July 13th

It took us two years, but with some help from Austin we finally got Ashley’s Facebook account reactivated. Over the weekend Ashley saw postings from several dozen of friends and Austin sent out a notice that Ashley is back on Facebook.

Ashley made a new request this last week. She wanted to chew something. We started out with graham cracker. She had no problem keeping it in place and chewing it sufficiently to swallow. We took a leap and gave her a blue berry. The skin proved too much to handle just yet, but as usual Ashley is taking the lead in her recovery by asking to try new things. We plan to stick with the consistency of crackers for awhile and as she builds that coordination we will move along to other foods. Liquids are still proving a challenge and that comes from the fact that Ashley has a hard time keeping her head up when chewing and pursing those lips. Try swallowing a sip of water that way and you will see what a challenge that is. She is getting there though. I think of it like perfecting a golf swing. Why can’t we all swing a club like Tiger Woods? Ashley has to concentrate and compensate for every motor skill we take for granted (as uncoordinated as ours’ may be).

We were home this past weekend and that meant that Ashley slept in her own bed upstairs. As we stated in the past she climbs stairs quite well. She has improved her descent as well. She is properly bending the knee that stays on the higher stair as her other leg moves down to the next stair. Perhaps it will be soon rather than later that Ashley moves upstairs full time!

Ashley will be back in a cast starting next week to continue the improvement of her feet/ankle/leg posture. Please focus your prayers on the success of that process in helping Ashley walk more easily.

We went to a Fort Wayne Tincaps game a few weeks ago (minor league baseball) with a couple of Ashley’s friends. The new ballpark is great. We plan on going to another game on August 6th which is followed by fireworks and have been getting the word out to Ashley’s friends.