Anderson Observer

It is Thursday afternoon and we are sitting in the apartment while Jake is "chilllin" and watching television.  It has been a good day as Jake had an outing at therapy and he went bowling.

We are always trying to find something to do after therapy and I looked at the local sports schedule for options.  Clemson womens tennis was playing Georgia Tech and Tech is only a couple of miles away.  We love watching tennis and this was some really great tennis as Clemson is ranked 12th in the nation.  It also provided us with a little taste of home with it being Clemson and one of the starters for Clemson, Laurianne Henry, is from Anderson.  We got to talk to her after her victory which was a lot of fun!

Besides being able to keep all of you up to date with Jake's progress, one of the things that I love about caring bridge is that the journal is a way for me to document the progress.  Oftentimes, I can look back and see what he was doing a week ago, two weeks ago, a month ago.....  It may seem like I am providing such minute detail but the progress, especially in speech, comes in small doses.  I want to have it all documented.

Speech/Language:  When we picked Jake up from therapy on Tuesday, he was trying to tell us something.  Then he said "eat."  And we asked him what he wanted to eat and he clearly said "hamburger"  so our next stop was "The Varsity."  Later that day Emily asked him what he was doing and he said "just chillin."  That same night, he was in bed and wanted to get out of bed because he could not sleep.  He kept pointing out to the den area and I asked him what he wanted - he was very frustrated and finally he said "in the recliner."  It was mumbled but definitely could understand him.  Also, when we got out of the car yesterday and we had walked a few feet away, he stopped and said "phone."  He had left his phone in the car.  Last night he and Emily were texting and he texted "clemsa."  Jake was watching the Clemson Maryland game on tv and he was letting her know what he was doing.  Then she called him on the phone and he was a bit distracted and he was saying "uhmmm yeah" and then finally he said "game."  In other words, he was not ready to talk because he was watching the Clemson game.  She told him to call her when the game was over and he called her later and said either "night" or "sleep" - Emily could not remember which but all she knew was that it was said very clearly and he was letting her know that he was going to bed.  Today she texted him asked him what he was doing and he texted back "smoothie."  We were having a smoothie at Planet Smoothie.  I don't think that he copied it from any where - I was sitting with him at the table while he was texting - who knows - there is no rhyme of reason to this process.  But it is progress...

From my devotion:  "It is possible for believers who are completely willing to trust the power of the Lord for their safekeeping and victory to lead a life of readily taking his promises exactly as they are and finding them to be true.  It is possible to daily cast all your anxiety on Him and experience deep peace in the process.  It is possible to have our thoughts and the desires of our hearts, purified in the deepest sense of the word.  It is possible to see God's will in every circumstance and to accept it with singing instead of complaining.  It is possible to become strong through and through by completely taking refuge in the power of God and by realizing that our greatest weakess and the things that upset our determination to be patient, pure, or humble provide an opportunity to make sin powerless over us.  The opportunity comes through Him who loves us and who works to bring us into agreement with His will, and thereby supplies a blessed sense of His presence and His power."
Amen!  This speaks directly to me.  I still struggle with my faith being strong enough - this is a daily struggle - just taking God at his word and not having fear, doubt, and impatience.  I probably did not have myself "armed" enough prior to this event.  If I knew then what I know now...if  if  if.....  but,   Life was going quite well and maybe I am having to play catch up now in the midst of a storm for my walk to be stronger.  I loved the way that the message was presented in my devotion:  "We are able to have as much of God as we want.  Christ puts the key to His treasure chest in our hands and invites us to take all we desire.  If someone is allowed into a bank vault, told to help himself to the money, and leaves without one cent, whose fault is it if he remains poor? And whose fault is it that Christians usually have such meager portions of the free riches of God?"   

PRAYER REQUEST:  I don't ever want my prayer request to sound repetitious because they are so important and so needed.  Please pray that Jake will be able to find more words - he is trying so hard - and that he will be able to put sentences together and express his wants and needs.  Please pray that Jake will be able to pick up an item and then be able to release it.  PRAY FOR HIM TO BE ABLE TO RELEASE!!
Thank you so much and remember we are shooting for the moon and a full and complete recovery.