Jonathan Cooper Update

The Lord has blessed us with yet another good week. It is such a blessing to be able to live our lives each day – a blessing not to be taken for granted. Jonathan is still doing very well. He is doing such a great job in school. Every day, he reads better, writes better, and continues to tackle each skill he is working on without much trouble. He is adding and subtracting large numbers and he is working on the past tense of regular and irregular verbs. He is on the third chapter of a chapter book that he is reading and we are working on comprehending what he reads and being able to retell what he has just read. Because his reading is rather choppy, sometimes it is very difficult to remember the details of what he just read. But we work on it every day and each day it gets a little better. He is doing a phenomenal job memorizing his verses in Awana. He is on the third section of his book and he learns at least 2-3 new verses each week. While he is doing very well with the routine that we have established for Awana, I caught a glimpse of how much he relies on that routine and how fearful he gets if it appears to change in any way. Last Wednesday, he began to get upset and start to cry because I was standing outside the door of his classroom talking with someone while he was sitting in a chair, just feet from the door where I was standing. After verse time, when I was about to leave, he began to get upset again because Mr. Terry was not there. But by the time we got down to the gym, he had calmed down and I was able to leave him in the gym until Mr. Terry got there. So even the smallest change is difficult for him to handle. We probably still have a long way to go on this issue, but we’ll keep working on it. Mr. Terry had to tell Jonathan that he is going to be gone for a couple of months because of his work. Jonathan has come to love and rely on Mr. Terry very much, so he is a little concerned that he is going to be gone. However, his wife, Mrs. Lori has promised to take his place and help Jonathan work on his basketball skills during game time, which is what Mr. Terry does. It’s amazing how much Mr. Terry has been able to encourage Jonathan to get up and do things. He even got him to walk up the stairs to devotion time instead of ride the elevator. We are going to miss Mr. Terry terribly, and we will be looking forward to his return. Speaking of basketball, the new Upward Basketball year is just around the corner. On Friday evening, Jonathan and Sarah went to the evaluation that is held before the teams are formed. They had to dribble with each hand, do the side shuffle, and shoot baskets from three different angles. Jonathan did pretty well on the shuffle and dribbling with the right hand. The left hand was much more difficult. But he made at least 1-2 baskets on each angle. Although he is a little apprehensive about basketball, I think he is excited about the upcoming season. At least he is very open about the fact that he can’t wait to get the uniform! Not much happened over the weekend. After being gone so much the last weekend, it was nice to stay home this weekend. Jonathan weighed in at 110 on Sunday. We actually went down a pound! Sunday also marked 1 week that we have been taking the oral medication to help with his insulin. We were told that it would take about 6 weeks before we would start seeing some results, but we have already started seeing much lower blood sugars, and have actually begun to back down a little on his insulin. Another interesting thing about this medicine is that even though he hates the way it tastes, he always remembers to tell me that he needs to take it, because I always seem to forget. There are many things that he can’t remember, but this is one thing he always seems to remember. On Monday, I got a call from Cooks with the results of his blood work. Jonathan’s A1C was 8.6 which is around what it was the last time (8.4). We expected it to be lower this time, so I’m not real sure why it wasn’t. It is suppose to be between 5-6, I think. They didn’t really have any comment about it one way or the other. As far as his thyroid and pituitary gland, both of those are functioning normally. Praise The Lord! After my initial instinct to worry about that, I remembered the promise that we received from the Lord for Jonathan’s complete healing, and I realized that in order for that promise to be true, those glands had to be functioning properly. So while I continued to pray for the results, I was able to confidently say that I knew they were just fine. Praise God for His faithfulness to fulfill His promises! Jonathan did such a great job today at therapy. He ran for a total of 2 minutes and 45 seconds! He ran for 1 minute two times and made it 45 seconds the third time at 4.0 mph. He said his knee was hurting him and I think he just got wore out that last time around. Back up in the office, he worked on balancing on one foot while throwing some colored rings, then he stood on a disc that is very difficult to balance on while throwing the discs. He also did some squats. The last thing he did was work walking on the tape line. He is still struggling with his balance on this. Mrs. Dana said it is not from weakness, but that it is probably because of the brain injury, with possibly some help from the vision issues. She kind of indicated that it may just always be like that. But we plan to continue working with him on that.
God is so very good. Each of you who pray regularly for Jonathan and for us, are so very important to us. I can’t tell you how much it encourages me to talk to you and know that you are still praying and keeping up with Jonathan. We rely so heavily on your prayers. Please continue to pray for Jonathan. Pray for continued healing of his brain, his vision and his diabetes. Pray that he will continue to excel in school and in understanding what he is learning. Pray that his memory will continue to improve. Please pray for strength in his ankles, knees, legs and hips. Pray specifically that his balance will improve, and whatever is causing it to be off will be healed. Continue to pray for his weight, his eating, and his blood sugar. Please pray specifically for his self confidence and his ability to do things on his own again. Also, please specifically pray for his sleeping. While he sleeps all night in his own bed, he wakes up crying many times each night. I don’t think he is always awake, and he always lays right back down and goes sound asleep again instantly, but something is causing him to cry. I don’t mean just a whine, but he cries hard many times. Consequently, that means that it has been a long while since I have had a night of uninterrupted sleep. Sometimes I will be up with him 4-5 times in an hour. So please pray for his sleeping to improve and whatever is causing him to cry would stop. Join us also in praising the Lord for the positive results we are seeing in the medication he is taking and in the results of the blood work that we received. We continue to trust God and believe in the healing that we have asked for, and we wait to see God reveal a little more each day. Joshua 21:45 Not one of the good promises which the LORD had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass. Great is Thy faithfulness!