EXTRA SPECIAL PARENTS

New Members
A huge welcome to our new members: michmart, auntyP, sorceress, stuartdenley, mairiw21, FCdC, Joolsy, mrstumble, Kirsty, stinkerella mum, janeq and cattyjane.
If you haven’t already posted please come and introduce yourself – don’t be shy, our community will make you very welcome.

Charity Application
We have heard from OSCR (the regulatory body for charities in Scotland) and they are now dealing with our application, I have to send them some financial information of how the organisation has been funded over the last 2 and a half years, then hopefully we’ll hear soon after if our application is successful.
Becoming a registered charity will not only give us formal credibility, but also open more doors for our fund raising efforts. If you are interested in joining the organisation please let me know so I can send you an application form – membership is free.

ESP Annual Meet 2009
I am looking for suggestions for a venue for our 2009 annual ESP Meet. In our first year we had a get-together at Alton Towers and our 2nd gathering was held at Gulliver’s World, Warrington. The 2009 annual meet will be decided by popular choice. In previous years the meet has taken place during the Spring/Easter break, but if more members would find the summer break easier then we’ll change it.
I have set up some polls on the main forum for you to cast your votes and make any suggestions. I know it may seem like a long way off – but believe me, it comes around really quickly.
The annual meet is a great opportunity for a day out with the kids, where you can meet some of the other parents and carers that you’ve spoken to on the forum.

Christmas Shopping
Yes, I know it’s a thought! But ESP can help. We have a comprehensive selection of online retailers participating in the ESP Mall and via the ESP Easyfundraising pages which can make this time of year a bit easier on you and your pocket. The way it works is very simple – you just click on any of the links provided to the online stores and automatically ESP is awarded commission for any purchases you make – at no extra cost to you.
easyfundraising is a shopping directory listing some of your favourite online stores including Argos, Next, Amazon, Debenhams, John Lewis, Toys R Us, HMV and over 600 other top name stores. Whenever you shop with any one of them using the links provided on the easyfundraising site, you'll generate a free donation for us of up to 15% of the purchase price every time! It really is that simple!
It doesn't cost a penny more to shop and raise funds in this way. In fact you can even SAVE MONEY as many retailers give exclusive discounts, special offers and even 'e-vouchers' when you shop through the easyfundraising site. All you need to do is register for free at http://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/extraspecialparents and use easyfundraising every time you shop online.
You can also raise funds for us every time you search the Web - with easysearch, a search engine with a difference!
When you search with easysearch, you'll raise funds for us with every search you make! Make just 10 searches a day with easysearch instead of Google or any other search engine and you could raise around £20 a year - or more - for us. It's that easy! What's more, easysearch combines the strengths of several search engines together - Yahoo!, MSN, Ask.com and many more - making it a 'super' search engine! easysearch tracks down the most relevant and accurate results from across the Web, which means you'll find what you are looking for quickly and easily every time - in one 'easy' search. Please set our unique easysearch page - http://extraspecialparents.easysearch.org.uk - as your homepage and use it every time you search the Web.
Please also share these links with your friends and family so they can shop, save and also help raise funds for ESP.

The Forums
The forums are an invaluable tool for all our members, please take full advantage. We’re here primarily to help you talk to other parents who are dealing with the same issues, parents often share hints and tips, give and get advice. It is also a place to chat about just about everything in the Members Lounge. Don’t be shy, everyone just mucks in.

Debbi Robertson
Secretary/Treasurer
www.extra-special-parents.org
www.espkids.org

Newbies

We have had an amazing 18 new members since the last newsletter, so please welcome hayley77, alba, jadiesmum, mary, sixmum, jamboqueen7, nancyc, ND, wwwpanfife, Carly, Angelapaterson, lynniex, weebo, angmumof2, riseandshine, Tace, Rorysmum and kate/jonny.

For those of you who haven’t already, please introduce yourselves in the Introductions Forum. It would also be helpful if you posted a bit (as long or as short as you like) in the section relevant to your child’s’ condition so that you can find other parents who are dealing with the same things, and so new members can find you too.

If you’re having difficulty finding the right place to post, you can either email myself or GBro or post on the forum and someone will be able to help.

Remember to also register on ESP2, this is the separate forum GBro created especially for you to show off your photos.

First Official ESP Meet

Plans are starting to come together for the 1st ESP Meet in April. We are organizing a group get-together at Alton Towers for Saturday the 14th April. This is the last weekend of the school Easter Holidays. Details of local accommodation are posted should you need to stay over due to distance.

