Jonathan Cooper Update

Hope everyone is have a great week. We are doing well here. We spent the entire weekend celebrating Elizabeth’s 13 th birthday. We officially have a teenager in the Cooper house! It was a fun weekend visiting with friends and family. Jonathan was very sweet and gave $5 of his own money plus a homemade card to Elizabeth for her birthday. We had a great day at worship on Sunday. Jonathan is getting along better and better on his own. I always enjoy the times he wants to walk and do things on his own without help. I still watch him in awe of the powerful miracle that God has performed in his life. This week, the kids are going to VBS with the neighbor children we took with us to our VBS. This church and their school have also prayed for Jonathan during his illness. They have been incredibly wonderful and very accommodating to Jonathan. They provided sugar free cookies and juice just for him and everyone has encouraged him and seems thrilled to have him there. It has been a great blessing and he has done very well. At therapy on Monday, Jonathan walked 20 minutes again on the treadmill, only this time he did it with only one brace on his right leg. We took the other one off to see how his left leg was doing without it. He still has a slight hyperextension, especially when it gets tired. We decided he probably needs to continue wearing both braces for right now. He did side steps and walked backward again 2 minutes each time. These difficult steps continue to improve each week. He was able to do 3 sets of squats on a higher elevation without any problem. After therapy we went swimming and had a great time. Jonathan gets more playful each time we go. It is good to see him play and swim, almost like he use to. Since we already had his Tuesday therapy scheduled for this week, we went ahead and kept his class today. Starting next week we will begin going on Tuesday and Thursday. Today his therapy was in the office. He did all his exercises on the exercise ball and then we tried some new things. She had him practice coming up on his toes and then going back on his heels. The toes are easier than the heels. That is something we can practice at home as well. Next he tried doing some lunges. His teacher put out some of the colored circles and he would do lunges with each leg as he stepped on each color. He did a great job with those for the first time. Next she got out the balance beam. She usually has to hold his hand to help him across this and today she did so as well. She had him walk the balance beam several times, each time trying to lessen her help. One of his goals is to walk across the beam without any help. We are going to make our own balance beam for home so that we can work on that more during the week. When he masters this, it will be a great accomplishment in his balancing. The last thing he did was jump on the colored circles on the floor. She said that the first time he did it, she really had to help lift him up to jump. Today, he did pretty much all of it on his own. He has already improved on his jumping! Jonathan continues to get better every week. Our goal right now is to really work on some things to help strengthen his ankles and his knees, so that we can work toward getting out of his braces and finishing therapy as soon as possible.
Please continue to pray specifically for strength in Jonathan’s ankles and knees. Continue to pray for his weight gain, that it will level out and not hinder his progress. Please continue to pray for his bladder control at night. Last week, we had an extra two days in a row that Jonathan woke up dry. Pray that whatever needs to work in his brain to control that function would heal and begin to work. Please pray for us this weekend. On Thursday, we go to see our new endocrinologists. Pray that we will develop a good relationship with them and that we will continue to receive good care and information to manage Jonathan’s diabetes until the Lord blesses us with His healing. On Friday we go back to Our Children’s House at Baylor Hospital to visit Jonathan’s doctor and therapists. We will also try to determine if he will need a new pair of braces. Pray that we will have wisdom to know what to do. A lot will be determined based on the insurance coverage. I know that Jonathan will continue to bear witness to the awesome power of Almighty God and the power of the earnest prayers of God’s people. We continue to pray believing that God’s complete healing will be manifested in Jonathan’s life and we press on with that hope leading the way. Thank you for praying and believing with us.