Ian works really hard

I was reviewing some of the posts from the last few weeks, and I noticed how we haven't necessarily given a full picture of how hard Ian works. Wednesday was a particularly notable day, though it's representative.

On Wednesday, he had a therapy session at 11am - his daily session - where the therapist said he worked really hard just as he has been for some time. Early in the afternoon he had a doctor's appointment that required him to wait in his chair for some time, and a lengthy period of time in his chair isn't comfortable for him. Ian greeted the doctor with purposeful eye contact, though, and responsiveness to the doctor's inquiries that showed he was really trying; that wouldn't have been the scenario in many previous sessions with the doctor. Following that he had another lengthy therapy session in a pool, and once again the therapist raved about how hard he worked, just as he has been doing over the past few months.

These are all newer reports. Six to nine months ago the reports wouldn't have been so glowing. I'm proud of him!

How hard it must be, then - as hard as he's working - to not be able to do what he so wants to do: to talk! Give him grace, Lord!

Pray for Ian.

Steve

More Voice and More Trust

Ian, Larissa and I revisited the great, classic series "Unmasking the Deceitful Heart" done by our pastor, Mark. Afterwards, we talked about what stood out to us from the message. Ian wanted to say something and because it's so difficult for him to talk and get his voice out we tried to guess what he was saying. 

It took us a couple minutes to find out he was saying, "I have had..." but by the time we got these words he forgot the rest of his sentence. This is a continuing pattern that Ian says his frustrating for him. So if you could pray that his short-term memory would strengthen and that he wouldn't be discouraged but trust God. Just like God says through Isaiah... 

"'You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.'"

...we hope that Ian, especially, would be the one that this verse is describing. I have no idea what it is like to be going through what Ian is going through. No matter what we go through we need to remember to look more at Christ than at ourselves - ten looks to Christ for every one look at ourself. 

Please keep praying that his voice would come out and that we would understand him better and quicker. And better yet that his singing voice would be heard.

~Caleb

Specific Prayer

Ian is still trying so hard to talk to us. Specific prayer that he wanted me to share- he needs to get the timing down of his breathing and getting his voice out. He has all the elements that he needs to be able to talk- he just needs the wisdom and knowledge to put it all togther. Please pray that he would gain the coordination of his breathing to make his voice work.

Thank you, as always.

Larissa

Texas article

Recently, a reporter from Texas who had been following Ian's progress on our blog, interviewed Larissa to do an article for the Kerrville (TX) Daily Times in the Faith section of the paper. Here's the link to the article and to the sidebar included in the article:

http://dailytimes.com/story.lasso?ewcd=d7ed1fba818b2ae2

http://dailytimes.com/story.lasso?ewcd=26baf10d4fadbace


As always, we pray that God is honored by what we've all walked through.


Thank you again for your continuing prayers!


Steve

#2

Here is another article recently published about Larissa and Ian

World on a String

For awhile now, Steve has been trying to think of a post to describe how much we see Ian's personality. I think this will sum it up quite perfectly. I don't know if you can see since it's pretty dark, but he's mouthing all of the words.

Popcorn

Yesterday, I found myself in a conversation with Ian and Larissa and Mary about all that the church and so many others did for us in bringing Ian home from the hospital. We told about the many, many kind people who helped us tirelessly for a season build an addition (e.g. organizers, builders, contractors, givers, suppliers, agencies, businesses, family, etc., etc.). Ian was thoroughly engaged in what we were saying, nodding and shaking his head and smiling at all the appropriate spots.



Then, it occurred to me that he was eating popcorn. Popcorn! He was reaching into the big can of popcorn over and over stuffing his face with popcorn, some of it not making it to its destination - a lot like the way I eat popcorn! He was thoroughly engaged in our conversation, though, like he was watching a movie. I stopped my reflections when I realized again how far he had come. "Ian!" I blurted out, "you're eating popcorn!" That must have sounded a little silly from his perspective, but I couldn't help it. Six months ago, I wouldn't have dreamed of giving him even a kernel of popcorn for fear that he would choke on it.



Mary and I continued the conversation with him tonight about all the ways God had blessed us through so many people in helping to bring Ian home. Once again, he was fully engage, nodding and shaking his head at appropriate times. At one point Mary said something like, "people in the church, your friends, they really love you!" The grin on his face was priceless.



Steve

I guess the words are in their heads...:)

"God's majesty never imples his remoteness from those who look to him; it implies instead his exhaustive attention to detail, and his inexhaustible ability to care for his faithful." ESV Study Bible notes to Psalm 113.

We read this in our quiet time yesterday and I asked Ian if he had any specific examples of that of his life. Right away he mouthed "my speech." It really affected me that even tho this has been a particularly hard and frustrating week of speech therapy for Ian, he knows that God is paying specific attention to the detail of his speaking.

Ian then told me that speech has been the hardest therapy he's ever worked on and it's the one he wants the most. It motivates me to pray for that to be worked out in him more. Specific prayers would be that we would both have much grace and patience with each other as many times I can't figure out what he's trying to tell me. Also, that Ian would be able to get his voice working more and more often as he's mouthing words.

Here are some recent pics from a trip to Pittsburgh. Thank you for praying.

Larissa

Updates

Sorry for the lack of posts. Here are some updates

• Got another loaner mobile chair yesterday which is really nice. Even though he hasn't done it for awhile, he picked it right back up and is doing better than he had before.
• Continues to work on speaking. Getting the voice out is hard, but he's very diligent and always willing to work on it.
• Still doing well in therapy and doing new things each day
• Still happy that the Steelers won the Super Bowl

Thank you all for praying.