They're Here!!

Finally, after weeks of waiting, numerous phone calls made, faxes being sent but never received and then resent, we have the leg braces. We picked them up yesterday. And of course, nothing can ever go smoothly or exactly as planned with us.

A little background, once we found out Brody was going to have braces again, we started pumping him up about getting them. He knew right away that he wanted green..light green to be exact. Well, when we went for the fitting a few weeks back, I forgot to tell them green. So I had to call the following week. They told me they can do colored straps, but the actual brace would be white. So green straps were going to have to suffice. So for weeks we have talked about these cool white and green special shoes that Brody would be getting....

Flash forward to yesterday...in walks the guy with the braces...white braces with BLUE straps. Matt and I looked at each other in panic. And the first words out of Brody's mouth..."I wanted green ones." It was a sweet little whimper, almost like he knew he shouldn't complain, but he really wanted green. We immediately asked the guy about it and apparently there was a miscommunication somewhere. Fortunately, it wasn't a huge deal. We did all the fitting, trying them out, etc and then they could swap the straps out in a couple of hours. I was able to go back later that afternoon to pick up some super cool white braces with GREEN straps.

And here's the best part...you know how we made $1500 at the garage sale? Well....after the insurance paid their part, the braces only cost us $1300!! We were completely shocked! I mean, we shouldn't have been shocked...we should have known God would provide. He is constantly reminding us how BIG He is.

Eventually, he will wear them all day, every day. But to start out, we gradually add more time each day. He wore them about an hour last night. He wore them a little this morning, and I will put them on him again after his nap, before we head to church. Then tomorrow we do the same, just adding more time, and so on, until we work him up to all day, and even night. The brace is spring loaded in the ankle, which puts a constant pull on his foot to hold it up. (to the position that yours and mine is in) Therefore, it makes his little legs sore because of the strain it puts on them. Eventually he'll get used to it and hopefully the muscles will loosen in his tendons and it won't be as hard on him.

We try to really hype them up as "cool shoes, special shoes, etc." We don't want him to feel different or not "normal" because of them. Last night when we were putting them on to head to hope group (our church small group), Carson said "hey, i don't have those cool shoes like Brody." So apparently, now our other child feels left out haha. Who would have thought. But I do think this is going to be the hardest part for me as a mother. He was so young when he wore his first set of braces. Kids didn't notice, and if they did, he didn't understand anything. Now that he is almost 4, he definitely understands if kids make fun of him. It pains me to think of him being rejected or called names because of his leg braces. But this is probably more of a personal, protective mom problem haha. I'm sure Brody will take it in stride. And he has some pretty cool friends..they will probably think the braces are super cool!

Brody wanted to show them off last night.

 So discreet under his jeans.

And more news....we start physical therapy tomorrow!! We go twice a week..Tuesdays and Thursdays!! So excited to get this rolling. I plan to bring my camera so we can share this experience with you as well!

Unreal

I can't even begin to put into words how thankful we are for our family and friends who donated items to the garage sale. Brody is truly loved by so many of you and we are so grateful.

I feel like this entire week was a whirlwind for myself, as well as the other ladies who put in lots of hours sorting through boxes upon boxes upon boxes of things.  I joined in on the sorting fun starting on Wednesday, but I know Kristen and Tara worked on it all week long, not counting all the time Kristen spent collecting donations from people for the last 2 weeks. I don't know about the other ladies, but I think I had this idea in my head that by Friday night everything would be perfectly organized, on tables, and priced. How wrong was I!! There was SOOOO MUCH STUFF that it was impossible to price items individually. And impossible to put it on tables by 10pm, close the garage and go to sleep. So what happened?? Matt and I stayed with Cindy, Tara, and Kristen until 1:00am setting up tables and items in the driveway. We headed home to let Brooks sleep in his bed and get a couple hours of sleep. We assumed that the girls would crash too and we'd meet them at 5:30am to finish dragging everything out. When we returned, every table was set up, every item was on display. The entire driveway and front yard were overrun with clothing, home decor, sporting goods, tools, toys, baby gear...you name it, we had it. We had enough to have 2 large garage sales. And my dear friends NEVER WENT TO SLEEP so that it was all set up and ready for our first customers. (who started coming at 6am even though we advertised 7am) And despite that, they were chipper and happy all day as they sold and dealt with professional hagglers.

I was (and still am) blown away by their hearts and attitudes this entire week. I never once heard them complain about how much work it was. Kristen never seemed to mind that her home was overtaken by other people's junk all week. They never batted an eye about the fact that they had to stay up all night and work until almost 3pm today to run the sale and clean up.

