A little piece of heaven

Hey everyone, HAPPY NEW YEAR’S!!! I hope 2011 brings all of you nothing but joy and happiness.

2010 was a great year at the Andrew household. It brought us amazing accomplishments:

* A new baby!!! A baby girl that all of us love to pieces.
* Nathan learned to walk in his pony gait trainer.
* Nathan got his dynavox with eyemax and can already use pages with 12 icons and has learned many ways of using it, such as playing with cars, turning on the TV, playing guns, and telling us he wants to go to the mall.
* Nathan rode a horse SOLO for the first time!
* Nathan is starting to learn how to sit
* Nathan’s head control increased greatly! He went from having about 20% head control to about 70% control.
* Nathan got a tricycle and loves riding his bike
* We finally established a wonderful, sustainable therapy plan for Nathan, including: ABR, cold laser therapy, reflex integration, feldenkrais, rolfing, medek, and coming 2010 … suit therapy!
* Nathan did 50 hours in an HBOT hard chamber, and his cognition really took off afterwards
* At Rutgers university they proved that Nathan is very “present”, aware and able to learn.
* Nathan’s leaky guy is healing with a supplement protocol from Dr. Blumenthal, and he is not vomiting any more and is finally starting to gain weight.
* Nathan is off ALL prescription meds!
* Another year without ANY hospitalizations
* Belle learned to crawl, sit, has a few words, lots of new vocalizations, pull up to stand, and is working on the walking milestone. She is amazing and so much fun to watch as she learns to experience her world!
* Owen and I became so much closer this year. We have come out the other side and finally got to a point where disability has strengthened us.
* And I..well…I feel this year brought me more acceptance, balance, and stability. I let go of many things this year, and am so excited for what 2011 will bring our little family.

Here are some goals that Owen and I wrote up during dinner tonight:

* M – to lose weight
* O – improve income
* M – work out daily
* O – swim or go to muay thai classes
* M – have more fun and enjoy life more
* O – clean out the garage and attic and get rid of what we don’t need
* M – to be a more nurturing, playful, supportive wife
* O – to get Marcela pregnant
* M – to get married
* O – travel to Australia
* M – pick up a creative hobby
* O – date night every Friday
* M – to meditate every day
* O – take the kids to Disney at least 5 times next eyar
* M – appreciate everything and everyone in our lives
* O – buy a travel trailer
* M – make each kid laugh at least once every day
* M – write a book

And these are the goals we have for the kids:

* Teach Belle to swim on her own
* Maintain a sustainable therapy schedule with Nathan
* Nathan will become fully adept at using his Dynavox with Eye gaze
* We will add new pages to Nathan’s dynavox at least weekly, preferrably every day
* Belle will learn sign language
* Nathan will learn to walk in his pony with AFO’s, thus improving his gait pattern
* Belle will start sleeping through the night!
* Nathan will gain weight and continue to be healthy!
* Nathan’s head control will improve to 100%
* Belle will start a play group / mommy and me class
* Nathan will be able to sit independently

We hope all of your wishes come true in the upcoming year!

We celebrated one last Christmas today and I love how the pictures came out. We all had such a good time!

The most important part of this post:

Check out that tummy! Have I mentioned that puke is HISTORY at our house? That he hasn’t taken prevacid in many months and he’s not vomiting, congested, and is gaining weight? I haven’t weighted him in a bit but he’s starting to finally get some meat on those bones!

We’ve been doing a supplement protocol to fix his leaky gut and it’s working because he is less congested, which means he is having fewer allergic reactions, and wants to eat everything in front of him. The boy is eating ALL DAY! We are SO HAPPY at this development and I must confess this has been the best Christmas present of all.

Someone recommended this book on Facebook so I had to check it out. As soon as I started reading it I realized that this wasn’t a stranger – that the author of this book is in one of my Yahoo groups and does ABR with her son! Which made it all the more poignant for me.

The book is fascinating, both heart wrenching and uplifting. I think it is a very honest rendition of the journey of a special needs family….all of the stages we go through, many of the pitfalls we fall into, the shattered dreams, the deep and profound healing.

The title is “From Ceramic to Clay” and originally I thought she meant how she “molded” Adam’s body – which is what you do with ABR. Literally you mold your child’s body through the power of your energy – you give them volume and from volume comes function. You release spastic muscles, create volume where there is collapse, restructure what’s unstructured.

But by the end of the book I realized it wasn’t Adam she was talking about, but herself. Which is what I often blog about. I do not feel that this journey is as much about Nathan and fixing his broken body, I think it is much more about fixing myself internally and healing from old wounds.

I highly recommend this book to anyone walking this path or anyone who knows anyone walking this path! I got it from Amazon.

Thank you Sharon for writing this book, thank you for sharing your journey, and thank you for sharing your transformation.