Curious Joe

This has been a pretty good week. I was bummed that Joe didn't have therapy this week (one therapist was sick, the other was on spring vacation). But despite that, he has really shown improvement this week. He has been pushing up on his hands on his own for the first time. He was even doing "push ups". He was on the Boppy and had tipped forward so his head was resting on the floor and his bottom and legs were kind of in the air. Then he pushed up on his hands and leveled himself out. It was so cool! And he has gotten very close to sitting on his own. Usually he ends up sitting like a frog, with his hands on the floor, holding himself up. But we're getting closer! It has been very encouraging to see this little bit of progress. I really feel that its been helpful to have certain things that we know we need to be doing with him. Before, we knew he was behind in his development, but we didn't really know what the best way to help him was. Now that we've seen the therapists a couple times we have some specific exercises to do with him, etc. I keep reminding myself to focus on the milestones that he is reaching... not the many that he has not. We have decided that Joe is our little tortoise (like in the Tortoise and the Hare)... and slow and steady wins the race, right?

Saturday we had Joe's first birthday party! It was a pretty busy day. Nate "helped" me color some Curious George party favors that I printed off of PBS.org in the morning. My sister Hannah helped me make the monkey cake that turned out pretty well if I do say so myself. My house was clean for a couple of hours (naptime)... then the party started. Nate and his cousin enjoyed the Curious George goody bags I put together for them with trinkets from the Target Dollar spot. We had pizza and cake (found some cool Curious George cake ideas HERE). Then we helped Joe open his presents. Of course, like any one year old, he liked the paper more than the gifts. He got some cute outfits and some developmental toys that will come in handy. I think that Joe was a little over-stimulated from the busy day. He was kind of irritable for awhile but was pretty quiet most of the afternoon. Toward the end of the party we had a time of prayer. Of course Joe chose that time to be very vocal! It was adorable actually. He just babbled on and on happily while we were praying for him. Then after we were done he quieted back down again.... silly boy! It was a real blessing to have our whole family together to show support and love to us and our special little guy.

I attended a family function yesterday... one that I avoided last month because I wasn't ready to answer questions about Joe yet. It was actually a very nice visit. I was relieved that I was given my space. I particularly appreciated the conversation that I had with my aunt who has a handicapped daughter and therefore has alot of experience with doctors, therapists, etc. She has been very encouraging in the past month or two as we've exchanged emails here and there. Also, my cousin is finishing her masters in Speech Development (or something like that) and we discussed some things that we can be doing to challenge Joe and encourage him to interact more, etc. As I learn more way that I can help Joe, I'm feeling less helpless about the whole thing. Even though we don't have a diagnosis or anything I still felt like Joe (and us) had been handed a life sentence... we just didn't know for what. But I've been finding out that there is so much that we can still do to help Joe's development. There is still hope for much improvement.
I'm looking forward to seeing what the Lord has in store for Joe and for us in the coming months and years. Isaac keeps reminding me that the two things that we should pray for right now are that God will call Joe to Himself, and use him to bring glory to Himself. That is all we can ask and all we can hope for in any situation.