4 Paws for Dallon!

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Getting Closer!

Sorry its been so long since I've posted an update. A couple of weeks ago we received a very generous donation from someone at church--$1000! Thank you so much Jeff and Lori! So with the other donations we've recieved, we are up to about $1100 out of the $2800 we still needed to raise. We have just 3 weeks left till we leave for training, but we have almost enough to pay for our hotel stay. We do need additional nights in a hotel in Columbus near the airport for our arrival and departure days. We still need to come up with money for a rental car, and that is our last big expense after hotel.

Thank you all for the support and donations! We're getting there, slow but sure. We're getting very excited about having Bianca finally be home with us.

Friday, October 31, 2008

Our flights are all reserved!

We've reserved all 4 of our plane tickets now. Thank you to all who have donated, we truly appreciate it. Dallon and I will fly out of Portland on the Friday afternoon after Thanksgiving, then Chris and Jace will fly out to meet us on Monday December 1st. We were lucky enough to find some great deals on tickets. We are flying separately because of Chris' work schedule mostly--he'll be returning home on the 10th instead of the 13th of December also for work. we are flying into Columbus because the tickets were hundreds of dollars cheaper per person--so it means we need to stay in Columbus a few nights surrounding our arrival and departure dates. There are several decent but inexpensive hotels near the airport, and we will likely use priceline.com for a better deal.

A list of things we still need to pay for before training:
Hotel in Xenia: $1200
Rental car and fuel for 2 weeks: $800
Other expenses like food, shuttle fees to and from airport, and training supplies: $375
Hotel stays in Columbus: $450

Total: $2825

We started out thinking we needed to raise about $5000--with the good deals on flights and hotels we've gotten the cost down to about $4000 and we've raised enough for all 4 tickets and a about another $100! We've got about 1 month to go, and its sneeking up on us quickly because of the holidays.

Thanks again to everyone who has donated and helped us out in other ways--we are truly grateful!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Hotel Details

We have reservations from November 30 to December 13 at the Homewood Suites by Hilton. They gave us a fantastic discount and our rate is ony $85 per night. They include a daily breakfast, and dinner Monday through Thursday. They also donate $3 per night to 4 Paws! They are conveniently located practically across the street from 4 Paws, cutting down on our gas costs. We may end up changing the arrival date depending on our flights, but for now we are planning on arriving in Xenia on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. We may need to move that date up or back, we'll see when we get our flights booked.

Other ways you can help!

If you don't have cash or gifts that you can donate for our travel expenses, here are some other ideas that could really help us out!

**Coupons or discount codes for a rental car
**Airline miles for United Airlines
**Coupons for meals at local restaraunts in Xenia, OH (you can google the address)
**Pass along our donation information and cause to local charities or groups--like Mason lodges, Elks Club, Kiwanis, etc.
**Ask if you can do a penny drive at a nearby business or school
**Pass along information to high school organizations like Key Club to see if they might be interested in doing a fundraiser/service project

We only have 48 more days to get our travel squared away. I'm sending letters to some local charities in hopes that they may be able to help us out. Also, if you are looking for a tax deduction for your donation, you can give the money to a charity who is willing and able to collect donations and send them on to us.

Every little bit counts! We've finished raising money for Bianca, now we just need to bring her home!

Thursday, September 25, 2008

We've chosen a hotel

The Homewood Suites nearby 4 Paws is offering a variety of "perks" for 4 Paws families to stay with them. They are affordable ($130 per night for a suite or 2 rooms) and they will be donating to 4 Paws for each night one of their families stay. They offer kitchenette's in each room and also offer free dinner Mon-Thur, and breakfast 7 days a week (which I've heard is great, and they aim to please). The meals and kitchenette could really save us some money! They have even dedicated a portion of the hotel for 4 Paws families so that there are no other pets in the same section of the hotel (which I guess can be a problem).

