Prom Princess

Sometimes a picture says it all!  

Sometimes there are no words that can describe how proud I am to be this Princess’ Mum.  

Sometimes I find myself in awe of her beauty – inside and out.  

Sometimes I have to stop and thank God for blessing me with such an incredibly beautiful, gorgeous, fun-loving and adorable daughter.

Put yourself in her shoes!

Save the Children's game puts you in the place of a 16-year-old facing some life-changing decisions.
Have a go and see how you get on!

For millions of girls and women around the world the choices in this game are real.
With no access to contraception, sex education or legal rights these girls face the prospect of pregnancy before their bodies are ready.
This can have deadly consequences for them and their children. In fact pregnancy is the world's biggest killer of teenage girls.
There's a crucial Family Planning Summit in London in 11 July. Together we can convince world leaders to give girls the power to control their own lives through greater access to contraception, health workers and empowerment.
Already, thousands have joined us in asking world leaders to act.
Play our game and share it with your friends, colleagues and family. The more people who join our campaign the more chance we have of getting world leaders on this crucial issue.
Girl power saves lives.
http://givegirlspower.savethechildren.org.uk/

Get playing and sign the petition!  Our Prime Minister can make a change to help save these girls lives!

Summer, Sports and Singing!!!!

Well the summer so far has been a bit of a disappointment weather-wise!  I mean – there cannot be much more rain left to come from the heavens, I think we’ve had our fair share.

But the weather won’t and can’t dampen our spirits. We have been non stop lately.  Lutaaya has had so much going on with her transition to secondary school activities all happening to prepare her for September.   The activities have led me to sitting back and admiring my girly, and all she has to offer the world. 

Not only is she a very beautiful girl, but she has so many gifts to give others.  She is a talented girl in so many ways and lately they have been on show to make this Mama a very proud one!

Take sports day for example.  She loves sport and this was her opportunity to shine within school.  She loves being competitive and sports gives her the level ground with peers, that currently academic work can’t offer.  She sprinted to the finish for her race and came in second, just behind one of her best friends. 

 

We’ve also had the honour of taking part in a very special event in our local area.  10 years ago the steel works closed and the land is now being re-developed into a new learning community.  It was a privilege for us to take part in the anniversary celebration called the ‘Ghost Parade’.  Community members, groups and ex-steel workers all stood together and created a silent protest.  It was cleverly put together with our plain white placards becoming the screens on which commemorative films were projected onto during the parade.  

Lutaaya and I were able to walk as part of the procession, which also included an aeroplane being pulled through the streets.  Yes that’s right – an aeroplane!

The ardain avion event is a mobile arts centre that takes place inside an old aeroplane.  Quite something!   The event will incorporate all the branches of the arts and bring the community together in music, dance, drama and song.

And as singing is what us Welsh are renowned for, it was beautiful to hear Lutaaya’s voice, join a hundred other children’s, for a summer musical celebration. The children were asked to help form a junior choir, who then went on to sing at St. David’s Hall, Cardiff. 

What an opportunity for these children to all come together and create such wonderful song!  Not only did they perform in front of a large audience, but they also sang accompanied by a full orchestra.  It was a fantastic evening, although we were all left very tired after such a late night.  

Terrific Two!

Lutaaya LOVES her little cousin and I think the feeling is very much mutual – wouldn’t you say???

I mean how much fun can two girlies have walking through town on a Sunday afternoon?  

It’s obviously hilarious to be two and have a piggy back off your big cousin!!!!

Distance makes the heart grow fonder

Lutaaya has just been on her year 6 adventure weekend away with school.  Her and her classmates headed to an outdoor activities centre in west Wales.  We’ve known about it for several months and she’s been so excited to go away for a long weekend with her friends.  

This would be the longest time, since her becoming my daughter, for us to spend apart.   She’s already done overnight stays at her friend’s houses or my parents, and we’ve coped with that fine.  This on the other hand, was a whole new experience.  She was going on a journey, for two nights away, and not with family, but with school. 

I must admit I didn’t quite know what effect this would have on us, after all we’re still in the early days of attachment building. So we made the planning as fun as possible in the run up to the day.  She was fully involved in choosing what was going to go in her suitcase and what would be left behind.  She knew exactly what she wanted to take.  She chose some sweet treats to pack in her backpack, just in case she struggled with the food and the excitement was brewing.  

During the week before the trip, I received a lot of cuddles.  Unexpected cuddles, that normally don’t come my way, but were freely given.   Last minute packing on the night before her trip, she looked at her very full case and said, ‘It looks like I’m not coming back!’  

Now she may have said this in a very matter of fact way, but I worried about the thoughts she may have been having.  Did she think I wouldn’t be there when she returned home from the trip?  Did she think she may end up living with new people in a new place?  

Whether or not these thoughts were in her mind, or simply in mine, we sat for a while and talked.  I explained how I’d miss her while she was away but how I’d be there waiting for her by the school when she got off that bus on Sunday afternoon.  I told her how it would be strange being in the house all weekend on my own.  I told her what plans I had for the weekend and we talked about what fun activities she could get to try for the first time.  

You see most children take this as granted.  They know that their parents will ALWAYS be there and will NEVER let them down.  For children who the notion of family is new or different, we have to vocalise these things to put our children’s minds at rest and know we’ve done the best we can for them in instilling that we will be FOREVER a family, no matter what comes our way.