I will hopefully be making a group booking with Alton Towers which will enable us to get cheaper entry tickets.

I know it seems like a long way away yet, but its only 10 weeks and believe me the time will fly past.

We also hope to start organising some regional meet-ups across the country for the summer time.

So, to register your interest and find out how the plans are progressing you will need to register on the ESP2 board if you haven’t already done so. Remember to use the same username as the one you use for the main ESP board.

ESP Shopping

During January I have been updating the ESP Mall. For every purchase made by using the links in the ESP Mall, ESP will receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you, these small amounts help us to keep ESP running. The New Yellow Moon catalogues should arrive any day now, so please let me know if you’d like one. You can join together with friends and family to place and order for their terrific art and craft supplies and of course ESP receives a commission cheque twice a year.

Spreading the Word

If you would like to help spread the word about ESP we can provide you with posters, flyers, and business cards. I am also in the process of producing information pamphlets. Again, just let us know your requirements and we’ll get them sent off to you.

Competitions

The next milestone is 45,000 posts and as it’s a big milestone again, it will be a big box of choccies up for grabs. Terrimumof3 managed to get the 40,000th post in the wee small hours of the 31st January and will be getting some foot-pampering goodies in the post soon.

The caption competition of 5th January was won by Heather., 15th January was Rachel who wins a pen, 22nd January was won by Terrimumof3 who wins a car-sticker, and the 29th January was won by HollyJ. Could Holly and Heather please let me know which of the prizes they would like.

Topofthetree won the January Trivia Challenge – well done. Please let me know your name and address to send your prize.

The February Trivia Challenge has now started and there’s plenty of time to join and win the title for February, as you know there’s another big box of choccies for the month’s highest score.

For details of all the current competitions, just go to Competitions & Quizzes Forum

Birthdays & Celebrations

Birthdays and Celebrations for February are:

Suzy's son Ieuan's will be celebrating his 9th birthday on the 2nd February

4th February is Kelly’s birthday (can Kelly’s mummy let me know who she is please)

The 7th February is Helsxxx’s hubby Steve's birthday

Mrs G is 36 on the 9th February

On the 12th February Caren’s daughter Jade celebrates her birthday

Terrimumof3’s son Joseph’s 4th birthday is on the 15th February

Badgerplace’s wee angel Billy’s birthday is on the 18th February

Ray, Terrimumof3's hubby has his birthday on the 20th February and Sophie’s 2nd birthday is also on the same day.

Mumof4 (Nikki) will hit the big 30 on the 25th February

Helsxxx’s son Dylans 4th Birthday is on the 28th February

Remember to add all your family’s special days to the ESP calendar so we can all help you celebrate.

Our latest addition to the ESP site is our message board for kids – ESP Kids.

It is designed for children who have special needs and also for children whose siblings have special needs. Sometimes it can be hard for children to talk to their friends or family when special needs affect their lives, this is sometimes the case regardless of whether the child has a condition themselves or whether they have a brother or sister at home with a condition. Often their friends just don’t understand. But at ESP kids they can talk to other children in a similar situation.

We have the same adult moderators and administrators monitoring ESP Kids that monitor ESP so you can be assured that your child will be safe as possible.

We have also tried to make it fun by including safe links to child friendly sites where they can do fun things like colouring in.

Have a great February everyone!

Graham Brockie & Debbi Robertson

The Management Team

www.extra-special-parents.org

Well done you, you’ve reached a monthly milestone on ESP

Check here for a thread in your name

http://s2.excoboard.com/exco/forum.php?forumid=121293

for those who haven’t been on the site for a while, I will be deleting members who do not post every 30 days

Graham Brockie & Debbi Robertson

The Management Team

www.extra-special-parents.org

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS

We have had a whopping 13 new members join us in the last week – so a big ESP Welcome to Katherna, eleanor, whitedolphin, BabyBlue, sjc1985, Shaz, Samantha Brown, jenandgeorge, emmygirl, sssueee, donna2512, nikki and mummygilmour. If you haven’t already, come and let us know about you and your family in Introductions where we have opened a thread especially for each of you. If you need any help with anything just send an email to wiccababe

ESP RULES

We only have a few simple rules for members of ESP, most of them are to ensure the online confidentiality of our members – you can find them here. Our system disables accounts that haven’t been used for a certain period of time. If you haven’t posted on the site in a while this may have happened to your account. This is a safeguard against trolls and other unsavoury elements who visit sites like ESP for “amusement”, so all we ask is that you post now and again to keep your account active.

