Great Few Days

This has been a great few days with Luke. He is making a new sound now...it sounds like a "tooting" sound. It is really cute! The amazing thing is now he can close his lips...which he has not been able to do. I am happy to say, he also got his Wii. Although I am not sure who likes it more Luke or Mike. Luke is able to play the baseball, bowling, golf, and fishing games. He is good considering you have to hold a button down and move your hand. I think it is going to be great for him. Thanks to Gram and Pap for the late Christmas present! A cute Luke story is the other day he was laying on his bed in our room while I was getting ready. He had on his AFO's, which are boot like things that velcro on to prevent him from getting foot drop. I heard the velcro sound, and turned around and the little guy had taken off one of his AFO's. This just shows how smart and strong he is!

This has been an encouraging few days for us also. Greg, one of Luke's great physical therapists, came on Friday. He told Mike when he was 12, him and his friend were playing with a flag pole. It ended up falling over on his friend. His friend was in a coma for six months. The encouraging part is...he heard from him recently and he was skiing in Park City, Utah. See...anything is possible if you believe! Then, yesterday, I took Luke for an evaluation at a therapy place called Sirri. The guy was very impressed with how much Luke was cognitively there. Basically he said cognitively he is your typical seven year old boy, we just have to get his body to work. He said the cognition part is HUGE after a brain injury, because it is harder to get back.

Thanks so much for the prayers...please continue to pray for continued restoration with Luke, pray for guidance for us as we pursue different treatment options..we just don't want to end up throwing money away, we want things that will work, and most importantly Believe in this miracle we are watching...The LORD is good, a strong refuge when trouble comes. He is close to those who trust in him. Nahum 1:7 NLT

I can not get the picture to upload so next time hopefully it will work!

Lots of Research

Not too much new to report this week. Luke has been working on being on all fours in a crawling position. I will say he is getting a lot stronger, but we still do have to give him a lot of support. We are continuing to do a lot of home therapy on the left side, and I can tell it is working...slowly, but surely. Luke started therapy this week with his second Physical Therapist. He made Lynsey's day when he said we should get Luke a Wii. He uses it with some of his other kids and it works on coordination without the kids even knowing they are getting therapy. Of course, it will be a lot easier to do once his eyes are open. He also suggested possibly trying horse therapy for Luke. He said that also helps with coordination and balance. Mainly I have been spending this week researching different things. Thank God for the internet! I can't even imagine not having access to so much info in a situation like this. Anyway, as you can imagine, I have lots of moms who are going through similar things as us. I have been following one kid who is a near drowning child here in Gilbert. His mom Lindsey is super sweet and has been an inspiration to me. If you get a chance, check out her site at www.prayforsantana.org and say a prayer for Santana. Since Luke was hurt I have had numerous people tell me to check out stem cell therapy or umbilical cord blood therapy. For whatever reason, it has been in the back of my head, but I never really did anything about it...until this week when I saw Lindsey write about it on Santana's blog. I have found some AMAZING results with this therapy in my research. The only bad thing is it is experimental and not readily available in the US (and probably will not be for a long time.) I have found numerous doctors that will do it outside of the US. One of the doctors is getting Luke's MRI and CT Scans to see if he would even be a candidate for it. So, please pray for guidance for us if this is the direction we need to go with Luke. I just want to be able to say at the end of every single day for however long it takes, that I have done EVERYTHING I can do to get him better because I KNOW we will get to that point. Believe and please pray for continued restoration. "Then Jesus told his disciples that they should always pray and NOT give up." Luke 18:1 (I promise a new picture the next time I post.)

On the right track...

