Sunday, January 11, 2009

January 11, 2009 Update

Hi Everyone! I hope you had a blessed Christmas! We've had an eventful few weeks since my last update! One of the MAJOR highlights happened on Dec. 6. After Terry had walked to bed, but before he sat down, I asked for a hug. I expected it to be one-handed. He took BOTH hands off of the walker and gave me the FIRST standing HUG since Feb. 13, 2007!!!! It was WONDERFUL!!! And since we found out that's possible, we practice at least once a day. It's amazing how GREAT something that simple can be.
He IS doing more walking at home. He walks further in the morning, AND further at night. He also tries to walk a little through the day (in between naps!). At therapy, each attempt is over 100 feet, and on Dec. 19, he had a total of 650 feet in just THREE tries! The distance, AND Terry's endurance are improving. In addition to the walking, James is having Terry practice standing WITHOUT the walker!!! He can push up on his own thighs, but otherwise is unassisted. Once he is standing, he MUST let go and just STAND. This was EXTREMELY difficult the first time ( 12-31-08, I think), and has only gotten a little easier. His best time standing has been one minute, ten seconds, but that's a BIG improvement over the first time (which was 10 sec.) .
He is done with Occupational Therapy again. They showed him some "tricks" and tools to help in various tasks, now it's just a matter of practice.
We had a HUGE gathering on Christmas Eve! We had 42 people, mostly family!!!! Terry's sister and her family were all up from North Carolina. It was GREAT to get together with everyone!
Then we had other gatherings. We got together with some of my family on Christmas, then on the 28th of December, my nephew Josh got married!! It was a pretty big gathering for that! They had planned a small wedding, mostly just wanting to be married in a church rather than by a JP. But as the family network got busy..... It was a lovely wedding. Josh is a Marine, and wore his uniform. His bride was BEAUTIFUL!!!
I hurt myself a couple of times over the past three weeks, and have pulled muscles around my ribs both times! THANKFULLY, God has sped my healing so that I can give Terry help whenever needed. Also, he doesn't NEED as much help as he did just a short while ago. He's getting stronger and gaining balance with each week!!! We PRAISE GOD for His faithfulness!!
I think that's about all for right now. THANK YOU for your on-going prayers and interest. I'll get back with you soon. God bless you! Lynn

Friday, January 9, 2009

Terry & grandson - Warren @ Christmas.


Terry with sons - Tony (sitting) and Jimmy.