Wow, we didn’t mean to take a nine month update break! Last summer (2023) after a successful epidural stimulator surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medicine, Jaxon returned home after the surgery and quickly began to get back into the swing of things. He went straight to the Big Cats lineman camp hosted by some hometown legends, then he spent a week at Lakeview Camp with some faithful faith fighters before transitioning into his sophomore year of college with UNI men's basketball again as a manager. The Gym has continued to be home for him as he has kept on with his training efforts there a few times a week. As a result of this, he has the opportunity to gain the most benefit from his stimulator experience, as well as retain as much of the strength in his body as he can to enable him to maintain as much independence as he can now.
The stimulator has shown to be very helpful in managing his muscle spasticity, especially during the day while in class or anywhere he needs to remain for periods of time. He continues to explore with the technology, the settings, and how much his body can adapt to the new communication lines. Jaxon will actually return in a couple weeks to UPMC to spend a few days in their newly constructed lab to continue the journey of seeing what this piece of technology can do, paired with his continued commitment to training and helping his body learn. It takes a village!!
Here is a link to where he is receiving his care. The team here is a wide range of knowledge, experience, and forward thinking. Kind of fun to explore all they do. It’s been a real blessing to learn alongside them! Dave and Jax will head back east in a couple weeks for an evaluation that will include resetting some of the programs and seeing where this is all at so far. We’re learning so much - including patience, perseverance, and pressing on in faith.
Another exciting update is that Jax should be driving himself, in his own van by the end of the summer! When he returned from UPMC in July, he also entered right into drivers training. He completed 30 hours of practice and the professional wrote out his vehicle prescription to begin the process of adapting a vehicle made just for his needs. Just a couple weeks ago, we delivered that van to a vendor in Iowa City to start the work. We’re all looking forward to another driver in the family!
The end of the summer will also bring us some new neighbors. A good friend of Jaxon’s bought the house next door! We all know what a blessing this is for us all. I have to say that one of the joys and the greatest delights we have experienced as we have supported Jaxon here at home is getting to know and spending time with the friends of our kid. (All our kids!) There is no doubt that this unique, special situation has brought us many gifts that we would not have had any opportunity to experience had the story been different. What an exciting time for us as we welcome some sweet neighbors who will take the place of our beloved old neighbor. Community right here. That's a kindness.
Our lives have been transformed by this pivotal moment in our lives in the past almost four years. It is hard to put into words just how much God has and is doing within the depths of our hearts as we live out our physical lives with a soul that needs as much recovery and transformation as we do in the physical. It was said many times in the beginning that we would never be the same again. That truth has revealed both a grieving and a going. Grieving so much of what was lost, but through it all there's a new invitation to create something new and go. To be created into someone new. To not look back, but go towards and to trust this new place with hope. Isn’t that the gracious work of a Father who wants to transform us for our own good and His loving glory? After experiencing the grieving process, we are slowly gaining a sense of direction. Like leaving our old skin and going towards a place we could not recognize in our old form. Even as we have scrambled to adapt to this change, we have also been gradually strengthened. Being secure in God’s presence, in what he desires to accomplish through us, and in the knowledge that we are deeply and totally dependent upon him.
This update comes with a check-in for the many friends & family who continue to pray for, provide in creative ways, and push us along on this journey. Thank you barely scratches the surface for all we have experienced through many of you. We are so very thankful for the way God continues to meet the needs for Jax to keep moving forward, the way our family has seen God make a way, and the opportunity to lean in to know more of Him. So here’s a little update so far on 2024. Keeping up and keeping on continues to move us into the next right thing.
