Joe'Mama

Well... some good news. We got accepted for new insurance. Praise God! The insurance we've had for almost a year now was really good for well-visits and the occasional ER visit but didn't cover much of anything by way of diagnostics or major medical. So, with the new insurance obviously we'll have a decent deductible and whatnot but we'll have much better coverage than what we had before.
So, given the change in insurance we will be able to go forward with the MRI, EMG, a visit with a genetic neurologist and blood testing for SMA. Those will all happen over the next couple of months.
Joe has been showing more signs of improvement. He is sitting unassisted for longer stretches of time(the longest being 5min, but not usually quite that long) and even stabilizing himself when he gets wobbly. When I've got him in the stroller he is supporting himself sitting instead of lounging. He has been rolling to toys lately, sometimes even rolling over and over again consecutively. He's really wanting to do more, sometimes I think he gets frustrated with his limitations.
Josiah started Occupational Therapy last week. I liked the OT right away, she seems very nice and down to earth. I think she'll kind of be doing a mixture of some of the same things that PT and DT are already doing but she will also help with things like fine motor skills and eating, etc.
I just got a call from our First Steps coordinator saying that Joe got approved for speech therapy too. So, I'm in the process of looking at the profiles of a dozen or so speech therapists trying to decide who would be best for Joe. I'm thankful that my cousin (who is a speech pathologist) gave me a few tips on what to look for while choosing the therapist. Once we start speech we'll have three therapists coming 1 time a week and one coming 2 times a week. That is alot of therapy. I hope its not too much for Joe... or me! * I'm thankful that First Steps provides all this therapy for little guys who need it like Joe does... but what about the rest of us? Where is my therapy? ;-)
We've talked with the some friends from church who have dealt with developmental delays with their children and its nice to know they are there and understand what we're going through. I also appreciate having my aunt who has been through the medical system with her daughter that I've been able to talk to alot. And I have a cousin who is a speech pathologist that I've been able to talk to. God has put people in our lives for me to lean on. I just don't know how to do that well. I am better at being a care-giver than I am a care-receiver.

Well, that is all for now. As always, your prayers are much appreciated since this is far from over. We appreciate all the love and support from our family and friends.