NATIONAL DWARFISM AWARENESS MONTH

I am 'stealing' this from another LP blogger friend, Tonya Sweat. You can find her blog at: http://knoahsarc.org/

She has a TON of useful and helpful information regarding LP and various links for support groups and programs offered.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:
October 1, 2009 Gary Arnold
Little People of America
1-714-368-3689
GArnold@accessliving.org

LITTLE PEOPLE OF AMERICA RECOGNIZES OCTOBER AS
NATIONAL DWARFISM AWARENESS MONTH

October has been declared National Dwarfism Awareness Month by Little People of America. Little People of America (LPA) is a national support organization for people with dwarfism and their families. LPA provides peer, parent and medical support for the dwarfism community.

LPA began in 1957 with actor Billy Barty and 20 short-statured friends. The first LPA meeting was monumental for a group of people who were severely mislabeled and misunderstood by society. Today, Little People of America is a thriving international organization providing much needed support, education, educational scholarships, and community outreach.
In declaring Dwarfism Awareness Month, LPA hopes to raise positive awareness around dwarfism, address common misconceptions, and increase opportunities for people with dwarfism around the country.

“People with dwarfism are no different than any other person. We may just need a well-placed stool. Our members are children, college students, business professionals, doctors, engineers, mechanics, artists and teachers. We can do anything an average-height person can do,” says Lois Lamb, LPA President and a person with dwarfism.

“Raising a child with dwarfism is new for most parents. Being part of LPA has made a tremendous difference. My daughter and I both have great friends and role models. High school is not an easy time for most teens, but neither of us feels alone in dealing with any extra challenges,” says Joanna Campbell, average-height mother of a teen with dwarfism.

More about LPA and dwarfism:
* There are over 200 distinct forms of dwarfism and skeletal dysplasias.
* People with dwarfism are generally not taller than 4′ 10″ at adult height. The typical height range is 2′8″ to 4′5″.
* Eighty percent of people with dwarfism have average-height parents and siblings.
* There are an estimated 30,000 people in the United States and 651,000 internationally with a type of dwarfism.
* In July 2009 the word “midget” was declared inappropriate and offensive. Preferable terms are: having dwarfism, short stature, little person, lp, and the medical terminology use of dwarf. A person’s name is always the most preferred.
* LPA has registered a complaint with the FCC over the use of the “m” word. Our goal is to raise awareness around the offensive impact of the word in order to eliminate use of it in media, popular culture and in everyday language.
* LPA has 6500 members across the United States and includes 70 chapters active in all 50 states.
* Skeletal Dysplasias affect bone growth, but generally do not affect cognitive abilities.
* LPA hosts an annual national conference each July which draws 2500 attendees for a week of activities, including educational and medical workshops, sports, and social networking and events.

For more information about National Dwarfism Awareness Month, please visit www.lpaonline.org or call 1-888-LPA-2001. Events supporting National Dwarfism Awareness Month will be occurring throughout the United States all during the month. Contact the chapter in your area, or the Regional Coordinator for Dwarfism Awareness Month listed on the website.

The National Dwarfism Awareness Month program is dedicated to increasing public knowledge about people with dwarfism.

Mission of LPA “LPA is dedicated to improving the quality of life for people with dwarfism throughout their lives while celebrating with great pride Little People’s contribution to social diversity. LPA strives to bring solutions and global awareness to the prominent issues affecting individuals of short stature and their families.”

The LPA National Office is located in Southern California. You may also contact Joanna Campbell, Executive Director at info@lpaonline.org or (714)368-3689.

Are we there yet?!

Ok, this is Lilah at the VERY beginning of our trip! See how happy she is to go see family!

Trying to keep herself occupied with colors and paper... see Zeus?!

Yep, he's still trying to find a comfortable position to lay in...

Poor guy, he's to big for the back seat of our car! Oh well, they both did great on this long trip!

 And right here folks is the navigator of our expedition! I love this man so much, he only made me drive about 2 hours! Hehe Oh how I love you!!!

Thankfully that loooong drive there and back is OVER! We had a great time with family, love you guys!

At the lake in Illinois

Yep, I found more photos folks! Like I said a few weeks ago, I am going to try and post more blogs, which means I have to space out the photos that I take!

Lilah and her boys at the lake: Uncle 'Ry-Ry' (Ryan), Uncle Philip, and Daddy. Oh this girl is sooo spoiled!

Yep, this is what her and daddy like to do now! He can spin her twice while she is in the air, and this is the best shot I could get of her spinning!