Just wanted to post a quick update. Luke's new thing is he has a new board to show us some of his tricks. It is basically a felt board that we velcro different shapes to. Then we give him questions to answer. He loves to do it!! He also has a board the speech therapist brought that he can point to pictures showing he is hungry, thirsty, etc. Yesterday at acupunture he held his head up for almost the entire time...at least for 20 minutes which is the longest I have ever seen him do it. He also had the cutest giggle/laugh sound he did quite a bit yesterday. He is getting a lot more vocal..pray for speech soon! Also, on Tuesday, my aunt Kelli came to work with him. I ran a few errands, and when I came back she had him drinking from the straw. Although, he does not like to do it for us...so we are going to keep working on that. I think it is just the typical kid thing being stubborn for mom. He has a new trick he does with his hand...which basically shows he is getting his wrist rotation back on the right side. It makes it a lot easier for him to try to throw a ball. Next week he will start getting Physical Therapy twice a week which I am excited about...plus with this Utah program they now want us to try to do it four times a day...if only there were 36 hours in a day instead of 24! Once again I want to thank the many prayer warriors that continually pray for Luke. God has already brought Luke farther than anyone thought he could go - and I, for one, believe He is just getting started! Please continue to pray for Luke's restoration - God hears and "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." Matt: 21:22..BELIEVE!

More new things...

Luke continues to do new things this week..Praise God and all of you who continue to pray without ceasing! This week he is making new sounds with his mouth...a clicking sound. We still do not have any words so please pray for words to come soon. In the stages of speech, sounds that mean different things comes before words, and that is where he is at now. We can definetly tell if it is a happy sound or mad sound. He is also becoming an expert at pinching food in his fingers and putting it in his mouth, and does great with a sucker. One of my favorite things is when you ask him for a hug, he will now also give you a few pats on your back:) He is helping us out at home with grabbing doors and closing them on the way out, and also pushing the button to open the garage door. This week with the flash cards instead of giving him 2 cards and telling him to pick one, I made the questions harder. I would tell him to pick the card of the animal that swims in water (fish,) or the card of the animal Mommy does not like (mouse.) He gets them correct every time. His left side is responding great to the increase in activity we are doing. I really think it will be moving on its own in no time. The picture is Luke on his old Big Wheel at Nana and Papa's house. It shows how good he is holding up his head. Thanks so much for the continued prayers and support...please pray for continued restoration in Luke's brain and for speech and movement to come soon! But blessed are those who trust in the LORD and have made the LORD their hope and confidence. Jeremiah 17:7 NLT We are so blessed to be slowly but surely getting our Lukey back. Believe!

Luke Showing Off!

Well here is Luke doing his latest new trick...holding up his head! Actually it is more like lifting up his head. Last night Mike was laying down by him, when Luke decided to show off. We were all thrilled and cheering for him so of course he got the biggest grin. Lynsey said, "Mom, you need to make sure and put this on the web site." Is she a proud sister or what? He has also become quite the pro at arm wrestling; he is strong too! I knew 2008 was going to be great...so far so good! Thanks so much for the prayers...they are working. So please continue to pray for continued restoration of brain function in Luke. If He can calm a storm, walk on water, make a blind man see, surely He can restore our precious Lukey! Believe! This is from a book I am reading; I think it is so true..."We must continue to pray and "wait for the Lord" (Isa. 8:17), until we hear the sound of His mighty rain. There is no reason why we should not ask for great things. Without a doubt, we will receive them if we ask in faith, having the courage to wait with patient perseverance for Him, and meanwhile doing those things that are within our power to do."

Great Day!

