He's talking!

Good things have been happening. On Friday (I think? or maybe Thursday?) of last week, they changed Dad's trach, and he is now able to talk! It been SO great to hear him verbalize what he's thinking and feeling. It's also a little sad, because one of the first things he said was, "I don't want to be here." And he keeps asking to go home. He also didn't know what happened, so my mom had to explain a little bit of the accident to him (without the gory details). It has been nice, though, to hear him say "Hi, Grace" and "I love you" and things like that.

I think his therapies are going well, too. They've been working on standing with him. I guess he's been improving quite a bit. At first, they had to have someone bracing his knees, and someone behind him bracing his shoulders and bottom. But now, they don't have to have people bracing him. Just someone there to help him keep his balance. That's great! He hasn't even been there a week yet, and I feel like he's improving so much.

Now, please pray for him to learn to swallow again. Once he learns to swallow on command, he can have his trach out. And he can have the drink of water that he's been asking for. Also, please just pray that he'll continue to be strengthened mentally and physically. He seems confused some of the time, so please pray for mental clarity for him.

Now, on an unrelated note, we celebrated Kade's second birthday this past weekend. It was fun! Grace and Kade are best buddies, and they just love to be around each other. The first picture is of Grace and Kade opening one of his birthday presents. He was very gracious to let Grace help with the unwrapping!

And then the other picture is from last week, when Grace got to play on the playset that Grandma and Grandpa Rumley brought for her. She loves it. She was so excited that she walked around the house all day one day pointing to it and saying, "Papa, thank you. Papa, thank you." So, thank you, DadR!

-{lkr}