Lilah LOVES to do the ittsy-bitsy-spider, thus the reason why Grandma Vonda is patiently singing this song over and over and over again!

Waiting for the boat ride to begin!

Here with daddy, still waiting to see if this is the boat we are going to ride, or if we need to move on to the next!

This is the view of the lake from the balcony of a friends house. It was such a nice night out, the weather was perfect!!!

yea, I know that there are not to many pictures of me on here, but Trent actually captured a decent photo, so why not post?! I'm usually the one Behind the camera, not Infront of the camera!

I hope you have enjoyed our photos thus far! Oh and I want to send a very big

WELCOME HOME to our cousin Jeremy Ward. He just got back from his long deployment - WE LOVE YOU!!!

A Little 'Petti'

Recently my mom and I have been making pettiskirts for the little girls in our family, and most of them have been worn on their first birthday. Well, this time I made one on my own! Whoot! It was a real time crunchers because I had about 2 weeks to do this, all while on vacation and working on school! You would think I would have more time considering Trent was on leave, but no sir!

Here is my most recent pettiskirt that I did for my little cousin's 1st birthday!

Her mommy got to choose the color scheme, and I think it turned out very well!

I hope to do a few more of these in the future, but for now will stick to here and there. They are very time consuming, as is any sewing project-but once you get the first few done, they get easier with time! Now if I can only finish the 2 quilts I have been working on!!!

Trip to Illinois

As many of you know, we spent some time visiting with Trent's family. It was a great visit with them. Liah and I went to visit over Thanksgiving break last year while Trent was deployed, so they were waiting on Trent to get back from deployment before he would be able to see them again. The trips really aren't about us anymore, but we still enjoy our trips there! As you will see from the photos, the trip is all about LILAH!!!

I think at this point, her Papa Danny was ready to get off of the merry-go-round!

Lilah's face here was to priceless! She loved to go on the swings!

Spending more time with her Papa Danny.

Here she is with her Great Grandparents David and Judy Ward.

And even more photos with more Great Grandma's! Great Grandma Judy Ward and Great Grandma Monnabelle Beadles.

Looking so innocent on Grandma Vonda's lap!

And Grandma Vonda and Gary had to get there photo's in also! Oh goodness, she was full of photo's that day!

Thankfully the swing set and cousin Caryn were near by to help save the day from photos!

I wish I would have gotten more photos while we were there! But I was not able to, we were to busy chatting away and catching up with friends and family! I will have to 'steal' some photos from other family members in the near future and post those as well!!

New Brick!

I meant to post this before we left for vacation, but got bogged down with all the packing we had to get done! Lilah decided that she did not like the color of the brick on our house, and decided to recolor it! Yes, she was determined to get as many bricks as she could reach, unfortunately, it was less than 3 feet of coloring done to the brick!

First, she had to get the window seal area, the easiest to reach!

Next she was on to the column infront of the house!

Still working on the window seal area! The most important part I assume!

We hope that you all had a great weekend... on to more post! Oh, we did get lots of rain while we were gone, so Lilah's 'paint' job did not stay for long! Thank goodness for that pink chalk! ;o)

First Day of School/MDO

As promised, here are the photos of Lilah's first day at MDO! She was VERY excited to be going to school-I think more so because she finally got to carry her back-pack and her lunch bag!

Daddy not wanting to take her to school. His words were, "she can't go to school yet!"

This is a funny face, but she was trying to lift it up so I could take a picture of it, whiel she was lifting she was saying "Heavy!" Guess I packed to much for the first day!

Waiting patiently in the car to go in! Daddy is a stickler for time, so we were almost 30 minutes to early to even go in the classroom!

Yep, Daddy getting to walk her in on her first day. We're not to sure how many times he'll be there for her first day's of school, so we made sure that he was able to go to this one atleast!

Ok, here is her teacher for the classroom. She was trying to show Lilah that that was her chair, the one with the pillow on the back, but Lilah is clearly not interested! She'd rather play with the baby dolls! This is a bad shot because Trent was literally pulling me away as I tried to get some photos of her in the classroom!

All in all, the teacher said she did great the first day, no tears at all! She ate all of her lunch and her snack for the day, only one accident also! YAY! Bu the other two days, she did just fine, without any accidents either! She loves going to school now and we don't have any trouble when we drop her off.

We are in IL for the next week, so look for more post between now and then! Until next time, have a fun and safe Labor day weekend!