If you would like to help us with our hotel stay, here is the link to the gift certificate page for the hotel. http://homewoodsuites.hilton.com/en/hw/promotions/hw_guestcertificates/index.jhtml?adId=HWGuestCerts,featoffer&cid=OM,HW,Guestcert,Specoffer

THANKS! We'll be setting up our reservations soon.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Added Links

I have been adding links to the sites of other 4 Paws families. Some are fundraising, some are going to training soon, some already have their Service Dog at home. The children suffer from a wide variety of disabilities. The links are toward the bottom of the right hand column, please check them out. There are some amazing stories, and you may want some Kleenex handy if you're a crier.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Update

Sorry its been a while since my last update. School started, Dallon broke his arm, and we've had a stomach bug! So far we've raised $144 for our travel expenses plus the 2 United Airlines tickets.

We only have a little more than 2 months to come up with the rest we need. If you know anyone who would be willing to make even a small donation, please pass along Dallon's information.

Thanks for all the support, and we're getting really excited for our service dog to finally come home with us--and for Christmas too!

HOW WE CAME TO BE HERE

In June 2007 we were given the news from the local school system that they had determined that Dallon was "severely" autistic. It was a hard thing to accept or understand. Dallon is not at all what I would have imagined a "severely" autistic child would be. We were also told that he did not qualify for summer services--so I immediately began seeking out alternative resources. By August we had a medical diagnosis from Oregon Health Science University in Portland, OR at their Childhood Development Rehabilitation Center (CDRC).

Dallon has a variety of symptoms, as well as some great skills. He does not consistently respond to his name or engage when someone tries to initiate and interaction with him. He gets overstimulated with sounds and when it is accompanied by bright lights...but this is not a consistent reaction which causes us a lot of difficulty in deciding what he can and cannot handle. He loves to explore and climb and has already had a broken arm as a result of a fall (both forearm bones). He loves to explore new places, and especially places where he can climb or get wet. He did not say more than perhaps 10 words (most of which had very little practical use) until well after his third birthday. By the time he was diagnosed/labeled in June 2007 he was 3 1/2 and had been evaluated several times. Other than his speech, his symptoms seemed 'not so bad' until you look at the wide variety and the number of ways his life is affected by autism. His cognitive and reasoning lagged behind his peers, although he was speaking in short phrases and sentences (at 4 years and 3 months), he still could not tell me where he was hurt when cried. When he is emotional in any way he seems to lose all ability to communicate and reason. He has a very strange eating pattern. He can go for days only eating a few crackers and having a cup of milk at each meal/snack. If I leave food out for him, he will leave it untouched all day--he doesn't seem to consistently recognize when he is hungry.

Dallon will attend Early Intervention preschool services for the 2008-09 school year. He will start on September 8th. He will continue to see his speech therapist for at least the next year. I have reasearched a number of programs offered through various northwest universities, but none of them were affordable or really offered the kinds of interventions I was looking for. His school is trying to start a program for Dallon within the classroom called STAR--it is an Applied Behavior Analysis program that I am very excited about. The ESD attempted to start the program last year, but only got as far as the evaluations to begin. Hopefully they'll be able to do it this year.
I have been considering getting a dog for Dallon for a long time. He loves dogs! And he seems to connect with them. Dogs that typically don't like children seem to like him. A dog would give him so much companionship on a level that doesn't require all of the hard work of a human social relationship.

I ran across an article about Austism service dogs, and began researching them. I found 4 Paws, and immediately felt very good about their program. Their history is amazing and heart warming. They accept everyone! If you have a disability, they can get you a dog. They wouldn't turn us away because Dallon is so young, or because he isn't as "severe" as another child. And what the dog would do to help me will be a huge relief. I won't have to try to fit him in the basket at the grocery store so he won't get lost or wander out the exit. I won't have to worry about how to find him if he was ever separated from us in a public place. He would have someone who could distract him when he is too emotional to function, or calm him when he is overstimulated by his environment. and he would have a friend who will love him unconditionally, no matter how "weird" his social behaviors are.

Please help us if you can, and if you could continue to give to 4 Paws even after we have reached our goal, there are so many other families that benefit from their program. I plan to continue to give for the rest of my life to this program.
THANK YOU!