Jonathan Cooper Update

Wow! I feel like it has been ages since I have updated! It’s not that there isn’t anything to write about, it’s just that we are getting to live our lives and there are always things to do. One of the biggest perspective changes for me over these last two years has been how I view each day of life. Every day is such a precious treasure. I wake up each day thankful that we are all together at home and we are well. I go through my day doing all the things that are considered “normal, everyday stuff”. And then I go to bed with all of my family tucked in around me, usually very tired, but always so thankful that we are together at home at the end of our day. I pray that this perspective never goes away. Again, I believe that I am the most blessed person on the face of the earth. Well, since it’s been forever since I’ve updated, let me see if I can even remember what has been happening in our lives enough to share with you! Let’s see, back on Tuesday, May 15, we had our last horse therapy session for the season. We didn’t actually know it was our last one until later that week. Those emails telling us that the season is over are usually the most disappointing news we get. I wish I could adequately express how much we love going to horse therapy. Usually those two words are never used in the same sentence…love and therapy. But with horse therapy, it’s completely different. We love everything about it. It has been such a tremendous blessing not only for Jonathan but for our entire family. Jonathan has made so much progress this season. So far, this year has yielded the most progress in all areas of Jonathan’s life since his illness. It has been exciting to see the progress he has in so many different areas. He was really beginning to make some headway with handling Lolly on his own without Mrs. Julie’s assistance. I hate it that we had to stop at this point. Nevertheless, God is in control of Jonathan’s life and His timing, of course, is always perfect. We will miss Mrs. Julie and Lolly for the summer, but we are already anticipating the season beginning in September. I can’t wait to see what God has in store for Jonathan then! On Wednesday, May 16, Jonathan received his award for finishing his third TNT Book in Awana. I hope you have had a chance to see the new pictures we posted. The last couple of pictures are of his Awana class. He had two awesome teachers this year who really stepped in and helped make this a great year for Jonathan. He participated in every aspect of Awana, even game time. We are so thankful for Sam and Billy and for the great job that Jonathan did on his memory work this year. On Friday of that week, Jonathan officially finished school. Sarah officially finished her school work the next week and Elizabeth finished her work last week. So as of this post, today is our first official day of summer vacation for everyone! Yippee! I love summer vacation! Most people think summer vacation is for the kids, but when you home school, summer vacation is for the Mom! We had such a wonderful, relaxing summer last year and I am praying and hoping for another great time of hanging out together with the three most awesome kids in the whole world. On Monday, May 21, we were in Ft. Worth celebrating Cousin Brent’s 3rd birthday, and on Thursday, May 24, everyone was at our house celebrating Jonathan’s birthday. We had a great time on Jonathan’s birthday. We spent the morning celebrating with Aunt Keby because she had to go out of town later that day. Then we all watched Shrek 2 in the afternoon while we waited for everyone to come over. We had dinner at Chick-fil-a and then cake and presents after that. Jonathan got lots of neat things for this birthday. The most important things he got were a new splash cymbal and stand and a new drum stool for his set. Uncle Timmy helped him put it all together and they worked on some drum things while Timmy was over. I wish you could hear Jonathan play the drums. He is sounding so good and week after week, he is able to accomplish one new rhythm after another. It’s so exciting to hear him play. I know that God is going to use this in Jonathan’s life and service to Him and I can’t wait to watch that unfold. I hope you enjoyed the pictures from the Easter concert that we posted in the album. Those are special pictures that we will always treasure. It was a great opportunity for Jonathan to get to play, but the most special part of that experience was playing next to his awesome Uncle. God is so very good. Hopefully one day we will be able to put a little video clip of one of the songs he got to play on. It will bring a smile to your face to hear it. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to go camping this year for Memorial Day weekend, but we did have dinner at our house with Uncle Timmy and Aunt Keby. We taught Uncle Timmy how to play the Wii and we had a lot of fun together. Right now we are spending our days getting up later, doing random things around the house that need to be done, and getting Elizabeth and Sarah ready for their very first Choir Tours. Sarah will leave this Sunday, June 10 and Elizabeth will leave a week from Friday, June 15. They are both very excited about their trips. We are praying that God will make Himself known to them in a very personal way. We hope you will join us in praying for them as they go and serve Him during these trips. There will be a couple of days that Jonathan is by himself and it will be very quiet at home without his sisters. Please pray that he will be able to handle their being away without any problem. We have such a close knit family and we will miss the girls a lot while they are gone. Jonathan will get to go to Upward Basketball Camp next week during the afternoons. Even though Elizabeth will still be in town most of that week, Jonathan may be going on his own to camp each afternoon for the first time. He knows he can do this on his own, but he seems somewhat insecure about it. Doing things on his own has been a very slow process for Jonathan. He just likes knowing he is in the same general area as the rest of his family. So this will be a big deal for him if he is able to go to camp by himself. I hope you’ll keep that in your prayers as you pray for him over the next week. We are still going to the gym and working out every day. Jonathan is still at 115 pounds. We are still on the same diet we have been on since the beginning of the year. We hope to see him begin to lose again soon. He looks good and he is sliming up. He is able now to wear pants and shorts that button/zip instead of having to wear ones with elastic waists. He even has to wear a belt with some of them so they won’t fall off. He is getting taller and his ring is getting to be too big for his finger. We are thankful for his progress so far this year and pray that God will allow us to reach 100 pounds by the end of the year.
Well, that’s about all there is to tell you. Thanks for checking on us and for waiting for me to update. We are doing well. We are living life and we are thankful for it. I remember praying, after Jonathan got out of the hospital, that God would restore to our family the time we were apart during his illness and rehabilitation. More than two years later, He is still answering that prayer. God has removed every outside distraction from us and allowed us to focus our time and attention upon our family. Although that has not always been easy on us, I see God’s hand of provision in it and it has brought a peace and a healing to our family that we would otherwise have never known. Oh how blessed it is to be at rest in the center of God’s will. As always, we are so thankful for your prayers for Jonathan and for our family. Please continue to pray for Jonathan’s progress in losing weight. Pray that he will remain diligent in his exercise and that God will allow us to see more weight loss begin again soon. Pray for me as I search for an endocrinologist. I need to have one chosen by July 1 so we can get to the doctor as soon as our new insurance takes effect. There still has been no word from Scottish Rite. Please pray that we will hear from them soon if this is what God desires to use to correct Jonathan’s foot/walking. Pray that I will trust Him to use the means that He desires for Jonathan’s healing and that I will wait patiently on Him. Also, please pray for Jonathan’s sleeping. Since the last time we tried to take him off his medicine, we have only been giving him ½ of a pill each night. He has slept perfectly with that small amount. On June 1, we decided to try again to take him off of the medicine completely. So far he is doing well. He has only woken up briefly one time each night for these four nights. I was told it takes about 2 weeks to get completely out of his system, so please pray for him that he will be able to sleep soundly each night without the medication, even after it is completely out of his system. Please pray for Elizabeth and Sarah as they leave to serve the Lord on their Choir Tours. And pray for Jonathan as well while they are gone. We love each of you and are so blessed by your love and prayers for us. May God pour out His most precious blessings on you this day because you are such a blessing to us. We love you all.

Ephesians 1:3-6 - Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love H predestined us to be adopted as Hs sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with Hs pleasure and will--to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves.