Update

Once again...sorry for the lack of updates. Time just goes WAY TOO FAST!!! I seriously can not believe it is almost October!!! Anyway, Luke is doing great! He is still loving going to school. He gets to go bowling every other Friday, and I think this may be his favorite day:) He does still have behavior issues on occasion, but they seem to be getting better. We met with his speech therapist earlier this week, and she had some great suggestions for how to help Luke when he goes into what we call Luke #2 mode. The majority of his frustration seems to be coming from his lack of ability to communicate what he wants, and the fact that I do too much for him. So, we are working hard on giving him more of a say and also letting him do more. He is still going to the Aqua Therapy. We are going to try it for another few weeks before making a final decision on that. He did have his best week ever over there this week, so that was good:) Thanks for continuing to check in!!

Thanks Summer for the great quote:

"This mountain was not placed in front of you to defeat you, but to show you the great heights you can rise to!" -Margaret Byars

Brain Injury Assoc. Fundraiser

I wanted to pop on real quick to put something out there for Luke's Physical Therapist.

This is what he posted on facebook:

Hey everyone, I’m in a fundraiser for the brain injury assoc. most of you know that my mom suffered a brain injury and I work with a bunch of kids who also for fall into this category. click on the link and search for my name or team name if you would like to help out. the team name is “The Jive Turkeys”. if evryone one donated $1.00 it would be awesome. thanks a lot!
August 19 at 9:46pm · Like

PLEASE everyone! HELP this guy out! The team needs to raise $500! So easy to do if we all donated $1! Ummm… You will see I have not donated… Yet… And ummmm… Well… You have to have moola in the bank for your debit card to work… So He will get the change from my couch! =)

The funds raised goes DIRECTLY to the Brain Injury Association… Here is the direct link to his team… PLEASE donate to THE JIVE TURKEYS or they will not get the credit…
https://app.etapestry.com/fundraiser/BrainInjuryAssociationofAZ/bowling2010/team.do?participationRef=725.0.209509408

Please copy and paste this in an email and spread the word! Must be done SOON!

Thanks for supporting a Non profit that helps out people like Luke!

Remember...every little bit helps so please help out if you can:) Greg has been great with Luke and lots of other kids too like: www.prayforsantana.org.

An update on Luke next week:)

Time Flies

The saying,"Time Flies" for sure applies this month! I have no idea where the month of August went other than it just flew by!!! We have been busy, busy, busy. Luke continues to like school, although he is still having some behavior issues. He does not like having to do the work that comes with school. I pray he learns he has to do it, and will be nice for his teachers and aides. He had a little better week last week, but not perfect. He ended the week with a field trip going bowling. They actually do this as part of Special Olympics every other Friday, and Luke seems to really enjoy it.

We are going to be switching up his therapy/trying new things for the month of September. We are going to try a therapy place that is right here in Queen Creek that offers water therapy. I took Luke for an eval a few weeks ago, and the PT there really felt Luke could benefit from it. He said one hour of water therapy is the same as doing 5-10 hours of regular therapy. Pray we see great gains from this, as it would help out so much if we can find a good place that is close to home. This place is 10 minutes from home verses the 45 minutes we now drive. We will be going three times per week for an hour a session, starting after Labor Day.

We had a great weekend up north picking blackberries! Here are some pics:

Luke and little Sis in the kids cabin.

Mike carrying Luke to go pick blackberries.

Luke picking berries and eating them!

Most favorite thing to do...dig in dirt and throw it.

Picking a flower for mom.

Follow up appt

Today Luke had his follow-up appointment with Dr. Manwaring to go over his MRI. He said Luke's shunt is working great! He continues to be impressed with the improvements Luke is still making to this day. He was amazed to hear Luke say, Hi, Bye, and Yeah to him. He said he has come a long way from when he first met him over 3 years ago in bed 7 at the Copa!! So to that we say, God is good, and we are surely blessed. You see, most of the medical community will tell you that when you have a brain injury, you can expect to see improvements for about two years, and then they will stop, you pretty much get what you have at that point. Here we are almost 3 1/2 years later and still getting improvements. Praise God!! I think this just shows that Luke is proof, that there should be no limitations set on what the brain can do because in the end, faith, determination, perseverance, and just plain old hard work will ALWAYS win out...no matter what!

Luke continues to love school, and put up quite the fight today when I had to put him in the car to go to the appointment. He was having some behavior issues last week, so I pray those will go away. Honestly, I think he is realizing school is not going to be all about fun, there is going to be some work involved too:) Thanks for continuing to follow along and believe with us that there are great things in store for this boy!