We are all thankful first of all to God, our family and friends.  For all the wonderful support over the past year, so many of you have been there for us over the past year when we all needed it most.  We are thankful to all the doctors, nurses and hospital therapist that helped Matthew when it was needed most.  We are especially thankful to God for putting Spencer in out lives and really getting things moving in the right direction with his experiance and guidence and completely positive way of looking at things.  We are thankful for our own health and the health of family and friends and for keeping us all safe.  Of coarse we are thankful that Matthew is still with us and that he continues to heal and come back to us day by day week by week, and that continued healing and improvement in his overall being is something that inspires us, keeps us motivated and moving ahead to a time when we can all look back on this and appreciate the miracle of life and keep us aware of how fragile it really is, to appreciate one another every day and to appreciate every single day no matter how down things become one must always look around, beyond there own problems and see the true meaning and miracle of life.  We see it daily with Matthew,  maybe not every moment but when you first don’t see it, you look back a second time and there he is, smiling or making some sound that almost comes out as a word or sentence as he’s looking right at you and you know he’s trying so hard and he hears himself and you see the happiness that brings him, or when he reaches out and grabs you or gives you a pinch just to get your attention and touch him, talk to him, play with him, that’s the kind of things he’s doing now, and to most it doesn’t sound like much but when you look back just a week, a month, two months and so on you realize he’s come far and we all know it’s just a matter of time, all part of the process.  I am especially thankful to Lisa who with her strength, determination and energy keeps me and everyone else going.  We all owe a special thanks to Lindsey for all the faith and hard work, determination and love you have brought to our family and Matthew.  It’s been incredable to witness the love between the two of you.  I see what Matt see’s in you and he’s so very lucky to have found you and still have you by his side.  We all feel lucky to have you as a part of our family.

I hope you all have a wonderful Holiday and take the time to reflect on life, your families and friends and everyone around you.  Appreciate one another please.  Keep the faith!

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Since the last time I updated this blog, lots has changed for the better.  We had Matt’s eyes checked last week and it turned out he has double vision which was not a big surprise since that kind of issue is common but never brought up by most doctors attending someone that has had Matt’s trauma.  The eye doctor treating Matt knows the issues that can be present but are comonly overlooked.  She diagnosed Matt pretty quickly, a 2 1/2 hour evaluation, and has us placing a patch on one eye at a time throughout the day.  By the way, Matt’s eyes appear very healthy and intact which is a huge relief since it is also common for some one’s eyes to sustain physical damage with the kind of trauma Matt had.  So with the patch and exercises that they sent us home with has helped Matt make amazing progress.  He can see and it can really be noticed when you walk into the room.  He looks right over at you and is seriously looking at everything, even at a distance.  Spencer even has noticed and commented on his focus now.  When Matt sits up now he doesn’t seem so disoriented.  It’s only been a week!  Yesterday when he was sitting up in bed he reached out and touched at first a photo that was hung over his bed.  Lisa told Matt to hold it if you want, it’s OK.  He did!  It was a photo of he and Lindsey, he held it and looked at it like he was recalling the time.  Matt had his second therapy with the eye doctor this past Tuesday and when the doctor came in she tried some things and commented on how well he was doing, tracking much better than he was last week and seemed to track better without lenses.  It looks like what he sees is much more organized than it has been and I think that in turn is making his brain work to see things the way they are supposed to appear.  The reason Matt has been seeing double is the muscle control of each of his eyes.  He has not been moving his eyes together all the time so even if they are a little off target it confuses what he is seeing and he has not been able to process it and when he tries, it exhausts him.  Now with one eye covered he can see one of everything and it makes more sense.  Once that happens it frees up his ability to progressother things that are going on.  That’s the way the doctor explained it and that’s what we are seeing in just one week.  Matt will be down for eye therapy every Tuesday and after the forth week the doctor will do another evaluation.  It will be interesting to see what happens in the next weeks and months to come.  With all of this that Matt is much more involve in the day to day routine.  He participates in his daily grooming, combing his hair, lifting his arm when we ask him for washing, with moving his mouth and tongue as we work with him to form words which we can see he is working at and hopefully will be coming soon with all the focus and attention he now has.  All good stuff! 

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