4 lbs. and gaining!!!!

[Guest guest]

Dear Friends,

I put Connor on the scale yesterday and about passed out. He's

gained 4 lbs in one month. That is a complete miracle for my little

guy! You would not believe the energy he has now. As far as RSS

kids go, many of you thought he was active. Believe me, it's even

better (or worse) depending on what time of day we are talking about.

I so love our g-tube. I'm still working on a peppy little ode' to

that magical piece of plastic (cheesy grin).

Anyway, I'm working on getting Connor at the Hutcherson Early

Learning Center here in Lynchburg. It's a school for children with

special needs. I feel better for his first year at pre-school to be

there where they have a nurse, a ST, a PT and OT on staff. Connor

will be able to get his therapies weekly now which is really cool

for him. His speech is getting so hard to understand. It's the

high palette and malocclusion of the jaw working against him. The

other night when we were all playing Monopoly, Connor asked for

a " duh dit. " Cameron seemed to think he was asking for garlic. I

couldn't figure it out at all. Connor got really mad because nobody

could understand him. Finally, I asked him to show me in the fridge

what it was that he wanted. He pointed to a Trix Yogurt. " Duh

Dit. " We've been working on annunciation, pausing and closing our

lips to form the words. Connor gets so excited he starts speaking

his " language " and not many people can understand him.

I'm also in the process of getting his I.E.P. worked out with the

school district. We need additional testing to be done and then we

will be assigned a slot.

I'm so sorry to say that the Kearns' will not be at convention this

year. We have a huge, national church convention to attend in

Portland, Oregon which is happening at the same time. Since we are

from the state of Oregon and most of our family still lives there,

we are turning it into a family reunion of sorts. However, if there

are any other RSS " family " in the area who want to hook up in

Portland for lunch or visit, give me a holler. Most of my family

haven't even met Connor yet so we will be driving around a lot and

visiting relatives.

That's all the news for now. Hope all is well with the extended

crew out there. We pray for our sick one's daily and rejoice with

every centimeter of growth and bit of good news that is shared.

Thank you all for being here and helping us out with sound advice

and sympathetic cyber-shoulders.