The administrators can re-activate disabled accounts manually, so if you find your account disabled please get in touch with either wiccababe or GBro.

Also, please remember to resize any photo’s you post, and especially any pictures that you use in your signature – signature pics should be no bigger than 200x300 pixels.

ESP 2

Our sister site, ESP2 is steadily expanding, and we now have special sections for your Holiday and Occasions photographs and stories; including birthdays, holidays, weddings and achievements. As well as a section for your birth stories, be they funny, scary or downright outrageous.

If you haven’t already registered on ESP2, please remember to use the same username as you do on the main site.

COMPETITION WINNERS

We can announce that the winner of the 17,000th post was mumof4 (Nikki) who wins a wee box of choccies and so did Georgiesmummy for the 18,000th post – well done ladies!

The next big box of chocs will be for the member who makes the 20,000th post, but as that is a little way off yet, there will be mini chocolate prize for the 19 thousandth post. As always, it makes no difference if it is your 1st or 500th post, but you have to be in it to win it.

The September ESP Trivia Challenge is well under way, but there is plenty of time for all of you to play for a chance to win.

The winner of the caption competition (9th Sept) was mumof4 and (16th Sept) was Georgiesmummy

For details of all the competitions, just take a look at the Competitions & Quizzes forum

CELEBRATIONS

This week’s special occasions:

Children’s Hospice Week and National Eczema Week both started on Saturday 16th September

Rilith’s daughter Holly-Marie is celebrating her 1st birthday on Wednesday 20th September

Cernskaz's son Ro'ane is celebrating his 1st birthday on Thursday 21st September

Smileybird63's son David is celebrating his 5th birthday on Friday 22nd September

Sueby and Taff's are getting married on Saturday 23rd September, and it is also Cat 1975 6th wedding anniversary

And Sunday 24th September is Emma and Neil's 6th wedding anniversary.

Remember to add all your special occasion to the ESP Calendar.

FIND A FAMILY

So that we can support as many parents and carers as possible, it would be extremely helpful if you could all make a short (or long if you have the time) post about your child(ren)’s condition(s) in the relevant forum (I have attached a list of conditions and where you can find them on the site). If you haven’t been able to find parents and carers with children who have similar conditions to your children it may be because you and other members just haven’t posted yet.

To give you an idea of what I’m talking about just have a look at some of these threads Willow’s Story – Anal Atresia, Daniel’s Story – Cerebral Palsy, foregut dysmotility affecting the esophagus and down, or Rilith's thoughts.

If you’re not sure where to post just let me know and I’ll see if I can help out at all.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND

Graham Brockie & Debbi Robertson

www.extra-special-parents.org

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS

We have had 9 new members join us in the last week – so a big ESP Welcome to ramsbottom61, keford, aussiecath, jo123, Sharri, k8nite, Tricia, James, jolace. If you haven’t already, come and let us know about you and your family in Introductions where we have opened a thread especially for each of you. If you need any help with anything just send an email to wiccababe

E.S.P. MEMBERSHIP

We only have a few simple rules for members of ESP, most of them are to ensure the online confidentiality of our members – you can find them here. Our system disables accounts that haven’t been used for a certain period of time. If you haven’t posted on the site in a while this may have happened to your account. This is a safeguard against trolls and other unsavoury elements who visit sites like ESP for “amusement”, so all we ask is that you post now and again to keep your account active.

The administrators can re-activate disabled accounts manually, so if you find your account disabled please get in touch with either wiccababe or GBro.

ESP2 EXPANDING

Our sister site, ESP2 is steadily expanding, and we now have special sections for your Holiday and Occasions photographs and stories; including birthdays, holidays, weddings and achievements. As well as a section for your birth stories, be they funny, scary or downright outrageous.

If you haven’t already registered on ESP2, please remember to use the same username as you do on the main site.

LET'S SUPPORT EACH OTHER

So that we can support as many parents and carers as possible, it would be extremely helpful if you could all make a short (or long if you have the time) post about your child(ren)’s condition(s) in the relevant forum (I have attached a list of conditions and where you can find them on the site). If you haven’t been able to find parents and carers with children who have similar conditions to your children it may be because you and other members just haven’t posted yet.

To give you an idea of what I’m talking about just have a look at some of these threads Willow’s Story – Anal Atresia, Daniel’s Story – Cerebral Palsy, foregut dysmotility affecting the esophagus and down, or Riliths thoughts.

If you’re not sure where to post just let me know and I’ll see if I can help out at all.

