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| Connor loves wearing his fox hat! |
It’s been a wild few months for our family. The biggest news is, of course, that we are
moving to the Chicago area. I took a new
call with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to serve as the Director
of the Youth Gathering (www.elca.org/youthgathering). I move to Illinois and begin this new job in
a couple of weeks. Brent and the kids
will follow after the school year is done.
Such a rollercoaster of emotions as we say goodbye to people and ministry
we’ve loved here and look forward to the new adventures that await us! One of the most agonizing parts of making
this decision was wondering how and if we would find a new day to day caregiver
for Connor. There’s no replacing Carrie,
but is it possible that her clone lives in the Chicago suburbs?!?! Brent and I finally decided to take the leap
and trust that we will find someone to take care of our little guy. As much as we try to believe that who we need
will be provided, it continues to be worrisome and scary.
The newest development with Connor is that this week we
began a feeding therapy program through West Chester University’s graduate
school. Every weekday for three weeks
Connor goes for a feeding session to learn new skills and behaviors and
hopefully cancel out a few of the bad ones.
After this “intensive phase” their therapist will do an in-home meal
with Carrie and a meal with Brent each week to help make things stick. I’m excited we finally have someone paying
attention to his feeding issues and am trying to remain optimistic and hopeful
about what they can do for Connor.
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| Vince and Connor after the concert |
The fundraising concert was a success beyond our wildest
imaginations! Over $10,000 was raised
for the Joubert Syndrome Foundation!! We’re
so thankful to Vince for all his efforts and for all of those who donated and
came to the concert.
We had a lovely Christmas season. Connor really enjoyed opening presents this
year. We knew he liked to pull the
tissue paper out of gift bags, but didn’t expect him to enjoy ripping the paper
as much as he did. He did such a good
job and stuck with it when his little fingers didn’t do what he wanted them to
right away.
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| Opening a Christmas present! |
Current prayer and happy
thoughts requests include: for
Connor to make continued progress with
all his therapies, especially feeding and speech and for strength for our family
as we prepare to live apart for the next few months. |
| In their Christmas jammies! |
