Jonathan Cooper Update

I am so excited to share with you the great things that happened over this past week! I’m still so thankful for the blessing of making it through Awana last Wednesday night without any crying. We spent the day Thursday getting ready for our garage sale, which we had on Friday morning. Even at the garage sale, I had the opportunity to share with one of our neighbors about Jonathan, what has happened to him, and what God has done in his life this year. We always take every opportunity to bear witness to anyone who will listen of God’s amazing power and love. On Saturday, we spent the day in Ft. Worth with our family, celebrating Uncle Tim’s birthday. Uncle Tim was one of our family members who faithfully spent the night with Jonathan once a week while he was in the hospital. We are grateful for our Uncle Timmy and it was a blessing to be able to celebrate his birthday with him. During the afternoon, we went to play Putt-Putt. It was a beautiful afternoon and we had a great time. Jonathan was able to play the entire course without getting too tired. He very much enjoyed it and did very well squatting down to put his ball down, pushing back up, swinging his club and walking through the course. It was great exercise, plus it was a lot of fun. Sunday was full of wonderful new accomplishments for Jonathan. First of all, we weighed again on Sunday morning. We did not lose any weight, but we also did not gain any weight. So we will continue to work towards our goal of eating better and losing some weight. After church, Jonathan’s Sunday school class had a party in the gym. They ate pizza and played a bunch of games. Mr. Jim and Mrs. Shirley are his wonderful teachers, and they planned a great party for the kids, making sure that Jonathan had sugar free things to eat and drink, which I appreciate so very much. When it came time to play games, Jonathan wanted to play them all. Not once did I have to encourage him to play the games. He took the initiative to play each one on his own. One of the games was riding a scooter between red cones, picking up a straw hat, putting it on and getting back to the next person on the team. After the scooter, they pushed a beach ball between the cones with a plastic rake, doing the same kind of game. Jonathan’s team lost both times and he knew it was because he was too slow. But that didn’t seem to matter much to the other kids or to Jonathan. After that, they got in a circle and pretty much played dodge ball – if you got hit with the beach ball, you had to get out. Jonathan was a pretty easy target for that game, and he got out both times pretty quickly. The first time he got hit, it totally knocked him down to the ground. But he didn’t hurt himself; he just got up wanted to play again. Seth, One of the other boys decided it was his job to block Jonathan from getting hit the second time, which I thought was very sweet. After that game, they played a game with flag football flags and hats. Once your flags and hat were taken away or knocked off, you were out. Jonathan managed to make it to the end (with a little help from Mom maybe!). He and another girl, Lauren, both had one flag left. All the kids were cheering for him and she was so sweet to let him take her flag so that he won the game. It was such a neat moment for him and for me. I can’t tell you what a blessing it has been to be around these children. There’s not one of them who ever hesitates to help Jonathan with anything, or encourage him, or talk to him, or be his friend. Jonathan has been blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful children. We are so thankful for all of them. The last game they played was beach volleyball which they played sitting down. Needless to say, Jonathan was pretty worn out by the end of the party. I was so proud of him and how well he did playing all the games. After about an hour at home resting his feet, Jonathan went back to church for handbells and choir. I usually go pick him up from choir and bring him back to the sanctuary for a snack before church. This night, I was practicing some music for the service, and when the time came for me to go get him, I looked up to see that he had come to the sanctuary already. I looked around to find Sarah, but Jonathan was by himself, talking to his Daddy. The next thing I know, he is walking up the stairs in the balcony to go to the bathroom – By Himself! He came back and walked back down the stairs, back to his Daddy – By Himself! During the service, he sat with his Daddy while I sang in the Praise Team, then he met me downstairs in the lobby to go to service with me – By Himself! I can’t tell you how thrilling it was to see him take such initiative to do all of this on his own, without waiting for someone to help him do it. It was wonderful! What a Lord’s Day this was for us! Jonathan continues to do very well in school. He is adding and subtracting three digit numbers, reading a chapter book, working on contractions and learning new verses in Awana every week. Today was a great day at therapy. True to her word, Mrs. Dana took him right downstairs to the gym to start running on the treadmill. He was so excited about doing it, but got just a little nervous when he actually got to the treadmill. But Mrs. Dana handled him very well. After warming up on the treadmill for a few minutes, she stood behind him, held on to his gate belt, and turned up the speed. After telling him what to do, Jonathan ran for about 15-20 seconds at 3.5-3.7mph. It was his first time to run since last December. He ran three different times, about the same length of time, and stayed on the treadmill a total of 10 minutes. It almost totally wore him out, but he was proud and so were we. Back up in the office, Jonathan balanced on the balance board while throwing balls to Walker. After that, he practiced walking on the tape line on the floor. Overall, he did great, worked hard and accomplished something great today in therapy. God is truly good. God continues to manifest His healing power in Jonathan with each passing day. We are so thankful for the blessings this past week has brought us. I hope you will praise our gracious Lord for these blessings with us, as well as continue to lift Jonathan up in your prayers. Continue to pray, in Jesus name, for the complete healing of his body, his brain, his vision and his diabetes. Continue to pray, in Jesus name, for complete healing of his emotions and his memory. Please pray for him specifically on Thursday, 10-27-05 at 1:30 pm as he goes to the endocrinologist here in Lewisville. Once again, we will be seeing someone new, as well as having blood taken again. Pray for calmness for Jonathan, for a good relationship with a new doctor, for a good A1C (average blood sugar) and that he will have a good report all the way around. I am overwhelmed at God’s goodness to us and His faithfulness to see us through each step of this journey that we have been on this year. Thank you for holding us up in prayer and for all the words of encouragement that you faithfully send us. I stood with the Praise Team on Sunday evening, feeding on the faithfulness of God to our family as I sang the words of this hymn of praise that I leave you with tonight – “Then sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee, How great Thou art, How great Thou art!” The Lord bless each of you dear friends.