We love those smiles!

Boy, the days go by way too fast for me. It has been 17 days since I updated this site. Sorry! Let's see...I have not got another precious hug from Jess but he has been smiling with both corners of his mouth more often. Jamie and Jahara came home this weekend and he gave his sister the biggest smile. She has not seen him for a couple months and couldn't believe how many more facial expressions he had. There is nothing that makes us happier than to see Jess smile!

We had a wonderful visit from Daniel. He helped us awhile back with Jess and became a very special friend to us all. He came back here from Maine to show off his beautiful baby girl and to visit friends and family. He also got a big smile from Jess. Daniel once shared this with me:

Children

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of Children. And he said: Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you yet... they belong not to you. You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls. For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you, for life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far. Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness; For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable. - Kahlil Gibran -

Jess has wonderful cranio sacral therapists that come to work with him every Friday. Beth (on the right) has been with us since Jess was hurt. She often brings others who work in the energetic field with her. Denise (on the left) has also become a very special person in our lives. We are blessed to have such loving kind souls surround Jess in love and energy. Beth also recently introduced us to a friend that she met in Brazil while visiting John of God. His name is Calvin. He spent four Fridays with Jess sharing his love and prayers to help heal all of us and support us while we try to understand what has happened to us. He assured us that everyone that touches Jess leaves with a gift...the gift of unconditional love. Thanks Calvin...we miss you!

We still have not heard from the Cleveland Clinic. I suppose they have many medical records to go through before they can make their decision. I finally got so frustrated regarding the oral surgeon in Boise getting permission to operate on Jess' wisdom teeth at our local hospital so I went to the hospital to speak with the CEO. He was out of the office so I spoke with the lady who is second in command. She was very kind and offered to do all she could to expedite the process. Hopefully we will hear something soon.

I will try not to take so long in sharing the days in the life of our Jess. They are always full of surprises! Good night!

Amazing Technology

We had a visit yesterday from a speech pathologist and her associate from Montana. They were recommended to me from the Elks in Boise. They are "gurus" in the augmentative communication devices. They hooked up a computer that had a program on it that actually could teach Jess how to do mores code. Our problem is still the delay in which Jess hits the switches and at times he is "just off with the angels". They also showed us a device that is called the Tango. It enables a person to speak through the device by hitting buttons. It is brand new and amazing. The problem with this device is it is geared towards a younger age and the voice is a young boy and it costs around $7,000. They are in the process of developing one for an adult. For now we are going to try a new switch that is called "Chickadee" or a "Step by Step communicator with levels". They both allow Jess to activate recorded messages. We talked about an eye gaze program but it will still be awhile.

It was wonderful to have such expertise in helping us decide the next step to take to help Jess communicate. Tracy, our long time, wonderful speech therapist, came over to listen. She hopes these women could do a seminar here in the valley to help other therapists see what is out there in the technology world. We will work on that one.

For us, it was kind of a sad day. There are so many ways to help Jess communicate but his participation is very limited and it is hard for Chris and I to see just how huge his limitations are. We live in our little dream world of this all being so temporary and when reality hits us in the face it is hard to deal with that reality. But, step by step, we will never give up and we will go at the pace Jess chooses. It is not about the destination...it is about the journey. I have to keep reminding myself of those words.

Fall is upon us and it is the most beautiful time of year here in the mountains. We don't have to go far to enjoy the colors. Jess is horseback riding right now and I am going to pick him up to go to speech therapy. Our days go fast and here it is another month. It has been 3 years 3 months and 13 days since Jess' accident.

Happy October...enjoy the colors!