Watch This!!

Recently my friend, Betsy Dillon, Ross' mom, sent me a link to a segment of the Charlie Rose show. Charlie had three guests who discussed the case of Terry Wallis, the man who, within a 72-hour period, regained normal speech after 19 years in a minimally conscious state following a traumatic brain injury. The bottom line, according to his guests, is that brains are NOT static after an injury, and that we have GOT to give them a chance to heal and support them as they do. Hurrah!!! Scientists and physicians saying what I and my fellow M.O.M.s (Mothers of Miracles) have known all along. See for yourself...http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=tvshow%3ACharlie_Rose&so=1

Abbie had an "on" day yesterday, which was great since I was orienting a new nurse. Tracy gave me a bit of a surprised look when I told her that Abbie can understand everything we say. I guess Abbie took that as a challenge because she was quite talkative the rest of the day, both with her switch and her voice. She told Tracy "go, go, go" when she needed to use the toilet, and said "hungry"clearly enough to be understood even though it was an hour until feeding time. In the morning she started working on the "D" sound, which is fairly new. I told her this would allow her to say "Dad", which made her smile, so we worked on it a while. In the evening, she was watching a video about letters, and the song playing said, "The A says 'a' the A says 'a'" I asked Abbie if she could say that and she began to mimic with her mouth but no sounds came out. It was interesting, though, that her mouth moved in time with the music, so I do think it was purposeful.

She has been very responsive to her brothers lately, and more and more we are able to get her to smile just by telling her jokes or saying silly things. This, in turn, motivates them all the more -- they are quickly becoming her travelling troupe of clowns.

Her face continues to change, but it is hard to quantify. Her lips are returning to normal, which cuts down on the drooling since her bottom lip can stay up better. Her vision also seems to have improved this week. Her eyes alway move in synch now, and are moving much more quickly, especially when she wants to look at people. She did great with her sight word flash cards yesterday, and we saw tracking about half the time.

For those of you in the Colorado area, I want to pass on part of an email I got this morning...Dr. Tennant will be offering his course training on his Tennant BioModulator Oct. 26-28 in Denver, CO. We need 7 more people to register asap to assure this class takes place. Please call Barbara Forsberg to register at: 972-580-0545. Let her know who referred you to the course.

This course will surely bless you if you are able to attend!

One other HUGE praise...I met Matthew and RJ's teacher yesterday (Kyle and the twins started school on 7/29). He is a wonderful, enthusiastic Christian man -- I could just see in his face the excitement he has about his class. They only have 11 kids in their class, including 9 boys -- can you imagine that ratio for a fourth grade class?? WOW! My heart is so much happier, having them in such a wonderful environment, in a small class, with a caring male teacher -- God is so good! I will always wish I could have them at home again, but I know they will be well trained and taught this year, and that eases my burden greatly. Matthew also brought home his cello for the first time yesterday, and I grinned to see the pride and anticipation on his face. This is going to be a terrific year for them!