far as Jack's concerned, the train ride in isn't bad either ....! Above we're waiting on the train platform)

Here's some of our newer team members Leah and Ebony, Kerry and Abby (hope I got that right?!) with our veteran team member Sammy Couper! 

It's such a great day and anyone wanting to join in the fun with us is always welcome!  It feels really great to be supporting such a wonderful cause and Jack and Lucy really enjoy it.  Speaking of which, we have the Melbourne Marathon coming up in October which again CPEC are one of the major charities.  We'd love any more team members so me let me know if you're interested!!  Oh and don't think you have to run it, this year we're doing the 3km walk which is like a walk in the park so you can do that or if you're up for a bit of run then you can do the harder courses - Craig and Sam are leading the way on those ones!

A Trip to Sydney with Granny....

In March we decided it was time to spoil my Mum (Granny) for all the extra time she spends helping us out with a trip to Sydney to show her the famous Greenhouse by Joost in an amazing spot in Circular Quay.  So it was off in a plane which Jack and Lucy just love!

Jack uses an upper torso harness to help him with sitting up.  He seriously loves plane rides, and any other kind of public transport!

Here he is getting a little more familiar with the safety instructions!

And after settling in at our hotel, we decided to take a walk down to the Greenhouse for dinner.  The sights are pretty amazing!

 Here's the entry to the Greenhouse, see the 'Oprah House', as Lucy calls it, in the background!

And the view from the rooftop garden.

And here we are enjoying a couple of meals in the Greenhouse, all delicious food!  We were particularly looking forward to enjoying some of their donuts!!

 We even took a trip on the ferry to Manly beach where on such a beautiful day, Lucy loved playing in the water!  Jack was exhausted so whilst we spent some time on the beach, he spent the afternoon sleeping on Granny's lap in the closest cafe!

It was a beautiful afternoon!

And lastly, here is Lucy having a shoulder ride from our awesome friend Joost.  She was particularly impressed with his Greenhouse restaurant, telling us on the way home that she thinks that God made some of Sydney and Joost made the rest!! 

Jack's second lot of hip surgery

As you may have seen on previous posts, last year Jack had hip osteotomies (see osteotomy)where they cut the top of the femurs, rotate the femoral head and then pin it back together and make sure the femur is then sitting in the socket at the right angle and fully in the socket (very layman's description quite obviously!).  So at the end of February, Jack had plate removal surgery so that meant they then took the pins out.  They also lengthened his hamstrings and gave him some more botox in his hamstrings.

Here we are in the waiting room - poor kid had to fast from 7am and they didn't take him in until 3.30pm.  And he didn't complain once.

And he we are waiting for the surgeon to come and take him in for surgery.  Again, he's such a brave kid.  Happy go lucky and just brave as brave can be.  It was Lucy's first time coming in to the hospital on the day of surgery but she wanted to know what happens and I really want her to be aware of what her brother goes through.  And she had to be brave too.  At one stage, when I explained to her that the doctor was going to come and take him away into the operating theatre, she looked at me with tears in her eyes and her shaky little voice said, 'I don't want them to take my Jack away Mum'.  So with tears welling up in MY eyes by this stage, I told her to look and see how brave Jack was being and that we had to be the same.  Which she certainly was.

 Nothing like listening to a little Coldplay to take the pain away...!

And here is the so called 'bed' we get to sleep on beside him. It is literally like sleeping on an ironing board but of course there is no way we'd allow him to be on his own. I really hope the beds for the parents in the new hospital are better - every parent deserves it!!  

 This is his first sit in his wheelchair.  At this stage it's very difficult to move him and position him.  And he'd had to be so brave the day before.  He had an epidural to help with the pain relief however it had started to leak so he had a very sudden onset of pain and he was hysterical (very understandably!!).  Drugs came flying from every which direction which resulted in him being in La La land for the rest of the day however we managed to get it all under control the next day. 

 And what better to help with your recovery than a bit of love and affection from your sister - and she really loves her big brother!!  As we all do - you're amazing Jackie boy, just amazing.

Cousin love...