Happy New Year

Well, it's not really that new anymore, but Happy New Year anyway.

2012 was a year of learning. Many life lessons were taught and learned. I hope not in vain. Looking ahead to 2013 I pray that I will continue to be taught and to learn. I hope you are open to that as well.

We are quickly approaching the end of 2 years since Garren's AVM ruptured. He has come a long way. He's in school 5 days a week. He is involved in the student ministry at church. On Sunday mornings, he runs lights for the middle school service. On Sunday nights he participates in the high school ministry. And he loves it!

It's great to see a desire in him to be involved. 

Kara is halfway through her senior year of high school. She's involved in school plays, cheerleading, while trying to get through her final course requirements. She is still undecided on a school of the fall. She has a couple of options, and we will son begin the process of applying for financial aid! 

Kelsey continues to amaze us with her strong and outgoing personality. She loves school and reading. She stays busy caring for her hamster and playing with her friends.

Physically Garren continues to progress. And that's great. But with progress comes changes in his  level of professional medical care. We still have nursing at night, for which we are very thankful. Garren is still unable to swallow, and is still unable to walk on his own. Up until December he was going to Carolina's Rehab for physical therapy twice a week. 

His most recent evaluation revealed that he has reached a point in his recovery where he is not in need of "skill" development. He needs to work on strength training, and endurance training. Since the rehab focusses more on skills, they decided it would be best at this time to stop physical therapy, and for us to focus on strength and endurance training at home.

We are in the process of talking to personal trainers to wee what the best next step will be for us and for Garren. We also dedicated a room upstairs in our house to a workout room. We've dubbed it the "Chamber of Torture" for now. Using his workout table, treadmill, chin-up bars and other torture tools, my goal is to get him up there daily for a workout.

We continue to pray for swallowing. Who could have ever dreamed or imagined that we would be dealing with something like this. It truly is a bizarre thing to be dealing with. 

But God is in control. We trust Him. We believe that He has the best in store for us. Garren's attitude continues to be positive. We are very thankful for that.

Thanks for all your support over the last 2 years. I hope to continue keeping you updated on a more regular basis this year.