Today Luke had two visits, the first was with his eye dr and the second was with the evaluators from the NACD, the program we have been following for Luke. This morning in my inbox was this verse: Plans go wrong for lack of advice; many advisers bring success. Proverbs 15:22 NLT. It couldn't have been more appropriate for a day of appointments! So, it was my prayer this morning that I would be shown we have the right "advisers" for Luke. At the eye appointment, we were told the same thing we have been told for 4 months now...give it one more month, then we will discuss surgery. This was fine with me because I truly feel his eyes are going to open on their own. It was at the next appointment with Allison from the NACD that I got the answer to my morning prayer. This lady was awesome! It was the first time she had seen Luke in person instead of reading the reports I send her or the videos we do of him. He really showed off to her in a big way! She spent an hour doing different things with him on the floor. She had tears in her eyes when she told me how amazed she was at everything he was doing. Keep in mind this is a lady (who I am guessing is in her early 40's that had a stroke 10 years ago,) so she has been where Luke is. She told me her arm was bent just the way Luke's is now for 2 1/2 years...today you would never know. Anyway, after evaluating Luke and giving him different "tests" she asked Luke, how would you like to be able to walk again? He got a big grin on his face! She looked right at me and said, "He is going to walk again someday!" It was then I got tears in my eyes too. Of course, if you have been following this blog for anytime at all, you know that I BELIEVE this! She told me she truly believes Luke is in there 100%, we just have to get his body to respond. Now, every other dr that has seen Luke, looks at me like I have fallen off the deep end when I tell them how much he knows because he shows us. Well today she took the time (I was there for almost 2 hours) to let Luke show her how much he knows (something doctors just do not do in a 10 minute visit.) So, she is going to make some changes to the program, and it is up to us to follow it. I have to admit, as I did to her, that the last few months we have not been so good about it...but that is my New Year's resolution...and all this hard work will more than be worth the reward at the end. As she said, you can work out 3 times a week for 30 minutes a day, or you can work out 7 days a week for 4 hours a day, which program is going to get you better and quicker results! She definetly gave me a renewed commitment to Luke's workouts...she is living proof that it works. She told Luke that he is her new favorite client, and said she can not wait until she sees him in April because she knows he will amaze her once again. It is just so good to have someone on our side. We have seen numerous doctors, none of whom have given us any guidance on what to do with Luke, except for therapy (which is only an hour of each a week.) However, this program gives us guidance, and they have seen results. I don't think another mom could look me in the eye and tell me my son will walk again unless she BELIEVED it without a doubt. I can not tell you how good it feels to have someone on my side, not someone looking at me like I have completely lost my marbles.

Now the Luke story of the week...I had to get the carpet cleaner to clean Lynsey's carpet after she got sick from having a few too many creme puffs on NY Eve. Luke was in there with us so I told him what I was going to do and it would be loud. Lynsey said, "Mom, look he's plugging his ear." Sure enough, I looked over and his finger was in his ear....I promise he knows everything. So to that I found this...For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?... Isaiah 43:19 NLT I am just glad we have someone who DOES see it! So far 2008 is proving to be great...there is a light at the end of this tunnel.....BELIEVE!

New Beginnings...

There is nothing like a new year to get you off to a fresh start! That is truly what I feel today is for Luke...a new beginning! He proved that to us this morning when he was watching (listening) to a show on TV. They were saying to clap. Mike told Luke to do it and sure enough he did. Although his left hand still barely will move, he brought his right hand over to clap on top of his left. I am telling you...this kid knows EVERYTHING. We just have to get that body to come around. He is also getting a much better aim at feeding himself with a fork or spoon. We just put the food on it and let him put it in his mouth.

I must say I have never been so happy for a year to end! We all even made it up until midnight last night to bring in 2008. However, I would be remiss if we reflected on 2007 and didn't mention the many prayer warriors who were out there lifting us up on a daily basis. Our friends, family, and even perfect strangers loved us enough to pray for Luke's recovery. Many of you are still praying and we are so grateful for you. We will never be able to convey the gratitude in our hearts for you. I can only say "I thank my God every time I remember you." (Philippians 1:3) There are many days that we may not have made it through if it hadn't been for the love and prayers from all of you - again we thank you and we look forward to celebrating the many miracles God has planned for Luke with you.

This Friday Luke has two appointments, the first is with the eye doctor. Please pray for wisdom as to what will be done to open his eyes. Then after that, we have another one-on-one evaluation with the group from Utah. We thank you for continuing to pray for Luke's restoration - for we know that God hears! We love you and wish you a blessed New Year! I know 2008 is going to be great...believe!