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5/5/2009
Hi Lauren Supporters,
  
   This weekend Lauren and her siblings attended a birthday party at a moonwalk place. Most of the parents there hadn't seen Lauren but knew that Lauren was deafblind from the community outreach we've done. Overwhelmingly the comments centered around how "active" Lauren was in the birthday party. She jumped higher and had bigger smiles than most other children at the party. ACTIVE. Doesn't seem like that important of a word but for Lauren and our family it is everything.
 
 Deafblindness is a disability of access to information, Lauren can only know what is within her reach. Interveners are specialized teachers who spend every moment bringing the whole world to deafblind people's fingertips through tactile sign. Interveners are not a recognized profession in the United States and there is no funding available for deafblind families until the children reach 18. Thanks to the donations of people like you, we have been able to provide Lauren with an intervener. 
 
  It has been 1 yr since we found and funded Lauren's first intervener. She was then a child of 5 who drank out of a bottle and would have curled up in a ball on that moonwalk.  Now with the help of her interveners Lauren can get her own tray & spoon, feed herself and take her tray to the sink. Her days are packed full of wonderful activities like swimming, horseback riding and what all those birthday party parents don't know is that every single Friday for months Lauren has gone to that moonwalk birthday place with her intervener. She has been encouraged to actively explore the entire place with her hands and knows every inch of every moonwalk. 
 
  Thank you for being an active part of helping Lauren become an ACTIVE member of our family and our community. Your donation is literally changing lives.
 
Love
Paul, Caroline, Lauren, Elizabeth & Jack Daley

June 2, 2008

By Grandpa Dan
When Lauren was about nine months old, her parents sent her grandmother and me a little device that contained her picture and a brief recording of her voice.  It was a recording of her laughing.  It is difficult to describe the feeling of relief when I heard her laugh for the first time.

When a little person is confronted with the challenges that Lauren has been, you wonder what her life will be like.  While many questions remain to be answered, at least we know that she has a wonderful sense of humor and enjoys laughing.