Jonathan Cooper Update

We have enjoyed another good week this past week. It was very busy, but good. We spent most of last week celebrating Sarah’s 12 th birthday. Her birthday was Wednesday, so after school and before we went to church, we spent some time shopping, making brownies and going to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner. It was a fun day. Jonathan did well at Chuck E. Cheese, getting up and playing games and using up all his tokens. After that, we went to Awana. Jonathan is still having a difficult time leaving Mom to go to his classes. He does just fine until we drive up to the church, and then you can just see his countenance change to worry, and then come the tears. He will try to keep from crying, but no matter how much I try to take his mind off of it, he eventually starts to cry. We are so blessed, though, to have several people who walk with him, sit with him and work with him to help him successfully make it through the evening. We are so grateful for Mrs. Rhonda, Mr. Terry and Mrs. Lori. They show him so much love and care while he is with them. I know I can leave him with them and he will be well taken care of. I know it is good for him to be away from me and I want him to build up his confidence again to know that he can do things on his own, but it is always difficult to leave him crying – it always has been. But other than that, he is doing exceptionally well in Awana. He is saying verses every week and is about to finish the first full section in his book. He is also doing very well in school. His writing, reading and math are getting better every day. He is also remembering the things we are working on pretty well. On Friday, we spent most of the day getting ready for the sleep over that Sarah was going to have with her friends. Jonathan helped us all clean house and get the camper ready for the girls to sleep in. Even though they were all girls, Jonathan was thrilled to hang out with them while they were listening to music, singing and dancing around. We built a fire in the fire pit in our back yard and sat out there with Aunt Keby who was there to help with the party. It was a fun evening, and all the girls were so sweet to talk with Jonathan and include him in what they were doing. On Saturday, after all the girlfriends left, we cleaned up and got ready to have all of our family over to celebrate Sarah’s birthday. Not a bad deal getting to party for 3 days just for one birthday! But we always love having all our family over, even though it is nothing more than complete chaos. We went to church on Sunday as usual, and even though Jonathan started to get upset just before going to Sunday School, he stopped as soon as he got into class and was just fine. God has been gracious to give Jonathan Mr. Jim and Mrs. Shirley as his teachers. He has looked forward to having them as teachers for several years. He loves them and feels completely secure with them. What a blessing it is to have people like them at this exact time in Jonathan’s life. He continues to go to handbells and choir each week and is doing pretty well in them. We spent all last week trying to make a conscious effort to work on eating better in hopes of losing some weight. We decided to make Sunday our day to weigh in, so on Sunday morning, Jonathan got on the scales. We were a little disappointed to find out that he gained about 4 pounds in the last couple of weeks instead of losing any. But we will not be discouraged, we will just continue to work towards our goal and pray, believing, that God will help us accomplish this goal as well. We have had a very good week as far as blood sugars go. We are really working on trying to move around on the sites where we give him his shots, so that his body will absorb the insulin better. It has had a significant impact on his blood sugar levels, so we are glad to have made this discovery. He has consistently stayed much closer to normal than he has ever been before, so we are thankful for that. We continue to do therapy time at home each afternoon. Jonathan continues to work hard and improve on his balance and strength each day. We are trying to take a walk as a family in the evenings while the weather is nice enough to do so. We took a walk Monday evening, and Jonathan worked hard at keeping up a steady, quick pace. He pushed really hard at the end and walked his fastest pace back to our house. He did great. Today was our first day at therapy with Mrs. Dana back. She took him downstairs to see how he was doing on the treadmill. She started it at 2.0 mph which I think is faster than he was doing when she left. After a couple of minutes, he told her he could go faster so she took it up to 2.3 mph. After another couple of minutes, he told her he could go even faster, so she took it up to 2.5 mph and he walked at least 7 minutes at that pace without stopping. That was the best he has ever done on the treadmill. Mrs. Dana said she was very confident in watching him walk around on his own. She said she was not fearful anymore watching him walk. She said his greatest need right now is balance and she really wants to focus on that. She asked me what kind of plan we had in mind, so I shared with her that our goal has been to be finished with therapy by Christmas. She said that was a good plan, so that gives us about 8-9 more weeks of work with the therapist. I pray that we can accomplish a great deal in those weeks. It’s kind of neat, though, to actually think of seeing the end of this part of his journey in the near future. After working in the gym, we went back upstairs and Mrs. Dana worked with Jonathan on his balance. Jonathan always tells me that he will never get out of therapy because he will never be able to walk on the balance beam by himself. That is one of the goals Mrs. Dana has for him. After telling her that today, she watched him walk across the tape on the floor, then she got out the balance beam and began to instruct him on how to shift his weight on the right leg to keep his balance and not fall off. This was the first time that anyone has told him how to actually do this exercise, so that was a real positive thing. Now we can work on that at home as well. He also got to ride a scooter that someone had donated, up and down the hall. It was a bigger, fatter scooter, but he was able to do it pretty well. He had to do it on both legs, one of which is harder than the other. And, of course, all during his therapy, Jonathan served as a welcome distraction for little Jenna who was trying to eat again, and was not real happy about it. He and Mrs. Dana even sang for her to help her not cry. Everyone in the entire office heard it too! Mrs. Dana told Jonathan that she had missed him and she was very proud of how well he was doing.
We are so proud of Jonathan. God continues to hear our prayers, answer them and bless us with so many good things. Please continue to pray for Jonathan. Please pray for continued strength in his legs, hips, and ankles. Pray that his endurance will continue to increase. Pray that his feet will straighten out and that he will be able to walk on them correctly. Pray that his learning will increase and his memory will continue to improve. Pray for healing of his vision and his diabetes. Please pray specifically that Jonathan will be able to lose some weight. Our goal is 5 pounds this month. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but most of us know how tough just 5 pounds can be. Pray that we will be diligent and disciplined as we help him try to accomplish this goal. Please continue to pray specifically for his emotional healing. Pray that he will be able to think of ways to handle situations before crying, and that he will be able to leave Mom and do things without having to have his family with him. Pray that he will grow more confident in his ability to do things on his own. Also pray that we will be able to see significant improvement and accomplishment during these last weeks of therapy. Thank you so much for your continued prayer support for us. We are grateful for each of you who hold us up with your prayers. We continue to trust in the Lord, stand on His promises, and pray believing that we will see Jonathan’s complete healing revealed. Thank you for believing with us. Isaiah 40:28-31 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. 29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: 31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.