It’s been 6 weeks since we were discharged from Gillette! After a quick stop at Auntie Kelsey’s house in Minneapolis, we headed for home. Taren got car sick about 2 blocks from Kelsey’s house and we had to find a Target to get some cleaning supplies. We made a couple of stops along the way and learned that going forward we can’t have Taren sitting in the back seat. We had the most incredible homecoming. Family, friends and neighbors were waiting outside to welcome Taren back home. We all got lots of hugs and Taren was incredibly excited to see all of the people he hadn’t seen since before his accident. Thank you all so much for making Taren’s homecoming special.

Since we got back a lot has happened. We seriously underestimated the amount of work it was going to take just to find normalcy. We had every intention of continuing our updates, but by the end of the day after running kids to activities, emotionally dealing with the changes, and helping Taren adjust to home, we had a hard time finding the energy to commit to an update. I think we are finally adjusted to how life is going to look like for the time being and we should be able to keep everyone updated going forward. Thank you so much for all of those that reached out in the meantime and all of you that patiently waited for news on how T is doing. We know how invested everyone has been in his recovery and we apologize for the radio silence.

Taren got back to school almost immediately after returning home from Gillette and even though he asked a few times to be grounded so he didn’t have to go, he seems to enjoy his classes. He has really liked seeing his friends every day and his para has been amazing with helping him learn. It’s amazing to see how much information he is able to retain in his classes and makes us feel good about his recovery. We drop him off a bit late and pick him up a bit early each day so he doesn’t have to deal with the crowds, and he is able to take a break from class if/when he needs during the day so he doesn’t get overwhelmed.

He has started out patient rehab at Pediatric Therapy Partners in Fargo and has been going about 3 times per week at this point. They have been amazing, and Taren looks forward to his therapy sessions there. Mom and Dad just drop him off for most of it and get a report at the end, so we are a bit more hands off in therapy now, but it also gives mom a chance to run some errands and take care of small things in the meantime. With free time at a premium, it really is a nice way of doing therapy.

Taren has been excited to go to his brothers’ hockey games. When asked if he wants to stay home or go to the arena, he almost always wants to go with to watch. It’s nice to see his love of hockey is still there even if he isn’t able to play right now. It was a pretty emotional return for him to the rink with lots of people coming by to say hi and tell him how happy they all were to see him back. The association put Taren on a team this year and we have actually been able to make it to a few games to cheer them on.

Over the next couple of weeks we’ll post pics and stories of some of the awesome things Taren’s been able to be a part of since we’ve been back in West Fargo.