Update on everyone

We are doing well.  Just spending our time experiencing life.

Since I have gotten so bad on updating the blog, I will let you know what is going on with each of us.

Preston: spent 10 days in Kolkata, India in the month of January with six of his students from Samford.  They spent fall semester researching India.  Their senior thesis project is designing a medical clinic in Kolkata.  They went over winter break to document the site and be ready to design.  They also had the opportunity to meet lots of people and enjoy the culture.  They will go back, including our entire family, this summer.

Me: I am teaching a class at UAB to OT students regarding the transition between early intervention and the school system.  I always love speaking about our family's experiences, our boys and all the awesome things God does through them.  I was also asked to participate in the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine Community Summit in Chicago this March.  I am looking forward to participating in such a wonderful opportunity. Ranae, my sister, and I are running the Mercedes Half Marathon this Sunday.  It will be lots of fun!  Philip, Cooper, Preston and Logan will go to several points along the race course to cheer us on.

Logan: is a new Daddy.  We adopted another dog, Lucy O'Leary.  She is also a King Charles Cavalier, just like our other dog, Charlie.  She is three years old and full of energy.  Logan is doing a great job taking care of her.  Logan continues working hard on his swimming, taking class twice a week.  He is not doing any swim meets during the school year, but will start again this summer.  He is enjoying reading the Heroes of Olympus series.  He is also reading a book on George Washington Carver for his book report.  The kids are off school for President's Day, so we are planning to travel to the George Washington Carver Museum at Tuskegee University.  Fortunately for us, it is less than a two hour trip!

Nathan: is doing very well in school.  He really enjoys his friends and learning.  He got an award on Friday for working so hard in speech therapy.  He is getting physically stronger.  He loves to crawl everywhere.  He can also side sit and W sit on his own.  His legs are getting stronger and he can stand for longer periods of time.  He will begin playing baseball every Saturday beginning in March, along with Owen, so plan to be there!  The games are so much fun.

Owen: is always so happy.  Actually both boys are.  It is so obvious God's pure love is in their lives.  Owen loves school too.  He really enjoys water therapy and you can just see the joy on his face as his muscles relax in the warm water of the therapy pool.  We took Owen to a Georgia Tech basketball game at the beginning of January.  He absolutely loved it.  He is such a sports fan.   Owen has an important upcoming doctor appointment.  Until two years ago, Owen's verbal communication was age appropriate.  He would sing his alphabet, knew his letters, numbers, colors, animals, animal noises, etc.  Two years ago he almost completely lost his verbal communication...something that is NOT common for kids with CP.  He went through a time where he was very depressed by the loss, but emerged a happy boy after a couple of months.  He had a CT scan, 24 hour EEG and no one could find anything different with his brain.  His body continues to get tighter as he gets bigger.  Preston and I are praying every morning for this appointment, that God would show us a breakthrough as to the mystery of Owen's communication loss and bring it back.  I have already begun the conversation with his physiatrist, who we will meet with formally on the 18th.  Please pray God would show him the right treatment direction for Owen. He is on some medication that does not seem to be helping much and another we hope we can up the dose, though he is already on a large amount.  I am also working on eliminating different foods in his diet, to see if that will help with his overall muscle tightness.  Since their is no evidence of any changes in his brain, it could be that his muscles are so tight in his throat area that he is just not able to talk.  If we could get them to relax, he may be able to regain his communication abilities.  Please pray with us.  I will be sure to put an update on here after the appointment.

Karis: has about 100 words!  Yes, we are so excited.  This little girl did not speak for the first nine years of her life and is now really flourishing.  She is doing well in school and enjoys it.  She is also taking a learn to swim class, while the other three are in their swimming/water therapy classes.  Last week she had a 30 minute EEG.  Since she has agenesis of the corpus callosum, her doctor wanted to rule out seizures.  She does not have seizures, but did have an interesting EEG.  Her brain activity would go "crazy" when they would shine a bright light on her or when she closed her eyes.  The neurologist is not concerned, so we will just see him once a year to be sure nothing changes.  The doctor spent some time showing me the images from her MRI, that was done this past fall.  I enjoyed hearing the explanations and seeing the images as he walked through everything with me.

Today we enjoyed celebrating Preston's Grandmother's 95 birthday.  We love Granny Dot so much and she is doing so well.  She is an incredible blessing to our family.  We also spent a lot of yesterday with Preston's Aunt Brenda and cousin Michele.  It was such a great, relaxing weekend being with family.  The kids also spent the night with my parents on Friday.  They all camped out in the living room and had tons of fun.  Preston and I went on a date to Hot and Hot Fish Club that night.  It was nice to just enjoy adult conversation.