Mixed Nuts: Visionwalk 2010 is just days away

Quotes

"There is no better way to thank God for your sight than by giving a helping hand to someone in the dark." - Helen Keller
When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything you gave me." ~Erma Bombeck
You may never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice.- Unknown
Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow' ~Helen Keller
Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.
Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."- Dr. Seuss
"Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it."
"God doesn't give children with disabilities to strong people: He gives them to ordinary, everyday people, then He helps the parents to grow stronger through the journey. Raising a child with special needs doesn't TAKE a special family, it MAKES a special family."Author Unknown
I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go – Abraham Lincoln
Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man. ~ Benjamin Franklin
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is a miracle - Albert Einstein
The journey of a 1000 miles starts with a single step
Sometimes in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives you a fairy tale
Where there is great love, there are always miracles - Willa Cather
The Difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a little longer
Doing what you like is freedom. Liking what you do is happiness
There are two lasting bequests we can give our children. One is roots. The other is wings.
Be the change you want to see in the world
Don't tell God how big the storm is, tell the storm how big Your God is..........
Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it
Fall down seven times - get up eight - unknown
Despite our differences, we sink or swim together
Life may not be the party we expected, but while we are here, we might as well dance
"The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones." -Confucius

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Visionwalk 2010 is just days away

Just a few more days and we will be heading off to Pennsylvania to walk on Finley's behalf in the annual VisionWalk for Foundation Fighting Blindness. I cannot believe it is here already. We are really excited about seeing everyone and getting everyone together!

I hope you are planning on joining us for this fun event. We will be presenting our check for OVER $10,000 to FFB thanks to all of our friends and family that supported us! To date our number is $10,422. We are over the moon to know that we are giving that much on behalf of Finley to Foundations Fighting Blindness.

It isn't too late to join us. Remember - the walk is FREE. It is on the Southside of Pittsburgh - by the Cheesecake factory. The race officially starts at 10am, but we would like our team to assemble around 9:30. We would like to start our basket raffle ticket sales before the race, so that we can draw the winner before everyone leaves. Even if you cannot stay after the race, you are still eligible to win! Even you CAN'T come - you can still buy raffle tickets if you would like. They are $1 a ticket, $5 for 6 tickets and $10 for 12 tickets!

Here is a picture of the basket.

We have a ton of goodies in there! Buy a ton of tickets and better your chances! Here is what is included: car magnet, 2011 desk calendar, 2011 magnet calendar, mouse pad, bag, hat, t-shirt, pen, coffee mug, magnet, car decal, key chain, wristband, notepad, and braille t-shirt gift card! You can let my mom or myself know if you want tickets, but we want you to come Saturday if you can!

If you need a ride, or need to follow us, we are meeting at my parents house around 7:30am to take off for downtown. If you don't want to go that early - the evite has the directions - so just follow those! It is going to be a fun morning!

If you do not have a Finley's Fighters shirt - please don't worry. If you have something blue or red - wear that! If not - wear whatever! Just come. We will have a few extra shirts there for sale, and we will also have our wristbands for purchase as well.

So come down! We have the largest donation for FFB at this years walk. And we want to have the largest team. Like my SIL Tricia said "that is how we roll'.

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Sunday we had a picnic with our church family. Most of the pictures in this post are from that. One of the church members has a beautiful house on the water, so we got to enjoy a beautiful view, good food, and fellowship.

These are a few people from my church.

This is Courtney and Gay. This is Gay's house. Courtney has two boys who are around our kid's ages and we all hit it off when we joined 2 1/2 years ago. They are a FANTASTIC family.

This is Courtney's mom. AKA - Granny. (the pretty lady standing) We have adopted her as our kid's grandmother. She is AMAZING. She has been a driving force at the church for fundraising for Finley (the upcoming bizarre's profits will benefit our new RDH12 Fund!) and just a general support for our family. We are lucky to have such a wonderful church family.

(this is Finley and Cainan's bud from chruch - "W" - he is just a bit younger than they are - but taller!!)
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Today Finley had her semi-annual (twice a year - is that the right term?) visit to the Low Vision Clinic at Perkins School for the Blind. They check her vision field to see how she is seeing. Well - to the best of their ability. This is one of my favorite appointments because Dr. M is just the most wonderful person. She is excellent with the kids and really patient. And she is really good with parents - she listens well, and takes everything we say very seriously. She never rushes. We love seeing her.

Today Finley's vision field did prove to be worse in some aspects and the same in others. Her peripheral vision has stayed about the same as it was over the winter last year. She is average peripheral vision for a 4 year old. That was really good news! The bad news is that her central vision is gone. She has a little bit right on the outside of her central area, but not enough to mention. We knew that already, but it was confirmed today. So it is hard to say what will become of that. The other news is that she has lost some of her ability to see light colors. What that means is that while she can see dark print very well, she struggles - even at the 20/100 vision level - she cannot see anything lighter than black. That was new.

The doctor suggested large print for her at a 36 point. And she should be learning braille (which she is). She said that contrast is a big problem in the school setting, so she was going to make some recommendations for the school, which will be nice.

So - we are done with that for probably another 6 months to a year. Dr. M suggested we try and see a vision field specialist at Yale in our new Eye Clinic, and see her once a year. She is a bit of a drive for us (she is in Boston) and Yale is closer. So we will look into that.

Okay! that is all. So - make sure you check out our two websites HERE and HERE - if you haven't already. Order your Finley's Fighters gear! Order a braille shirt! All proceeds go to our new RDH12 Fund for Sight. I am up to a $500 donation to RDH12 for JUST braille shirts alone! So keep the orders coming! And we cannot wait to see many of you this coming Saturday - please join us!