I've got WONDERFUL news!!

Our official December 1st total is:

$13.111.12

WE ARE DONE!!

We have been placed in the September 2012 class at 4 Paws for Ability. After the new year we will be holding a couple more fundraisers in order to help fund our 12 day trip to Ohio.

I'm hoping to have thank you's out in the mail by the end of January!

Thank you once again to EVERYONE who has supported us. This really means the world to us. God Bless you all and have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

The Davies:

Ed, Carolina, Elisabeth, Eddie, Tweet, Bella and Stewie!

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to update you all. It's been crazy around here. Eddie has been having more seizures, Elisabeth has started piano lessons, we where recently in Miami for 4 days and how its the start of the holiday season!

Our total as of Nov. 15th $12,735.23! I know what you are thinking... your almost done! Well in reality we ARE done! Thanks to a generous donation from the
Twilight Moms of Middle Georgia our unofficial total is $13,017.23!

The $13,000 dollar goal has been reached!


The next step is to wait or the official phone call from 4 Paws for Ability telling us that we are done. In the mean time we are working on a family video that needs to be sent to the dog trainers. With our family video trainers are able to find us a perfect doggie match. Specialty training for the dog can take anywhere from 6-10 months to complete. When they are done we must attend a 12 day training class in Ohio.
Now we hurry up and wait. Before we leave for Ohio, 1 to 2 weeks prior, we find out who our doggie match is and what his/her name is!

After the holidays we will be holding a few more fundraisers to help fund out trip to Ohio. A class date has not been assigned to us yet, but we should know soon. We plan on making the drive up to Ohio for what we think will be a total of 16 days on the road. Hotels, gas and food will add up fast. Keep your eyes pealed!

Id like to once again thank EVERYONE who has helped up fundraise. Because of you this has been a great success!!! As soon as I get ALL the names of those who contributed I will be sending out thank you cards! I haven't forgotten any of you.




Samba: Golden Retriever
Seizure Assistance Dog
4 Paws for Ability
Partnered on Oct. 2011

Our Oct 15th total is $11,479.75.

That means we are $1,520 dollars away from our fundraising goal! As we wait for our total to officially hit the $13,000 mark I have been working on our family video that will be seem buy the 4 paws for ability trainers. With this video the trainers will be better able to choose the right dog for the kids and our family life style.
After our dog is picked it will take 6-10 months to specialty train him or her. There is still a long road ahead of us, right now the focus is to reach our fundraising goal.

If you are able to donate please look at our "HOW TO DONATE" page.

This is how I feel right now.

I thought this was going to be the week I got the good news. But its not, I'm so upset at myself. It turns out we are not done fundraising like I thought we where. Our fundraising total for Oct 1st is $11,183.53. A check of $1,000 was sent today which will put out total up to $12,183.53.

So we wait, again. My friends are in the process of finalizing an auction that raised a little over $300. I got a check today for $50.00 and my husband got a $100 dollar donation from a co-worker. So close yet so far from our goal.

Almost DONE!

Our September 1st total from 4 Paws For Ability is $6,221.79!

This total does not include money that is STILL coming in!! A couple of good friends of mine put together an online auction for board games that brought in a total of $1,200! There is still a raffle going on at OakRidge Custom Finishing that will being in an additional $1,000 for a S&W Revolver. The raffle will be closed on September 10th with the drawing being held at 11am. And last but not least a final donation of $1,000 from Middle Georgia Connection's CEO MaryAnn Horning.

SO our total for the first week of September will be at least $9,421.70!!!!!

ALMOST THERE!!!

About Diabetes, and How having a service dog will help control it.

Diabetes has become more and more of a problem in the U.S. According to the American Diabetes Association 300,000 people will die this year from diabetes. That's more than breast cancer and AIDS combined. Type 1 diabetes is the more serious form of diabetes and the onset is typically diagnosed in children. For some kids, like Elisabeth, they struggle with hypo and hyper glycemic unawareness. Hypoglycemia is when you can't feel when your blood sugar is dangerously low.

Insulin is not a cure for an auto-immune disease called type 1 diabetes. Every day, with every blood test, the hope and the goal is for a cure. Until that day, I am grateful for the tools that each have a place in managing this horrible disease. Insulin, Insulin pumps, glucose meters, and alert dogs are all management tools. Science has proven that tighter control of blood sugar will help keep away the deadly effects of blindness, kidney disease, neuropathy, heart disease, amputations, and death.

Keeping blood sugar under tight control is a process that can make a person insane. We study Elisabeth's charts, measure her food, count her carbohydrates, and try to figure out why one day an insulin dose is perfect, the next it's too much, and the next it's not enough. Elisabeth's endocrinologist says there are just too many parameters such as growth spurts, adrenaline, exercise, hot baths, lack of sleep, stress, excitement, and so on that affect blood sugar. It will never make sense.

One way with control Elisabeth's blood sugar now is with the use of an Animas Ping insulin pump. The pump is a sophisticated tool that can deliver precise amounts of insulin. Elisabeth's A1c has started to lower after he started on her pump. A lower A1c means better health now and in the future.

So how will a dog trained in diabetes alert be able to help Elisabeth?

A dog’s keen sense of smell gives it the ability to watch over the blood sugar levels of a diabetic .Reports suggest that some dogs can detect early warning signs of low blood sugar, called hypoglycemia by using their sense of smell to ‘sniff out’ whether or not their owner’s glucose levels are dropping. Our bodies give out a "chemical" smell which these dogs can sense.With low blood sugar Elisabeth can fall into a dangerous coma, something which we worry about in the middle of the night while she sleeps. Or passing out when she is outside playing and myself or her daddy are not within a birds eye view of her.

This same concept of "sense of smell" also works with detecting seizures.

