Green Our Vaccines & Orange Belt Test

Today was Jim Carey and Jenny McCarthy's "Green our Vaccines" Rally and both Javier and I attended. I have never been to a demonstration of any kind because I don't ever feel that passionate about a particular cause. But Autism and Vaccines are way to close to my heart and I couldn't ignore it.

I am glad we went. Thousands of people went. The march took almost an hour to complete from the moment people started walking from the Washington monument to the last person that entered the Capitol's ground area. It was very spectacular to be honest. And very touchy. There were a couple of moments during some of the speeches that I wept.

There was a child next to me that was severely affected and he kept holding my hands and pulling me down to him so he could see my face, and kept grabbing my purse and hand and camera. And I felt so bad for him and thanked God a thousand times for giving me the strength, energy and perseveration to bring Jonathan out of that world. So many people brought pictures of their children and big signs. We just showed up with our supportive t-shirts but didn't bring the kids or pictures or anything. We didn't really know what to expect. Next time we will be more prepared.

I am not anti-vaccine. I actually believe they are important, particularly if you travel outside the US. Vanessa has gotten all her vaccines except the MMR and flu shots. Her schedule was very different from Jonathan's and her pediatrician carries only thimerosal-free vaccines. Because Vanessa is a "gut" kid (she is severely constipated and I believe that the problem started with the Hepatitis B shot at birth), I purposely delayed the MMR. I am now going to administer it separately, giving 4 months in between them. Also, never use Tylenol before or after vaccination because Tylenol uses up glutathione. Use Motrin. I wish I had known that before too.

I am sure articles will be posted on newspapers and TV news. I hope that this is the beginning of change. Everyone has different expectations about these types of demonstrations. I have 2 goals: (1) preventive: take out bad stuff in the vaccines and educate parents about how to schedule vaccines safely; (2) insurance coverage for affected kids: we need insurances to cover for the treatments that kids need to get better. They do get better. Some more than others, but they do get better. The problem is that not everyone has the financial means necessary to pay for these interventions (from biomedical to behavioral). And therefore, make kids never get better. We need money.

This was very touching. The folks that organized the event created a flower arrangement with 150 white flowers and 1 yellow flower to represent 1 in 150. Made me cry.

A short video to show the type of energy and event we experience today. It was a very good event. Very well organized and speakers were great!

Tae Kwon Do Test for Orange Belt - June 3, 2008

I was reluctant to letting him take this test because I thought he was not ready. But the master told me that he was ready so I signed him up. He did great. I have not edited the video, but here are a couple of pictures. Vanessa also did her test to get her white belt and passed it with honors.

The Belt Ceremony is this coming Saturday. I'll make sure to add pictures then.

This form is actually to put the combat arm down. There are different forms.

Master congratulated Vanessa for a job well done! He is very impressed with Vanessa's skills. She actually has very good form and he keeps bringing that to my attention.

Sparring

Last week, Jonathan was given the opportunity to try sparring. As expected, he did not know exactly what to do, but I was so very proud of him for trying, keeping his eyes focused on his target (the other boy) and not feeling intimidated by the other kid. I did not film the second try-out he had, but he kicked better. You can see that in the couple of pictures below the video. Jonathan is the boy that has the 3 blue dots on his sparring vest. Before we decided to invest on this, we are going to let him try a couple more times. He came running after he was done begging me to buy the equipment, but the master told me to wait and try 2 more times before deciding.