Jonathan Cooper Update

I am late again on the update, so let me tell you about our week. We had a great Memorial Day holiday. We went to a friend's house to swim on Monday. Usually Jonathan swims with his mask and snorkel tube in his mouth. This time, he got rid of the snorkel tube and just swam back and forth across the pool holding his breath. He did an awesome job! He has always been a great swimmer and we are seeing that slowly return. First thing at his therapy on Tuesday, his teacher practiced his walking. When she finished, her instructions to us were to begin walking without his walker and only holding on to his security belt. We already walk without the walker but we usually hold his hand. She said that is similar to using the walker because it provides something to lean on. With only holding the belt, he has to do all the walking, but we are still close to make sure he doesn't fall. She said this would fatigue him more because he would be doing it all by himself. Consequently, we have folded up the walker and put it away and have not used it since. On Thursday, he did great as usual in his pool therapy. After therapy, we went to pick up Jonathan's Grandpa Cooper and Uncle Chris who were returning from a trip to Israel. The first thing Grandpa Cooper told him was about a lady who lives in Israel, who came up to him and told him she had been praying for Jonathan after listening to Grandpa Cooper talk about him during Mrs. Criswell's Sunday School class on Sunday mornings over KCBI radio on the internet. The prayers offered up on Jonathan's behalf, all around the world, is still one of the most awesome, yet humbling parts of our experience. On Friday, we went to the mall for the first time without the wheelchair or the walker. We didn't stay long or go far, and we took lots of sit breaks, but it was a first for us. There are many times when Jonathan is very determined to be independent. And then there are times when he is very content to be dependent. We just try to capitalize on those determined times. We are on our way to reaching our July 4 goal. We continue to see improvement in Jonathan's singing voice, his breath control is better and his interaction with others is improving as well as his initiating activity with his sisters and on his own. He loves to play board games, card games, video games and he loves to color. We have also had more "regular" blood sugars this week. We have been more consistently under 200 since June 1. We are still working toward getting them to where they need to be.
I probably will not write again until after Tuesday, June 7, so I want to ask you to begin now to pray for our eye appointment on Tuesday morning at 9 am. While Jonathan's vision seems to be close to what it was before his illness, I know he needs some help visually. Please pray that Jonathan will be able to tell the doctor what he needs to in order to get an accurate diagnosis and exactly what he needs to help him. Pray for Dr. Beauchamp that he will be sensitive to Jonathan and his situation and that he will be able to explain to us what we need to know in terms that we can understand. We have committed this to the Lord, we are trusting completely in Him and believing that He is already working this situation for Jonathan's good and for His glory.
Thank you so much for faithfully keeping up to date with Jonathan's progress and for continuing to pray for him. Please continue to pray that his legs will gain strength and that his muscles will continue to get stronger. Pray for his determination to do things on his own. Pray that we will daily make progress toward reaching our goal of independent walking by July 4. Pray for his mental healing and healing of his vision and diabetes. Pray for our eye appointment on Tuesday. We thank God for all of you, for all that He has done and for all that He is going to do.