A dog to benefit BOTH kids.

It's Official!

Our service dog will also be trained for Eddie's big sister Elisabeth!

Our Service dog will be for Seizure Alert, Mobility Assistance and Diabetes Alert!

More information and blog redesign to come.

Oh Happy Day! More Money has come our way!

First I would like to thank EVERYONE who helped make our bake sale a complete success! We raised a total of $679.36! I was almost overwhelmed by the support that was shown to us, and all the wonderful baked goods that where made and donated. Along with what we raised a donation of $100.00 was made by a very special family, bringing up our total to $779.36! A total of $780 was mailed to 4 Paws for Ability on 8/15/11.

As of Aug. 15, 2011 our fundraising total is: $4,144.27. This total does NOT include the $780 and made over the weekend.

The GRAND total comes to: $4,924.27

BAKE SALE

Galleria Mall

Warner Robins, GA

Saturday Aug 13, 2011

12:30pm-4pm

All profits will be going to 4 Paws For Ability

Please stop by and support our efforts to get a much needed service dog.

There will be a raffle for TWO

Cupcake Scentsy Warmers

Useful links to read and share

4 Paws For Ability

http://www.4pawsforability.org/

Facebook Fundraising Group

www.tinyurl.com/4paws4eddie

4 Paws for Ability: Makes a Dream Come True

http://www.4pawsforability.org/dream.html#EddieDavies

Newspaper Story: The Sun News

http://www.macon.com/2011/06/22/1603516/family-raises-money-for-service.html

News Story Warner Robins Patriot

http://warnerrobinspatriot.com/view/full_story/14790561/article-Family-fundraising-for-companion-dog?

News Story on 41 NBC

http://www.41nbc.com/news/local-news/6470-warner-robins-family-with-two-special-needs-children-looking-fo​r-neighborhood-support

Blog Story

http://www.singingthroughtherain.com/2011/08/paws-for-eddie.html

Wish Upon A Hero

http://www.wishuponahero.com/wishes/?id=954571

Alfi's Syndrome Chromosome 9p minus

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-monosomy-9p.htm

http://www.9pminus.org/

About Eddie's Heart: Shone's Complex

http://www.pted.org/?id=shones1

Almost Famous... Again!

Thank you to Kyle Warnke from 41 WMGT news for doing a story about our family!

Eddie's Story on 41 NBC

41 NBC website: Story in print

The fundraising continues.

I wanted to start off by sharing a wonderful quote:

"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal". ~Albert Pike

I will never forget those who have reached out to help out our family. We are truly grateful to all of you.

Fundraising Update!! As of Aug 1st our official fundraising total is $3,563.50! There is an additional $2,000 that will be coming in the next month from fundraisers and personal donations. Thank You!!

Our next fundraiser is a bake sale being held at the Galleria Mall in Centerville, GA from 12:30 to 4pm. Come on by and get some delicious goodies and help a great cause.

So far so good.

Seems like these days all I have been focusing on is fundraising for our service dog. We started this journey during the last week on June. As of July 15, 2011 we have raised $2,190.25! Far from our $13,000 dollar goal, but its a wonderful start, and I couldn't be happier.

We're almost famous!

Our family did an interview with our town's news channel.

Take a look!

Warner Robins Patriot Davies Famliy Interview

Thanks again for everyone's support!

A service dog for Eddie's sister too!!

As most of you know Eddie's big sister Elisabeth (age 5) is a type 1 diabetic. Diagnosed at age 2, she has been wearing an insulin pump for 11 months now.

What is type 1 diabetes?

It is a chronic (lifelong) disease that occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin to properly control blood sugar levels.

Insulin is a hormone produced by special cells, called beta cells, in the pancreas, an organ located in the area behind your stomach. Insulin is needed to move blood sugar (glucose) into cells, where it is stored and later used for energy. In type 1 diabetes, these cells produce little or no insulin.

Without enough insulin, glucose builds up in the bloodstream instead of going into the cells. The body is unable to use this glucose for energy. This leads to the symptoms of type 1 diabetes.

Elisabeth gets high blood sugars which are damaging to her body and low blood sugars which could lead to coma. Having a diabetes alert dog can be a life saver for her!

I had been looking into getting a diabetes alert dog for Elisabeth but all of the places I looked into say they have an age restriction that says the child must be 12 years of age (sometime more) to get an alert dog. So I went ahead and decided to contact the director of 4 Paws for Ability to see if they can train Lil' Eddie's dog to also alert for diabetes.

I got confirmation back a couple days ago saying that it can be done!!! I will have to send in an application for Elisabeth and sign a new contact.


AMAZING!

What does this mean? In the next couple weeks, and once I get the confirmed approval from 4 Paws for Ability, I will add Elisabeth's name and story to the fundraising effort.

I just told Elisabeth the wonderful news, and she is excited about it!!



So now, MORE THAN ever I need your help. Get the word out. Let those you know that this dog will now be for both kids!!!



Thank you all for your support!!!

Welcome to our Journey!

This blog is the story of a little boy who was born with two very rare chromosome disorders: 9p minus (Alfi’s Syndrome) and 8q duplication. Both these disorders combined has left Eddie mentally and physically disabled. Unable to walk or talk Eddie faces many struggles. One of his major struggles is having seizure disorder and congenital heart defects.

We are in the process of fundraising to get Eddie a Multi-Purpose/Seizure Alert Service Dog. To learn more about Eddie and our family, please click here. 

Feel free to look through the site (see top menu bar) to learn about Eddie, what an Multi-Purpose/Seizure Alert Service Dog is, and how you can donate to our cause.

Thank you for your support, and for following along on our journey to get Eddie his Service Dog!

(above: Vinnie, a 4 Paws for Ability Service Dog in Training)

-The Davies Family