Tuesday, August 23, 2005

The Lord continues to bless Jonathan and our entire family each and every day. Last week, Jonathan did as good a job at therapy as he always does. He worked very hard and continues to improve on his exercises. Ms. Heather always does lots of different things with Jonathan and he always leaves tired and very sweaty! On Wednesday, we made a trip to downtown Dallas to have the mold made for Jonathan’s braces. After we had that done, we stopped by Our Children’s House for a short visit. Jonathan seems to enjoy going back there to see his therapists, nurses and techs. He continues to amaze them all by his phenomenal progress and most of all by how much he talks. It is such a blessing to be able to go back and show so many people the awesome miracle of healing that the Lord has done in Jonathan. Right after Jonathan got out of the hospital and was able to go back to Sunday School, one of his memory verses was Mark 5:19 - Go home to your friends and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you. Every day, God gives us the opportunity to fulfill that Scripture. On Thursday we went swimming and on Friday, we got to go bowling with some other home school friends of ours. This was the first time that Jonathan has gone bowling this year. He was very excited about it and he did a very good job. He stood by and watched the other kids bowl, he could pick up his ball, walk to the lane and throw it down without any problem. It was so much fun to watch him play. He even got a spare one time and overall came in second place in his group. We actually spent the rest of the day on Friday buying a car. Our family has been looking and praying for some time for another car that would pull our camper better than the one we had before. Our other car would only allow us to go close by home and we had to pull the camper with that car and haul everything and everyone else in our other car. God provided the right one at a good price and we were able to purchase that on Friday. Jonathan loves cars so this was an exciting thing for him. We are thankful for the answered prayer. During the weeks that we have been praying for the car, we would tell the kids that God would let us know which car we needed. Many times, Jonathan would ask us, “Has God told you anything yet?” This is yet another opportunity for our family to see God work and answer our prayers. We stayed home on Saturday and went to church on Sunday. Jonathan continues to go to classes by himself and is doing an awesome job. On Sunday, he added a new class to his schedule – Handbells. He got to play handbells during Fine Arts camp and was very excited to get the letter that he was chosen to play on the team. He has one bell and the group learned to play “When the Saints Go Marching In.” I got to hear him play at the end of class and he was able to follow along and play at the right time almost every time. Everyone was very proud of him and he was very proud of himself. I always keep an eye on Jonathan when he walks to see if I notice anything new, good or bad. On Sunday, as we went from place to place at church, I noticed that Jonathan seemed to be walking very smoothly and very normal. I was very encouraged. Just a couple of weeks ago, I was concerned that we were seeing a little more hyperextension in his knees and I was fearful that we were regressing some. God has been very gracious to us in that He has never allowed us to regress in any way. We have always gone forward in this experience and we continue to move forward with His help. On Monday, we started school at our house. I felt completely unprepared to begin, but we just jumped in and got started. So far, after two days, we are doing very well. We are trying to settle into our school routine, which will still include therapy once a week. We are trying to still swim as much as we can these next couple of weeks before we have to give that up for the year. Swimming has been such a great thing for us this summer. Not only has it been fun, but it has been great therapy and exercise for Jonathan. We are so grateful for Mr. Brad who has let us use his pool as often as we wanted. We also started an exercise routine with Jonathan to do each day as part of our school routine. We made a list of all the things he does in therapy and will do them every other day of the week that he does not go to therapy. One of the hardest things for Jonathan is balancing with his feet close to each other in a straight line, kind of like he walking on a balance beam, but he is just standing still. When we practiced that on Monday, he was able to balance for at least 10 seconds on each foot! That is the best he has ever been able to do. We were very excited. Our very talented friend, Mr. Lyle, made Jonathan a balance board, just like the one at the therapy office, to use at home. Needless to say, Jonathan is not the only one in this family that is working on the balance board! Mom can be just as tough a therapist as the ladies at the OCH, but Jonathan works just as well at home as he does at the office (with maybe just a little more complaining, of which Mom conveniently ignores). Today we had therapy again. Jonathan worked very hard and continues to improve on many of his exercises. He is really improving on his balance, his squats, and walking on the balance beam. There is a balance board that has a game on the top of it. You have to balance correctly and get the ball to go around the maze into the middle to win. Jonathan has tried this before and got it half way to the finish. Today he tried it again and very skillfully balanced until he got the ball in the very center to win. Way to go Jonathan! We found out that Jonathan’s braces will be ready next Wednesday, so we will go have them fitted and have therapy next Wednesday. We are so thankful for all of God’s provisions in our lives.
Thank you for keeping up with Jonathan’s progress and for continuing to pray for him and our family. Please pray that we will really settle into a routine with school and exercising at home. Pray for a good attitude, for patience and peace for all of us as we begin a new school year. Even though there is so much to do, I can’t tell you how thankful I am to be at this place again. We missed this so much earlier this year. What a blessing it is to be home with our family. Continue to pray for strength in Jonathan’s legs, ankles and feet. Pray that as he progress in his exercise and mobility that it will help to control his weight. We are doing very well with the bed wetting alarm. Pray for continued success with that. Continue to pray for his complete healing of his brain, vision and diabetes. Pray that he will be able to handle all the new things he will learn this year in school. Pray for good health for our family. Continue to pray for God’s guidance and leading, for peace and protection for our family. We look forward each day to what God has in store for us and the great things that he is going to continue to do in Jonathan’s life and for us as a family. God bless each of you for your faithful prayers.

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