COMPETITIONS

I am chuffed to announce that the winner of the 16,000th post was Terrimumof3 who wins a wee box of choccies

The next big box of chocs will be for the member who makes the 20,000th post, but as that is a little way off yet, there will be mini chocolate prizes for the 17, 18 and 19 thousandth posts. As always, it makes no difference if it is your 1st or 500th post, but you have to be in it to win it.

The September ESP Trivia Challenge has just started, so there is plenty of time for all of you to play for a chance to win.

The winner of the caption competition (2nd Sept) was flump_02

For details of all the competitions, just take a look at the Competitions & Quizzes forum

CELEBRATIONS

This week’s special occasions:

Remember to add all your special occasion to the ESP Calendar.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK EVERYONE

Graham Brockie & Debbi Robertson

www.extra-special-parents.org

I have attached an up to date list of the disorders and conditions that we have information about, on Extra Special Parents. This list also shows you where to find each disorder or condition on the site.

Please take a look and let me know if you know of any conditions that we do not currently cover.

It would also be incredibly helpful if you could post a little bit about your children’s’ condition in the relevant section, this helps other parents to find families who are in a similar situation.

Over 80 members haven’t yet posted on the site, and one of them could be able to help and/or support you.

Help us to help you.

Graham Brockie & Debbi Robertson

The Management Team

www.extra-special-parents.org

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS

We have had 12 new members join us this week – so a big ESP welcome to maisie1977, flump_02, mumsy, finners19, natalie, NICOLA, TRISHA, 2fordan, rhian, Leanne Davies, allansmum, & ambernectar. If you haven’t already, come and let us know about you and your family in Introductions where we have opened a thread especially for each of you. If you need any help with anything just send an email to wiccababe

COMPETITIONS

Congratulations to Nikki (mumof4) for getting the 11,000th post.

The ESP Trivia Challenge is proving very popular with some of you, and there’s plenty of time to get great scores racked up for July, with a big box of choccies up for grabs for the highest scorer.

Adam (daddy2josh) won last weeks Caption Competition and a new one will start on Sunday so get those clever and funny captions in.

NB: all outstanding prizes will be posted out this week – sorry!

CELEBRATIONS

We have no birthdays, anniversaries or any other celebrations on the calendar this week, so remember to post all your family birthdays and celebrations on the Calendar and we will help you celebrate

SHOPPING

YELLOW MOON brings together the best value arts and crafts, educational products and craft ideas under the sun! EVERY time you buy from YELLOW MOON (either online or from the catalogue) Extra Special Parents receive up to 25% cash-back (excl. VAT and p&p). So, the MORE you buy the MORE they receive! SHOPPING on-line with YELLOW MOON is a rewarding experience. Not only is Extra Special Parents rewarded with a cash-back, but you’re rewarded too with a 5% discount every time you order £45 or more (excl. p&p) before 31st August 2006! Just remember to quote our source code SEX10033

We also have an affiliate agreement with the following online retailers: AMAZON , The Kids Window, Letterbox, PC World, The National Lottery, Books Direct, Ann Summers and Knickerbox so that any purchases you make through the links we have provided will result in Extra Special Parents receiving a small commission.

Our other affiliate scheme is with eBay, every time you use the link and bid or buy it now, we receive a small commission, and if you don’t have an eBay account and sign up via the link we also receive a small commission. EBay is the world’s most popular auction site, where you can pick up some terrific bargains for yourselves and your family and also sell all that stuff you no longer need.

TELL YOUR STORY

Some of you know the reasons why we started the Extra Special Parents website; how isolated we felt and how difficult we found it trying to find information and support for Willow’s congenital condition. We have been in touch with a press agency to tell our story to raise awareness not only of Willow’s condition but to promote ESP to more parents and carers who have had the same difficulties.

The agency has very kindly offered to hear stories from any of our members, if you wish to tell your story. If your story is printed in any of the newspapers or magazines, the agency will secure a payment to you for your trouble, usually in the region of £200.

Extra Special Parents is a closed forum, and non-members DO NOT have access to any posts you make, and we do not pass any of your details to anyone without your express permission.

If you would be interested in telling your story please email wiccababe and I can give you more details.

ESP 2 - SISTER SITE

The ESP forum has sprouted arms and legs over the last 6 months and so Graham has set up a sister site ESP2. At the moment it’s for photos of all our extra special mummies, daddy’s and other family members as well as a Hobby Corner. If you haven’t already joined ESP2, just click here and register using the same username as you use on ESP. And watch out in the coming months for more additions to the sister site.

