ANZAC Day 2020

2020. Unofficially known as the year we all played Jumanji and where the best laid plans of everyone were put to rest. Much of what occurred during 2020 was completely out of everyone's control and the way we lived our lives, changed drastically.

Anzac Day was one of those plans. We have a number of relatives who served in, and some who are current serving members, of the Australian Defence Forces, so Anzac Day is a day for us to remember and to say thank you. And not just for our family, families across Australia and New Zealand stop and remember on the 25th of April.

Unfortunately 2020 had other plans, and for the first year in a very long time there are to be no public Anzac Day services. Instead we were urged to stay at home and have our own driveway services. We were urged to light up the dawn at home in our drive ways.

As part of the little superheroes online home learning, we made lanterns out of cut down milk bottles. They both worked hard on creating lanterns not only for ourselves but also for their grandparents and our neighbours.

Then on Anzac Day, we rose early to listen to the dawn service that was being conducted at the Australian War Memorial and pay our respects. We were joined by one of pur neighbours, who happened to be one of the teachers at the little superheroes school.

And out of lockdown 2020, a new tradition was made. This year, 2021, while the dawn services and Anzac Day parades were on, albiet slightly different by incorporating social distancing, we chose to pay our respects at home by lighting up the dawn on our driveway.

Lachlan's Smart Pup

 

I feel very, very slack as I haven't made time to work on my blog at all this year. Between work and family commitments, 2021 is flying by. This weekend is a long weekend, three days off, so I'm putting some time aside to work on a few posts.

The first being this one! An update for you all on L's Autism Assistance Smart Pup. Earlier last year, I published a post with the fantastic news that we'd reached our fundraising goal and that L had been presented with his pup at a fundraising function that we were invited to.

Towards the end of 2020, we received the unfortunate news that the pup, Wally, that was presented to L was found to be unsuitable during one of the training phrases. Wally became very anxious in social settings and busy places. And unfortunately that isn't a trait that one wants to see in an assistance dog. We went up to the Smart Pups property and L met a few other dogs that were, at that point, in the training program.

Then a few weeks ago, we received the most amazing news via email from Smart Pups.

L had been paired with a black Labrador named Henry. When we read the email out to L, you could not wipe the smile from L's face. L went straight up to the calendar in his room and put a huge circle on the day that Henry is due to be placed with us, which is in mid May.

Then last week we were sent this photo of Henry, he has graduated from the Smart Pups training program and his trainer is just fine tuning his skills until Henry is placed with us. Doesn't Henry look super smart in his coat and graduation cap ♥️

So now the countdown is almost over, L is beyond excited and we can't wait to finally meet Henry. Keep an eye on this space so our next update.