Thursday, February 18, 2010

Good morning! We did not get a chance to post on Valentine's Day. As we think of this past year, our hearts are filled with thankfulness again. Thank you for all who have journeyed with us, helped, and encouraged. Thanks again, too, to my sisters for starting this blog - what a help it has been!
We have sent out many letters and still have more to send. Thanks, too, for all (from blog) who e-mailed us your addresses-this was very helpful. If anyone you know wants a letter or hasn't received one by next week, please let us know (we posted our e-mail address in a recent post). If anyone received a letter and didn't want one, we apologize. As we go through our lists, it is hard to determine who would like a letter or not. We do not want to skip anyone and will send out as many as we need to.
Chance and Carson are at the San Antonio Livestock Show. Cody is at school, Clay is waiting for his therapist to arrive, and I am washing clothes & addressing envelopes.
Clay and I drove to Dallas last Wednesday for an interview at UT Southwestern Medical Center. They are working closely with the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors to develop a web-based social skills training program for successful community re-entry among burn survivors. Clay sat outside the studio with the secretary, during the interview, and played with a toy helicopter. They wanted to know if people ask questions when we are out in public and if it makes us feel uncomfortable. They also wanted me to share some of our experiences we have had with people staring and what we do when people stare. I told them some of our experiences and told them that we love it when others talk to Clay instead of just staring. Some have treated him as if he is contagious, and this breaks our hearts. I think I mentioned one time that we tend to surround ourselves with others who are comfortable with Clay. This helps Clay; because, these kids play with Clay and these adults see him as precious Clay & see a vibrant 6 yr. old. In public, when others are kind to Clay, I thank them. When others are not very kind, I pray for them. Sometimes I get anxious when we are in a new situation and I feel like a mother bear protecting her cub (not acting like a mother bear but protecting like a mother bear-bears can get mean but we certainly do NOT want to be mean to anyone). We do want to thank you for your kindness.
We had some of our ministers for supper and night on Monday. They were here for our Wichita Falls Special meeting last night and will be going to the other special meetings across Texas during Feb. & March. Cody's 8th birthday is next week (Feb 23) and so I am making plans for a special b-day. I was not able to be with him last year on his birthday, so we are thankful that we can all celebrate it together this year.
Have a wonderful day!

Monday, February 9th

Good morning to all. This is Chance. I don't have much to report but thought I would drop a quick line. Clay is a little under the weather. He played outside a good bit on Saturday and probably had too much cold, damp air. He had his cast removed last Wednesday. They made him promise he would not be wild and the doctor told him he would have to take it easy for a couple of more weeks. He was playing with the neighbors and they were running and playing chase. His mother reminded him about his promise to the doctor. Clay responded, " I know, I know but it is so hard to be careful." He has not let much slow him down. Clay's little bug that canceled his last surgery has finally gone through everyone in the family. I was the last and it hit me last week at the Ft. Worth Stock Show. We all survived, but Deidra was having to do a lot of running to keep everyone where they were supposed to be. I believe that we posted February 19th as his next surgery date. This procedure has been moved to the 26th of this month. Continuing school, therapy, and day to day activities keep us all busy. Deidra will be sending the promised letter out this week. We will call it a Valentine/1 year update as it will have been one year since the accident this Sunday. Hope everyone is doing well, take care.