WEB AWARDS

We have managed to win a number of Web Design and Website Awards lately, so we are very proud to show them off on the Awards Page of the site. We would also like to thank all of you who have voted for us for some of them.

Have a great week everyone

www.extra-special-parents.org

THIS WEEK ON ESP

We have had 13 new members join us this week – so a big ESP welcome to callybrac, carney souter, coriryan, storm, mameskis, Langoustine, pix1677, longegirl, mummyhardy, lozzasangel, magicmum, annasmum, babyheart. Come and let us know about you and your family in Introductions where we have opened a thread especially for each of you. If you need any help with anything just send an email to wiccababe

ENTERTAIN THE KIDS THIS SUMMER

The long summer holidays have already started in Scotland and are almost upon those of you elsewhere and I bet you’re all dreading them lol. One thing we have found is a great help during times when the weather isn’t great is a craft box – start saving those empty loo rolls and egg boxes. We have set up an account with Yellow Moon for you to buy excellently priced craft supplies and toys, we have catalogues so if you would like one for you, your family and friends to browse just email wiccababe with your address and we’ll get one off to you. YELLOW MOON brings together the best value arts and crafts, educational products and craft ideas under the sun!

EVERY time you buy from YELLOW MOON (either online or from the catalogue) Extra Special Parents receive up to 25% cash-back (excl. VAT and p&p). So, the MORE you buy the MORE they receive!

SHOPPING on-line with YELLOW MOON is a rewarding experience. Not only is Extra Special Parents rewarded with a cash-back, but you’re rewarded too with a 5% discount every time you order £45 or more (excl. p&p) before 31st August 2006! Just remember to quote our source code SEX10033

We also have an affiliate agreement with AMAZON so that any purchases you make through the link we have provided will result in Extra Special Parents receiving a small commission. Amazon is a great value online retailer of Music, Books, DVDs, PC & Video games, Electronics & Photo, Home & Garden and Toys & Games. So save money on their great deals and help ESP at the same time.

Our other affiliate scheme is with eBay, every time you use the link and bid or buy it now, we receive a small commission, and if you don’t have an eBay account and sign up via the link we also receive a small commission.

EBay is the world’s most popular auction site, where you can pick up some terrific bargains for yourselves and your family and also sell all that stuff you no longer need.

TELL YOUR STORY

Some of you know the reasons why we started the Extra Special Parents website; how isolated we felt and how difficult we found it trying to find information and support for Willow’s congenital condition. We have been in touch with a press agency to tell our story to raise awareness not only of Willow’s condition but to promote ESP to more parents and carers who have had the same difficulties.

The agency has very kindly offered to hear stories from any of our members, if you wish to tell your story. If your story is printed in any of the newspapers or magazines, the agency will secure a payment to you for your trouble, usually in the region of £200.

Extra Special Parents is a closed forum, and non-members DO NOT have access to any posts you make, and we do not pass any of your details to anyone without your express permission.

If you would be interested in telling your story please email wiccababe and I can give you more details.

ESP 2 - THE SISTER SITE

The ESP forum has sprouted arms and legs over the last 6 months and so Graham has set up a sister site ESP2. At the moment it’s for photos of all our extra special mummies, daddy’s and other family members as well as a Hobby Corner. If you haven’t already joined ESP2, just click here and register using the same username as you use on ESP. And watch out in the coming months for more additions to the sister site.

COMPETITIONS

A huge congratulations to Emma (Emne) for getting the 10,000th post – and for the great timing of getting it on our 6 month anniversary of ESP going live.

And commiserations to all our other members who nearly made it.

The ESP Trivia Challenge is proving very popular with some of you, and there’s plenty of time to get great scores racked up for July, with a big box of choccies up for grabs for the highest scorer.

A new Caption Competition will start on Sunday so get those clever and funny captions in.

CELEBRATIONS

This week is National Transplant Week

Dannii and Daddy2Josh will be celebrating their 4th Wedding Anniversary on Thursday 13th July, here’s to many more years of happiness together.

Remember to post all your family birthdays and celebrations on the Calendar and we will help you celebrate

Graham Brockie & Debbi Robertson

The Management Team

www.extra-special-parents.org

We have been promoting the site to other award schemes this month at to date we have recieved 5 more, I am dead chuffed as one of them was specifically for Debbi. Now I know the awards are for the site, but Debbi deserved a special mention as she does all the research for the site, sends out all the emails and welcomes everyone as the arrive....... so here they are.