“PRAISE GOD, JESUS AND THE HOLY SPIRIT” (Click on the play button above to hear Robbie speaking)
Greetings to all,
We had a fairly good weekend overall with continued improvements in very small increments. The best of days still include many moments of frustration as he struggles to communicate, struggles to get comfortable, struggles to keep from going crazy being stuck in a hospital. He is all boy and wants to go out and jump and run, throw balls and chase someone down with his nerf-gun in hand. He wants to sit cross-legged on the ground building his newest Lego creation. He wants to do a cannonball into a pool and swim underwater like a frog. He wants be at home with his sisters and play Monopoly, rolling dice, moving pieces around a board and counting play money. It is looking like it will still be a long frustration-inducing period of time before these things are possible though we still pray for God to speed up the process. We are still not given any assurances by the experts that some of these things will ever be possible for him again but, in faith, we believe God will bring him to full recovery.
Robbie continues to work very hard to speak, and I say “work hard” literally. [I am including a sound-bite, above, of him saying “Praise God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit”] Making any specific sound and word takes intense effort from him but he does it. He has done amazingly well in being patient when we don’t understand what he says and have to pull out the spell-board (about half of the time he speaks). He, of course, loses his patience some of the time as well and just gets upset. Sunday was a hard day of just overall discomfort, emotion and weariness as they continue to pull some of his medications. Today has been better. His pool therapy is always a blessing. I am also including a picture of him kayaking in the therapy pool. He was able to stay in the boat for about 5 minutes before he gave out but he loves doing it.
PLEASE PRAY THAT HE CONTINUES TO HAVE A GOD-STRENGTHENED MIX OF PATIENCE AND PERSERVERANCE. Pray that he can get a swallow study soon so that we can begin to progress a little bit more in what he is able to eat. Please continue to pray that his feet and toes will loosen some.
I also ask that you specifically pray that we can go home to Fayetteville before the end of this month. There are several reasons for this other than the fact that we just desperately want to be home together as a family.
Our girls are up in Fayetteville right now being blessed by various members of our church body there. We are so thankful to so many of you for loving on our girls during this time. They have been living out of suitcases for more than two months now and have been troopers. Please lift Shelby and Bethany up in prayer as well.
My Father came up this past Saturday with a DVD of one of Harding University’s chapels this past week. It showed over 4,000 students singing Robbie’s favorite songs “Blue Skies” and then all of them saying “We love you, Robbie!”. My dad also brought three poster boards crammed full of hand written notes to Robbie and they also gave him a Harding U. basketball uniform [see attached pic]. Robbie began crying when he watched the DVD - he is just so overwhelmed by the love people are showing him. For those of you at Harding who read this, thank you so much for your love and support.
Again, thank you all for your prayers.
Ken and Tanja