October 20th, 1:15am

Dear Friends and Family,
Sorry for the long pause on the blog. It's been kind of like that with our life the last few weeks. I have just arrived at the house in Jackson after a couple of days with the family. We just had to pause while we were making all these transitions. Everyone is in St. Louis and more or less settled in the house. I have made two trips on the weekends from Jackson so far. It's a long but easy drive. The time factor varies depending on the heaviness of the foot, but it is about 4 hours or so!
Micah is doing well. Since I see him only on the weekends now, I tend to notice the differences more so than Tina. This weekend is the most alert I have seen him. His face looked more like his old self and he has lost a little bit of weight. Micah is making progress in very small amounts. It may not seem like much, but the fact that he actually notices everything and everyone around him is a huge step. His eyes can pretty much track anything he wants to. He is beginning to hold his head up more and more and also turning it from one side to the other to look at things. He is on some new medications that help to increase neural activity so his brain can maximize the benefits of therapy. On one hand we want to reduce the medication that is given for the thalamic storming and on the other we want to add medication that helps with recovery. So a good bit of his alertness is due to the new medications. In time he will be able on his own.  It is a delicate dance. None of the medications are meant to be used long term. They are just being given to help his brain learn to reprocess functions. He still has thalamic storming but nothing like before. Both the storming and posturing are much decreased compared to even 3 weeks ago. He is sleeping well for the most part. I will try to give you a brief description of what goes on with his schedule day to day.
     Physical Therapy (about 1hr)- this is mostly stretching and flexing his knees, hips, ankles, elbows, shoulder etc to retain flexibility and muscle tone. They also stand him up with the aid of a standing table. He is laid flat on the table and it is slowly raised up till he is standing on his feet. Today he was up to 60 degrees of inclination. His knees have to be strapped in since he is unable to lock his knees, but he is able to take his body weight.
Occupational Therapy (about 1hr) - This is geared toward getting him to do things and respond to commands etc. A lot of the time the PT  and OT are done together since they overlap.
Speech Therapy (about 1hr) - This involves trying to get him to swallow, stick his tongue out, stimulation of his lips with ice, stimulation on the tongue with flavors.
In addition to this, another group takes him to a group session where they use cooking to stimulate the brain. They will get the kid's favorite recipes and cook it for them. Depending on their ability, the children help with the activities. Micah's job today was to try to push a big red button that makes a motorized scoop put flour in the pan.
As you can see they keep him busy! These sessions are split up, so some are in the morning and some in the afternoon. After all this he is quite tired. We try to get some or all of his siblings to spend a couple of hours with him every day. Tina is trying to adjust her schedule so she can be there during the therapy sessions. He does much better when we are around.

 Today is 40 days since Micah left our home for the hospital. We don't know what the Lord's timetable is for Micah's recovery. We pray constantly for speedy and full healing. We are so blessed with all the small steps of recovery. We are so grateful for the all the things the Lord has done for us during this difficult time. In big things and in small things He has provided for us abundantly. So many of you have blessed us, so much so, that is impossible to thank you adequately with mere words. May the Lord bless you all for the kindness you have shown to us. It is quite difficult for me to leave the rest of my family and come back to Jackson. My drive time is mostly filled with weeping and/or praising. In all these things God has not abandoned us. He has made us strong and able to handle the difficulties that have come our way. In many ways I feel privileged that He has trusted us with this suffering. It is easy to dishonor the Lord in the time of our sufferings. But we consider it an honor that He trusted us to honor Him with this difficult season in our life. I will share more about this later. This is a very long post for me! Good night or morning or whatever time it is where you are!
Grace and Peace to you,
Thomas