Pastor David is out of town and was unable to compile an update for Noah before the office closes this week. Please check back next week for a new update!

__________________________

Last Updated: January 28, 2010

With the new year comes new hopes!  I am going to focus on three huge areas of work with Noah this year: mobility, eating and speech/communication.  Following directions, commands has been a challenge with Noah…the processing has been difficult for him, so responses from him have been difficult as well.  I am beginning to ask simple commands of him to retrain and strengthen…by repetition…that which is weak.  Things like asking him to wiggle his toes, squeeze my hand, lift his leg while sitting in his chair…he can do all of those things….now it’s when I say  to do and not to do them. His responses, and response time has been so encouraging to me!  There was a time when if you would ask of him anything more than to look and smile at someone, and you would get NOTHING, NADA, NO THING…not so anymore…way cool! 

 I have taken a step back with the drinking part of Noah’s eating.  I tried a sippy cup to help Noah reestablish his ability to drink from a cup…but his swallowing is not perfected, and most of whatever liquids I gave him came right back out, I was just pouring it in to spill right back out.  The last couple weeks, I have been giving Noah teaspoons of my lemon water (he seems to really like it!), and it, too, has been very cool to see him DRINK.  He is swallowing, and spoon after spoon after spoon, nothing comes out, not a drop out of his mouth. A couple days ago, he had ¼ cup of water, before he became tired. Now that’s what I call drinking! He got one hand splint(that’s a brace that keeps his hands open and fingers extended)…and is scheduled to get one for his right hand at the end of the month.  He started off wearing it for 20 minutes at a time…and has progressed to 1 hour at a time for up to 3 hours per day…we’re getting there. Wearing them will hopefully help the tone in his hands decrease, and my hope is to help his hands begin to function.   

In the way of speech…much like his body, I’m saying things and asking Noah to respond at specific times, making more specific sounds. I’ve started a Noah/mom thing saying to him, “Noah, NO WAAAYY!!” , at which point he’s supposed to say, “WAAAYY”.  It’s funny, fun…and he’s getting it…he responds most of the time, sometimes looks like he wants to just can’t get it out.  His response isn’t WAAAYY, but an open mouth with a sound, but I’ll take it…we’ll work out the details later!  Well…that’s how things are shaping up for now…hope and pray with us for exceedingly abundant things to happen this year…thanks for checking in with us!  Much love, Lisa

__________________________

Last Updated: January 22, 2010

I hope that you all had a tremendous holiday... Due to unforeseen funeral arrangements, David was unable to submit an update. Please check back next week to hear what God is doing in Noah!

__________________________

Last Updated: January 9, 2010