Archive for the ‘living testimony’ tag
Emily Update: New first words
!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Hi Mom! Hi Dad!
One of the downsides of having 7 children is that many of their “firsts” aren’t as diligently recorded due to hectic schedules and overlapping achievements by their siblings and misplaced babybooks and pens. Jesse’s first everythings are marked down with date and time….from there the record keeping kind of faded….
So we aren’t really sure what Emily’s very first word was as an infant.
We DO know, however, what the first word she said as a 19 year old were — a very garbled sounding “Hi Mom!” and “Hi Dad!”
It happened on Monday morning…and she has consistently repeated the feat with different names since then. She also managed to also get out “Hi Jim” (her occupational therapist at Moss) on Monday and just yesterday my mom held the cell phone up to her and I heard “Hi Heidi” in response to my “Hey Emily.” And again then this morning my dad went in said, “Good morning, Em,” and she took a deep breath and said, “Hi, Dad!”
She is not speaking clearly….it takes her a long time to get the words out and she can not clearly pronounce consonants but she’s definitely saying it – - my dad can even lip read the words as she struggles to form them.
We are thrilled…as are all of her doctors and the nurses. It was interesting to realize that the day that it happened – September 22nd – was exactly two months from the day my dad and I met with the neurologist who told us that he was horribly sorry but while she might be able to make some small improvements she would certainly never be able to communicate with us again. We’re praying and hoping that some day soon she can say hi to all of you…and to that doctor and be a living testimony to the healing power of a God who isn’t bound by the results of any test or prognosis.
2 Thessalonians 2: 16- 17 reads “May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.”
Despite this exciting achievement Emily still has an incredibly long and hard road ahead of her. But we are praying that she will be strengthened and know peace as she fights to regain control of her body. We don’t know yet if she will be coming home next week or not so please continue to pray for wisdom and strength as important decisions are made while rejoicing with us that another important step forward has been made.
-heidi..