Things have been pretty busy this month with lots of excitement around the build up to Paul's cycle ride in aid of Cancer Research, along with the much anticipated dads and lads weekend away fishing and camping.
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| Last time we were in the pool was April |
The Winter months out here are beautiful and we have been making the most of the cooler days with plenty of play dates,meeting up with friends for walks by the river,bbq's and fun days out. The temperature is on average about 22ºC at the moment and the sun is out everyday.It's still too cold to jump in the pool but another month or so and hopefully we'll be back in there!
This month has proven to yet again, be full of ups and downs-but where would a Barratt's in Oz blog be without that?!
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| Thomas in his school uniform |
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Thomas has really settled back into school life and is visibly a much happier little boy now that Charlie is bug free!He is a very caring big brother who (most of the time) involves Charlie in everything he does and they have such a special bond. He has asked recently about Charlies medication and what happens if he doesn't take it and hopefully the answers he got were satisfactory (I seem to be a pro at answering those types of questions now)!! He is doing well in school and has a group of lovely friends. Thomas will be 7 next month and it shocks me to think how quickly that time has passed by. This time last year,Charlie was going through the most intense period of his Chemotherapy which had a knock on effect to Thomas's birthday celebrations (or lack of them). So this year, he will be having a Laserforce party which both him and Paul are very excited about!
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| Watching dvd whilst having his chemo |
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| Such a big chair for such a little man |
Charlie's hospital appointment was 3 weeks ago and as many of you will have read from my Facebook page,it was a very upsetting and emotionally charged day. Seeing all the other children so frail and ill, and seeing Charlie hooked up to the machine next to them really hit home. I found it so hard this month and had to stop myself from crying on a few occasions. This experience never gets any easier for any of us.Seeing your child going through the things Charlie and all the other courageous children on that ward go through shouldn't have to be witnessed by a parent once, never mind on a daily basis.This period in our life is as much of a nightmare now,as it was back in January 2011 when he was first diagnosed. Not having family support around the corner is the hardest part of this experience for me. I have always been close to my family and not having the choice to be able to fly back home and spend time with them is very difficult. I would love so much to see all the beautiful children we left behind (and some which have arrived since) but for another 2 years,that won't be possible. Having said all this, Charlie is the happiest child.He puts many of us adults to shame with his resilience and positive attitude. He always has a smile and is a very easy going, loving little boy who adores cuddles-the more the better!!
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| Larking about with my little sidekick |
On a more positive note,we had the great news last week that Charlie got into the Kindy (pre-school for us Brits) we had hoped for. This is excellent news as the kindy is close to Thomas's school and it is a beautiful place which I am sure he will love and make lots of new friends-we can't wait (well maybe a little as I'll miss my sidekick)!
Many of you will have seen the extremely generous fund raising which has been taking place thanks to our friends Kate and Andy-and now many other people too! Kate is a good friend I made over here who is from the UK. She approached me last month as she felt strongly that we didn't have the choice to fly home to be with loved ones for Christmas. After seeing the difference having my parents over here made to all of us,she wanted to do something to help and asked if she could do some fund raising to pay towards a family member coming out for Christmas.After the initial shock,we thought it would be a great idea as we really do need any support we can get and having mum here would be fantastic(not that that's the only reason mum)! Living at the other side of the world when you are use to spending so much time with your mum and can't do anything about going to see her and all the other fabulous people in your life is very hard so this was a fantastic idea. We have been truly overwhelmed with the support and gobsmacked with the amount of people who have kindly asked if they can do organised races on his behalf in order to raise money. Visiting Oz is so expensive and this will help enormously. Having such great support around the world is humbling and makes us very grateful for having such wonderful people around us.
On the topic of fund raisers,I know that Rhianna has been a busy bee organising her own fund raiser due to take place on September 29th at Menston Kirklands Centre from 11- 2.30pm in aid of CLIC Sargent (support service for those families who have a child with Cancer). I don't think I need to explain why she chose this charity!If there's anyway you can support this fundraiser,Rhianna would love to hear from you so please just ask for her contact details if you need them and I'll pass them on. The other day, I found myself (for about 10 minutes or so), trying to work out how we could make it to the event ourselves as we would love to be there. Only to realise that it really wasn't possible and I soon brought myself back to reality!
Paul took part in the"Ride to Conquer Cancer" cycle 2 weeks ago and it went really well. He personally raised $3535 (£2316) and the whole event raised $5.4million! Every $ of that goes towards the cause and not a cent goes towards the food,shelter etc provided for the weekend. Paul competed as a team (from work) and they certainly had a challenging weekend with all those hills! On top of that,Paul completed the 200km's whilst fighting a virus so he did extremely well. We were there to cheer him on over the finish line and were extremely proud of him for completing the course.Thank you for all the support around this and the great news is that Pauls team have all signed up to take part again next year!
A well deserved relaxing weekend away followed for Paul and Thomas as they embarked on their lads and dads weekend.By all accounts this involved lots of playing,fishing,camp fires and good old fashioned fun! (and beer too of course)!!Charlie and myself had our own fun whilst they were away,meeting up with friends and having lovely relaxing walks and a good old natter!
As many of you know,September/October wasn't very well thought out all
those years ago in our household! In the space of a month, we have my birthday,Toms birthday,our
wedding anniversary and then Charlies birthday.To celebrate all of them collectively, we have a
little break planned for next weekend which should be fantastic. We are
spending the weekend with some good friends at Moreton Island and whilst there,we
have booked to go Whale watching and also plan to feed the wild dolphins
so it should be a memory packed weekend.
Charlies counts are currently low and its clear to see as he's very weak and tires easily.He takes his daily chemo and other medications so maturely and understands that they play an important part in "killing the bad guys" and keeping him out of hospital. He has just asked me if he no longer has to go to the hospital as I'd told him earlier what a great job he was doing zapping the bad guys.Charlies interpretation was that he'd killed all the baddies in his blood and was better now. It amazes us when he comes out with these little things as it shows that he does have some understanding and is able to ask quite challenging questions too.
As you can see,things are still very much up and down and I can't wait for the time to arrive when we are a normal family again, no longer needing to write such blogs to inform everyone of how good/bad life is living with this dreadful disease.That special day when Charlie is given the all clear can't come soon enough for us.We will be able to start living normally again. Doing what we want to and not having the worry of the big "C" looming over us wherever and whatever we do. We never know when the next up or down is coming,but I suppose that's life! None of us know whats around the corner and the added uncertainty we have of having a child with Cancer makes that all the more clearer. We are extremely blessed to have the daily support from friends out here and family and friends back home. I can not thank those people enough who take the time to email,call and contact us on a regular basis to see how we are doing. Having that support is the key to keeping us positive and fighting this battle. It could easily be out of sight out of mind, as we know everyone has busy lives,but the support we get is amazing so thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts.
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| I couldn't resis |
