"Ask and you shall receive!"

The amount of support and responses I've recieved concerning my last entry has been astounding. Thank you.

Yesterday Leanna, Larry, and I again worked with Lupita, Chilito, and a little girl with Rhett Syndrome named Carla. It was a great day of physical therepy, working muscles, stretching, and discussing what exercises and equipment will be helpful for the patients after Leanna leaves. I was floored when Larry recieved a phone call and I recieved an e-mail from a generous person at HPUMC who has had experience with celebral palsay. She was inquiring and offering to aid us in getting Jonathan his pacer walker. What an amazing response!

Today, members from a Brownsville mission were cleaning out a storage shed and brought excess wheelchairs, canes, crutches, and other medical supplies. It was an amazing gift, and they even brought a physical therapist's table which was perfect for our morning with Chilito. We were seeing things begining to fall into place. Chilito was awesome during therepy. Despite her old age and discomfort, she fought through the pain to exercise her legs and pushed herself beyond anyone's expectations. She at least tripled what she could do yesterday, and responded well to a few new exercises. After one particularly painful exercise in which Leanna backed off, I heard her mumble something along the lines of "I can lift/do more." For me, today was much more "hands on" I helped with many exercises, held people both big and small, young and old. I seemed to constantly be pushing, pulling, bracing, holding, or supporting someone (and lots of translating). It's quite a feeling.

Lupita also had a good session in which we helped her sit, stand and placed her feet in a walking motion on the floor. Lupita has already shown an increase in neck/ head control. She can lift and support her head most of the time, and showed great control over her trunk today. She also seemed more relaxed and willing to try things. She responded well to therepy and provided lots of laughs as her eyes followed Jabez around the room. He even offered to share his toys with her, and when we touched her hand to his, her eyes lit up and a smile stretched as far as her face would allow. It was a great session, and as we braked for lunch we thought the day couldn't get any better. Lupita has already shown great improvement, and her mother has too. Mimi actually assisted us in a few exercieses today! It may not sound like much, but that is a huge change from the last few years. Perhaps, we gave her some hope, or a glimpse of what can happen. Lupita is also a "prime candidate for a pacer walker", and with help, she too may walk.

Imagine my joy at the donation, the generous idea of getting a pacer walker from Dallas, and the successful sessions with today's patients. Then one of the trucks from this morning's donations came by with one last donation. Leanna saw him pull up from inside; I was outside, and both of us saw some contraption in the truck bed. Leanna came running outside just as he opened the tailgate to display a fully loaded pacer walker. It had everything Jonathan needs, and was correct down to the size of each attachment. Words cannot begin to describe my feelings at this moment, so Leanna's tears of joy and my "cloudy" eyes will have to suffice. Those of you who know me, know that I really don't like it when people through around Christian rhetoric with vague meanings...but this was truly a work of God. To have a pacer walker (value $2700) delivered to our doorstep with the exact attachments, in the exact sizes, by people who did not know about Jonathan, our plans to buy one, or my blog is nothing short of miraculous. Too many things fell perfectly into place, as we recieved this gift around 3:00pm today and have planned on visiting Johnathan in Reyonosa tomorrow since Monday. It truly is amazing. With this tool, Jonathan's perserverance, and his parent's determination, we are quite confident that he will walk.

It looks like we will still need a walker for Lupita, but the blessings I have been shown today are remarkable. I will not soon forget the smiles, excitment, laughter and joy of the past few days, and I can only expect more tomorrow when I see Jonathan in his new walker!

Paz,
Mateo