I must admit mornings were the strangest thing for me.  Waking up two morning’s running to a silent house, with just the cats for company.  For the rest of the time it felt ‘normal’.  Kind of like when she’s at school or out with her friends, and then bedtime came, and again it was unusually quiet.  

After waiting 3 years to bring my little girl home, you want to treasure every single moment together, but also want her to experience the same as her peers.  This trip gave her the opportunity to explore new things and feel independence, but also showed her that I will be there for her whenever she returns home from whatever adventure she has been on.

A very tired grumpy little girl arrived back two days later, wet clothes packed away and sweet treats eaten.  Plenty of tales to tell of her weekend away with her friends.  Lots of fun had by all and more energy than she thought she had, all used up.

Jubilee Celebrations – Building Community!

There have been a lot of festivities this year in this part of the world.  London are hosting the 2012 Olympics and the Queen has had lots of events on with her Diamond Jubilee.  Quite a reason to celebrate, having served the country for the past 60 years – some achievement!

 I can’t say I’m a Royalist but I can say I was very thankful for the extra day off work for the Jubilee weekend.  I also thought that it was an opportunity to make some special memories for those around me, especially Lutaaya, so that we could all look back in years to come and know where we had been and what we had done that day.  (Plus Lutaaya loves anything ‘Royal’, think it must be the little princess in her peeping through.)

Plus us girlies in this house, like any excuse for a get together! So I organised some activities, we baked lots of cakes and sent some last minute invites out to family, friends and neighbours.

And so our Jubilee afternoon tea was officially organised! Our decorations went up to show everyone where the party was at, the cakes were displayed and the fun and games began.

We had a house full and it really was a lovely afternoon. One website of resources, Hope, said that this Jubilee weekend was a time and opportunity for us to build communities.  I think we can hand on heart say we achieved that! 

I apologise, that there are no photos of our house full of people, I didn’t get round to taking photos while people were there as we were snowed under with making tea and entertaining the children.  

The children all enjoyed a treasure hunt around the house, watching glimpses of the TV coverage from London and playing silly games.  They all took away some memory pages for them to keep and look back on.  

So many giggles from young and old, filling our day with smiles and laughter.  The rain wasn’t going to dampen our day, that’s for sure.  So thank you if you were part of making our day a special memory. 

We’ll get on to thinking up the next idea of getting together – Olympics sports day in the garden maybe????

Proactive Parent

Last week I was referred to as a proactive mother.

It surprised me to say the least.  Not that I don’t think I am proactive, as I know I am, but that it was viewed as the minority not the majority!

Shouldn’t all parents be proactive when it comes to their children?

Proactive in offering play opportunities, proactive in new experiences, proactive in nurturing, proactive in learning, proactive in their social skills, proactive in their development at all stages, proactive in discipline and proactive in parenting!

Being a parent is no easy task!  It drains you, it wears you down.  It becomes who you are.  Some days you feel like becoming reactive and just dealing with the as and when’s of life, but what would my child learn from that? I have always been, and probably always will be someone who will speak out for those not being heard.  If my child falls in that category, then I will stand and shout the loudest to get the best for her and get her what she needs to thrive.

You see, things have been difficult lately in getting professionals to acknowledge my child’s needs, especially around her educational development.  I felt like I was one voice, standing up against so many others, who just didn’t understand.  I didn’t feel it was good enough to keep excusing a lack of support on my child’s background, when I know that she can thrive if given the right support.  I have even been questioned as to whether my expectations were too high!!!  I mean, what’s that about?  Maybe my expectations are high, but aren’t yours for your child?  Shouldn’t professionals working with children, strive to get the best out of every child so that each and every child can reach their potential?  

So I took the time to research what children are entitled too, and I looked at how government policy state that each child’s beginnings, eg. Cultures, different learning experiences, etc, need to be taken into account on an educational level.  I contacted everyone I could to ask for help.  I sat in meeting after meeting, trying to get someone to state there needed to be some kind of intervention here, to prevent my child from disengaging from education and to help support her in reaching her potential.  Time after time, the frustrations built up, as time after time, I left with more questions than I started with.

Knowing no one else I could go too, I wrote to our local MP.  You see in England, children who have been adopted are now entitled to extra mentoring support.  In Wales this is not the case and only children in the care system can access this support.  It seems a little unfair, with us being so close and all of us a part of the UK.  So I questioned this and also told him our personal story.  I am so thankful for his intervention, as within a week of receiving my letter, we had another meeting booked and were offered a package of support.  He has also said that he will continue to ask at a national level, why there is a difference between services offered to children in England and Wales.   I was so happy!  Finally someone gave us what was needed.  

So the proactive mother in me was what was needed.  If I had given up at the first hurdle, and simply given into the reason of my child being perceived as happy in school and making an acceptable level of progress, then she would not be getting the support she needed.

If I am the minority in being a proactive mother though, how many other children are out there, simply slipping through the net educationally, because they don’t have a parent who will shout from the rooftops to get the support they need?  

For us, this has a happy ending.  Next we have the transition to secondary school, but we look forward to this.   With support in place, my next update on schools and education will hopefully be a more positive one. Let’s watch my lil Miss thrive!

And you know what?  We, as parents, know what's best for our children, so if you need to shout from the rooftops too - go for it!