Jonathan Cooper Update

Our family is finally well! We are all back to good health and our normal schedule. It took us until about Valentine’s Day before we were all feeling good. Lamar stayed home Monday but went back to work the rest of the week. Jonathan took longer to perk up and finally started showing improvement on Tuesday evening. I finally got the house all cleaned and disinfected and we managed to get back to school on Thursday. We had to cancel drum practice last Monday but we are hoping to make it there tonight. Jonathan has missed his drum lessons these past couple of weeks. We had a great Valentine’s Day. The kids and I took the day off school (not like we hadn’t been off for a week already!) and went shopping so the girls could spend their Valentine money. We just had a great time hanging out together. Then we all went to dinner before going to church for the evening. Thursday Jonathan was back at basketball practice which he missed terribly the week before. On Friday, all the kids went to spend the night at a hotel with Aunt Keby which allowed Lamar and me to actually have a date for the first time in who knows when! Wow! We almost didn’t know what to do with ourselves. The kids always have such a great time with their Aunt Keby. She always does so much for them and for our family and we appreciate her more than we could ever express. Their hotel had an indoor pool, so they stayed in the pool quite a bit. Lamar and I got to have dinner together and go see a movie. It was such a nice time for us and it went by all too quickly. Jonathan had a basketball game on Saturday, so we all met up at his basketball game. I wish all of you could have been there for this particular game. It was the most awesome game yet! Jonathan was ever so ready to play as he had to miss the last week’s game. He had on his new blue sweat band that his Grandma Smith got him for Valentine’s Day. During the first half, Jonathan played in one of the periods. His whole team really played well, but Jonathan stayed very much in the middle of the game – guarding his man on defense and making sure he was in his place on offense. Jonathan’s place is usually on the right side of the basket. His team had the ball and one of his teammates took a shot from the left side of the basket. He over shot the basket and the ball fell right into Jonathan’s arms. Jonathan immediately took the ball and shot it back up for 2 points! We all jumped up and screamed! This was the second time this season that he has had the opportunity to shoot the ball as part of the game instead of just during a “J play.” It was beautiful! And we were beside ourselves with excitement. Jonathan was so proud that he came running back down the court with his hands out giving us all a high five. It was a priceless moment for all of us. There were several times when they ran the “J play” that Jonathan was not able to get the basket and he really had to fight for those plays. That’s okay. It’s good for him to have to fight for his points just like everyone else does. This game was a perfect example of what Upward is all about. There were a couple of guys on our team that had not scored yet and we watched as the coaches and the other guys on the team made it possible for these boys to make their baskets and feel like a vital part of the team. Upward is such a wonderful program that has made such an impact in Jonathan’s life and in our family’s life. Coach Ben, Coach Kevin and this team of boys are absolutely phenomenal. I wish you could watch them in action. They are keenly aware of the other kids on the team, especially those who need a little extra help. They help each other and encourage each other as they play. I have never hear or seen any one of them be unkind to any of their teammates. They are all awesome and we have been tremendously blessed by them. Before the game was over, Jonathan got bumped from behind and was knocked down as he was running down the court. I saw it happen and I screamed but I knew his face didn’t hit the ground. He, of course, started to cry and his coaches were right there within seconds. I made it to half court, stood back, and watched Coach Ben talk him into getting back up and finishing the game. He didn’t get hurt, just a little scared I think. He responds to Coach Ben so well and I knew he would not want to leave the game. He loves to play too much. Coach Ben has the perfect combination of caring and coaching – he takes great care of Jonathan but he never babies him. He makes him work hard for everything he accomplishes and yet it is down with a tremendous amount of encouragement. Once again, God faithfully hand picked this man for this particular time in my son’s life. God is truly good. Well, we were back at church again yesterday. Jonathan got to audition for a part in the spring musical that his choir is going to be working on. We’ll see what happens. He seemed eager to try out this time and his teacher, Mrs. Noelle helped him audition, even though he was completely unprepared. He was pretty proud of his audition though.
Well, because we spent so much time getting over all our illness last week, there’s not much else to tell you. We are back on our school, diet, exercise, schedule this week and hopefully we will be able to stay there without any set backs or interruptions. As I spent time with the Lord this morning, I focused on some specific requests for Jonathan for this week that I will share with you. We are so thankful that even though we were all sick, we all were able to still lose a little weight. Jonathan is down to 122 now. Our goal for February was to lose another 5 pounds. We have 1 ½ weeks to lose 2 pounds in order to reach our goal. Please pray with us that God will be gracious and allow him to meet that goal. He is very thrilled with his progress. He was able to wear a pair of pants to church yesterday that button that he has not been able to get into recently. He has been able to tighten his belt tighter and has to wear a belt with some of his pants. He is tucking his shirts in and is excited about how much slimmer he is looking. Please pray that this will continue. We also wanted to lower his insulin some more this month, but that may not happen. We have been at 32 units at night for some time now. During the week that he was sick, his blood sugars were pretty high most of the time. He was also on medication for 10 days and I think that had something to do with it. We finished the medicine last night, so I am praying that God will specifically give us some of those wonderful low blood sugars again this week. He was down this morning but he seems to jump up quite a bit between breakfast and lunch. I’m not sure why this happens. If any of our diabetic friends out there could shed some light on that for me, I would greatly appreciate it. We are still drinking our protein shakes for breakfast and lunch. So please pray specifically that his blood sugars will drop back down to normal and that if God would bless us, that we might be able to drop the insulin down some more. That would be awesome. One other specific thing for you to pray about is his sleeping. Jonathan is doing “okay” without his medication. Some nights he will only wake up once or twice, other nights he will wake up a number of times. Each time is very brief and nothing too major, but he is still getting up. Please pray that God will heal him of this. I still have not started him back on the medicine yet. I just keep giving it one more night to see if it starts to get better. Please pray that I will be wise with this and know if and when to start him on the medicine again or if I need to just wait it out a little longer. Thank you so much for your precious friendship and for your wonderful faithful prayers for our sweet boy and our family. Thank you for praying with us and Believing God with us for these great things in Jonathan’s life. May God richly bless you this week. We love you all!

Matthew 9:27-30 - As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, "Have mercy on us, Son of David!" When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" "Yes, Lord," they replied. 29 Then he touched their eyes and said, "According to your faith will it be done to you"; and their sight was restored.