Great Day!

First of all, I have to say, Luke has been responding so much these last three days! Today we had a great visit with the President of the NACD, Mr. Doman. If you remember, this is the therapy program from Utah that we have been doing with Luke. Every three months, they come into AZ to evaluate the kids that are on their program. We feel so good about the progress Luke is making after talking to him today. He has worked with over 30,000 kids with brain injuries in his time and told some great stories of remarkable recovery. The best part is he is very approachable, very humble, unlike most of the doctors we have dealt with who think they are King of the World. He said Luke is definitely headed in the right direction. He is going to make us a new program to start doing with Luke. He also advised us to wait before doing any surgeries just yet on his eyes. He has seen them open even after it has been this long. He told us just to open and close them all day until we are sick of doing it, that way we stimulate his vision. We kind of did a little experiment with his vision last week, since we really have no way of telling whether or not Luke can see. Mike had been gone for a week hunting. When he got home, he walked over to Luke, and I opened his eyes. As soon as he saw Mike, he started crying. Mike did not talk, so I believe he can see!

Other than that, we did take Luke to therapy last week, but after the conversation with Mr. Doman today we most likely will not take him back. Like he said, how much good is going to come from 1 hour of PT and OT a week. Besides we did not have the greatest experience. It just breaks my heart to have people working with Luke when their heart really is not in it. We were in each session for an hour. First of all, they just laid Luke on the dirty carpet, no mat or nothing. Then both therapists were looking at their watch every 10 minutes, just like they were waiting for the session to end. So, we are just going to concentrate full force on the Utah program because I strongly feel this (and the oxygen therapy) is the answer to all of our prayers for getting Luke back to the little boy God made him to be!

One more little story to tell. My cousin, Jeff, who is in the Air Force, just returned to the U.S. after serving our country in Afghanistan. Earlier this week, Luke received a package in the mail from him. Inside was the absolute coolest thing, it brought tears to my eyes! Jeff had requested that a flag be flown in Luke's honor while he was in Afghanistan. Luke received the flag that was flown (on July 4th no less!,) folded the special way, and framed with a certificate that says, "These Stars and Stripes were proudly flown on Independence Day, the 4th day of July, 2007, over the new Craig Joint Theater Hospital at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan in your honor at the request of SrA Jeff Anke. Isn't that so special...thank you so much Jeff! And thanks to all of you for your continued prayers. Believe...there is a light at the end of this tunnel!