I don't even think saying "Thank You" is enough. We truly, truly appreciate everyone who pitched in. The husbands for giving up their wives, as well as working the sale today(Thanks Ken!), those who donated, the dear ladies who worked like crazy today to raise money for our Brody Boy! We love you all!!

So, how much did we raise, you ask? More than we ever imagined. $1500!!!! That is incredible to me! We had $900 of it by 8am. And we still have enough stuff leftover to have an entire other garage sale. So we plan to do another one, hopefully fairly soon. So those who donated items, hopefully by the end of the next sale, nearly every item will be sold and put towards Brody's expenses.

Tara and Kristen probably around 9pm last night..before the all nighter.

 These photos really don't do it justice. It doesn't even look all that large in the photos...but it was huge!

 We had a poster explaining what we were raising money for. We were able to share a little about Brody when people asked, as well as about our church and the body coming alongside us to put on the sale.

 Matt and Ken don't appear to doing much but cutting up right here. They were probably talking about some fantasy football trade or something. But we really put these 2 to work today. 

Cindy making a sale...and it was a BIG one :)

Brody's Walk Garage Sale

image from google.com

The people in our life are pouring love out on us. I just learned that some dear friends of ours are planning a garage sale for Brody's Walk!! All money raised will be put towards Brody's medical expenses!! It seriously chokes me up when I see the body of Christ coming along side us and loving us so much!

So, that being said...its time to go through your closets, dig under your bed, and clean out your attic!! We are collecting donations so if you have anything you need to get rid of and want to pitch in, it is greatly appreciated!

The garage sale is set for Nov. 19 in College Station. Its somewhat of a quick turnaround, but they wanted to get it done before it got too cold and before the holidays started. If you have anything you'd like to donate, you can contact me at brodyswalk @ gmail . com (ps did you know you are supposed to put spaces in your email  in posts to prevent spammers..I learned that recently) or if you have my personal email you can email me there as well. We will coordinate picking up/dropping off donations.

Please have all donations to us by Wednesday, Nov. 16 so that we have time to price and set up.

For those in the Lumberton area who would like to donate, we are working on a way to get donations here. However, they may need to be brought up next weekend so that only leaves a week. Sorry for the short notice. Please contact me for more information.

Also, feel free to pass this information on to your friends and family who may not know us or know anything about Brody's Walk and spread the word about the sale.

We are so blessed by all of you. We're seeing the Lord provide in ways we never imagined. God is always so faithful.

Physical Therapy: Day 1

Image from google.com

Today was Brody's first physical therapy session since being diagnosed with CMT. The rehab center has a new therapist who works with children so we were excited to get it started up again. Matt and I both attended this first session so we could share with her our concerns for Brody and also both learn whatever we could about how to work with him at home. We're hoping that most of his future sessions can be first thing in the morning so Matt could take him and just go into work a little late that day. It will be quite hard for me to try to bring all 3 kids and keep our middle child from trying to join in on the therapy haha. Fortunately, if I do have to bring him myself, we have friends and family who are so great about helping out with the kids.

This first session actually ended up being an evaluation, which makes sense. She did a Peabody test on him where she evaluated him walking, jumping on one leg, hopping, climbing stairs, pushing, pulling, running, throwing a ball, etc. She tested just about every physical developmental milestone possible. And of course, the results came back as we expected...above average upper body strength and weak lower body. She actually told us that he is about a year behind his peers in lower body ability..jumping, hopping on one leg, climbing, bending, squatting, etc.


I was impressed that she was familiar with CMT. I didn't know if therapists were taught about these conditions or not. So she knew he would have foot drop and tight achilles tendons. She knew that he needed AFOs and that his problem was not going to be "fixed" with therapy, but that the work she does will hopefully slow the progression. She also told us our end goal is still for him to graduate from therapy. Although that's good news, I have to admit I'm still skeptical of that. From everything the doctors have told us, we don't see how NOT being in therapy is going to be beneficial. But I guess her point is that after 6 months of therapy, hopefully she will have trained us to where we can do all the proper exercises and playful activities with him at home ourselves. She did say that if we aren't ready for him to "graduate" after 6 months or if he takes some time off but needs to come back, that's no problem. So I guess we'll just see how we feel he's doing when the time comes.

She's going to take the next couple of weeks to put together an exercise program for him and submit it to his doctor for approval. So we'll start our scheduled visits in the next couple of weeks. I plan to bring the camera (or send it with Matt) so that we can document for ourselves, as well as share with you.

Coming up next...Should be picking up the AFOs (leg braces) either this week or next!! I will definitely bring the camera to that appointment!