Joy

Anyone who knows Jamie knows that laughter is as necessary as air for her life.  The sheer emotion of what's going on with her and our family, as well as her stage in recovery has somewhat limited our ability to share laughter with our girl.  Yesterday, we got a little break in those clouds.  I got to the hospital yesterday morning and Jamie was already up in her chair, waiting for speech therapy to start.  When I walked in, I said "Hey sister!" She looked over at me, said "Hey!" and gave me a huge smile.  She watched me as I put my purse down, and made eye contact as I walked over to her.  I bent down a little so she could clearly see my face, and she reached up and put her arm around me and gave me a big hug.  A real, honest to goodness hug.  I was smiling so big, I felt like my face was going to crack.  I pulled up a chair, asked Jamie how she was doing, and she said "good."  So there we sat, waiting for speech therapy to start, smiling at each other like idiots.  At one point, we just started giggling, which we are often known to do.  I'm not even sure what we were giggling about, but it was a really sweet, sweet moment.  I really couldn't stop smiling and giggling!  This was the most aware I had seen Jamie, I could tell that she knew I was there, and (more importantly) knew who I was.  It has been difficult for her to really focus on people when they are with her, but she was really working on that yesterday morning.

She had a good day in speech therapy as well - she worked on naming body parts (shoulder, nose, cheeks, wrist, legs, etc.), which involved saying them out loud when her therapist pointed to them and then pointing them out herself.  She was also able to pick my name out of several choices, and even worked on spelling it out loud! (she missed the first L, but got everything else.) The therapist then asked her where she lived, which she couldn't answer.  But then when the therapist asked her where she grew up, she said "ssss carlos". (In an earlier session, the therapist thought she was saying "Sacramento", but when the figured out it was San Carlos all along, once I was in there to clarify.) While working on where she was from and when her birthday was, the ST gave Jamie a pen.  Jamie wrote some scribbles that looked like 3 - 3- 33, and then wrote San Carlos in cursive! The therapists have all explained that the things that will come back to Jamie first are those skills that are very basic and almost rote.  This explains why she is able to figure out things like her hometown, body parts, her birthday and who people are.  Again, we still don't know how far this improvement will go, but we were absolutely thrilled at the day Jamie had yesterday.

We also had some good hang out time, and Jamie seemed thoroughly entertained by her brother's rapping skills (don't ask) as well as mine and Sarah's stories and questions.  She was laughing a lot, and while we were in her room, she kept grabbing Ryan's hand and pulling herself up into a seated position.  She isn't strong enough to hold herself up for very long, so she would sit up, wobble a bit and plop back down.  At first I was nervous that she would hurt herself, but she just kept cracking up.  (I wonder if she was getting a head rush everytime she sat up quickly, and that's why she was laughing.) After PT, we got to go out on the patio with Jamie and just hang out and visit.  Although we couldn't really understand what she was saying, one thing was clear: she was having a great time sitting and visiting. 

When we were leaving, I leaned down to hug her, and she tried hugging me again, although it was a bit awkward with her in the bed and me standing up.  I then asked for a kiss goodbye (cause Ron got one the day before, and I couldn't be outdone!) and she gave me two on the cheek! I now consider myself the favorite, because I got two, and another "I love you." I mean, she did kiss the PT tech on the hand today, but I think that is because she was grateful that PT was over and she could go back to her room.  After she kissed his hand, I asked her if she thought he was cute (in front of everyone.) Her answer: "Nope."  Good to know Jamers - you will just kiss random men on the hand without thinking they're cute.  We may have to work on that :)

I know this has been a great report, but Jamie still has a lot of work to do.  She still needs to work on the consistency of her responses, so please pray that she will be able to focus for longer and longer periods of time.  Please pray for increased awareness, and that she have the ability to find her words easier.  One of her speech therapists seems to think that she can understand more than what she can respond, and that can be very frustrating.  Please pray that she can communicate with us more frequently.  Most importantly, we ask that you send up prayers of thanksgiving.  We truly think that all of Jamie's improvements are little miracles, gifts of God.  Please thank Him.  He has been so gracious and merciful to us, and He deserves so much praise for that.

Love, Us.