Jonathan Cooper Update

After a very busy beginning of the week last week, we have been able to slow down a bit since I last wrote. The weekend was very low key. We just stayed home pretty much most of the weekend and got some things done around our house. Jonathan did very well playing on his own or with his sisters while Mom and Dad worked in the yard most of the afternoon on Friday. One of our Aunts came over and Jonathan and the girls went with her to help wash our cars. Jonathan usually doesn’t go too many places unless Mom goes with him, but he went two different times to wash cars without Mom coming along. That was a nice change. On Saturday, we enjoyed watching Jonathan joke around and goof off more than we have in a long time. It was refreshing to see some of that goofy little boy in him that we used to enjoy a lot. We had much better, less emotional days over the weekend which was also nice. I guess maybe his extreme emotional days, and his unsteadiness last week may have been a result of our busy schedule. It is easy to forget that we must continue to take things at a slower pace than we use to, until he gets a little more strength and confidence. On Sunday, we went to our church in the morning and to First Baptist Dallas in the evening for a concert of hymns. Some of our Aunts and Uncles are in the choir and orchestra, and we always enjoy going to hear them sing and play. Jonathan has a strong desire to play the drums. This is not new, but he seems to talk about it an awful lot these days. Uncle Tim plays the drums, and after the concert, he let Jonathan play on the drums for a few minutes. He helped him out some, but Jonathan really sounded great! He is more determined than ever to have a drum set, so I’m sure we’ll be keeping that in mind. Over the weekend, we talked with Jonathan about working on losing some weight. We feel like if he can lose some of the weight he has put on, it will help bring his blood sugar down more regularly and help him in his therapy. He is very positive about it and has spent the last couple of days really trying to eat some different, healthier things in place of the things he usually eats. Our goal is to lose 5 pounds this month. Mom and Dad have decided that if Jonathan can do it, they will do it with him. So we are diligently working on reaching that goal. On Monday, we had lunch and visited with a friend of ours and her baby boy. It was nice to get out for a few hours and hang out with some of our friends. Plus, her husband plays the drums and they have a set at their house! So needless to say, there was much drum noise in the house that afternoon! Jonathan is still doing a very good job in school. He works very hard and never complains. There are times when we have to just put things down and pick them up the next day, because he just doesn’t get it. But when we pick it up the next day, he tries again and usually does fine. Today, he spent some time reading some books on his own. That was a first too. He usually doesn’t try any reading or writing without being asked to do it, since neither come very easy for him because of his vision. But he asked to spend time reading on his own twice today. So we are very pleased with his progress in school thus far. Monday night we decided to have Jonathan start sleeping again in his own bed in his room instead of in the bed that we have had in our room. He did fine, of course, so we plan to get rid of the bed in our room this weekend. He has also made it more than a week without any accidents at night. We are so thankful for these successes. Today was a big day in many ways for Jonathan at therapy. Mrs. Dana was back from maternity leave and today was our last day with Mrs. Heather. Jonathan has been very excited to have Mrs. Dana back, but we are going to miss Mrs. Heather a lot. Jonathan had Mrs. Heather for a couple of weeks right before we left the OCH in Dallas, so it has been great to have her again later on in the process. She has worked very diligently with Jonathan and we have seen great improvement in him during these last 2 months. God has faithfully hand picked all of our therapists to be just the right people that Jonathan needed for this process. Jonathan walked right in and walked several laps across the exercise mats in the gym. He was much stronger and much more stable this week than last week. He got to work on the platform swing again as well as jump on the mini trampoline, which he did last week but I think I forgot to share. Our friend that we visited on Monday has a mini trampoline that she is going to let us use to work with at home. Jonathan is able to jump very well on it on both feet as well as one foot at a time. He can practice running on it too. After that he did his exercises on the ball, did some squats while picking up things, walked on the balance line and balanced on both feet and one foot at a time. Another special thing at therapy today was that the speech therapist, Ms. Sarah, brought her dog Walker up to the office. This was his first day in the office as a therapy dog. So she let Jonathan work with Walker during his therapy today. Ms. Sarah would set a toy down in front of Jonathan, he would squat down to pick it up, throw it down the hall and Walker would go retrieve it and bring it back to Jonathan. Walker got to work on his skills while Jonathan worked on his too. Mrs. Heather has faithfully worked with Jonathan on getting up off the floor without holding on to anything. Today she worked with him on putting one leg up and pushing up on that knee to get up. We are so thankful for Mrs. Heather. Mrs. Dana will be back working with Jonathan next week. After dinner tonight, Jonathan got his scooter and we rode up and down our street once. He did a great job with it! He only fell twice, and they weren’t real bad falls either. But he was able to put both feet on the scooter and coast and he got pretty good speed both down and up hill. That will be very good exercise for him now that the weather is a little nicer to be out in. God has been good to us again this week and we are humbled and so very grateful for all that He helps Jonathan accomplish each week. I hope you will continue to lift him up in prayer. Please pray for our diligence and his determination to eat healthy and that God would bless us by allowing us to lose the 5 pounds we have set as a goal for this month. Pray that his blood sugar will be within normal range and that it will continue to improve as we work on his eating and activity level. Pray that he will continue to improve in school and will continue to initiate activities on his own. Pray that he will not resist doing things that he is asked to do because he thinks he can’t, but that he will approach things with a positive attitude and try, knowing that he can do all things through Christ who strengthens him. Continue to pray for his emotional healing. It has been evident that you have prayed for that this week because we have seen it get better with each passing day. There are still times when we have to deal with it, but they have not been as frequent and we are seeing more positive responses to situations instead of crying. Continue to pray for increased strength in his hips, legs and ankles. Pray for healing of his vision and his diabetes. We are so grateful for your continued prayers. We could not make it each week without your faithful intercession for us. Jonathan will recite this verse at Awana tomorrow and I leave you with it tonight.

Psalm 78:4 - We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and His strength, and His wonderful works that He hath done. We praise the name of the Lord!