<-- Easter Sunday

We had a wonderful few days together as a family. The warm, sunny Easter Sunday we had was a wonderful change from the cold and rainy days preceding. On Easter we went downtown Minneapolis after church and took a walk across the old Stone Arch Bridge. First day in a while where my dad was able to take a walk outside again. It was quite wonderful.

My parents and Maggie left Monday afternoon for Chicago for the intensive speech therapy. They stopped halfway in Madison to rest and meet up with some friends, then arrived in Chicago the next day. They are staying in an apartment near where Dad is heading to therapy, right in the downtown. Their apartment is on the 47th floor! They do have elevators, but I think it would be good therapy/exercise for my dad to walk up the stairs. Maybe 47 flights is a bit much, though.

Yesterday, Wednesday, was the first day of therapy. There are 10 other people in the program. There are a few who have done the program before and feel they made so much progress that they want to do it again. Each person has their own schedule for the day. They are all there for 7 hours. My dad has specific itinerary that he does every day: a couple hours of individual therapy, an hour of computer speech therapy,an hour of group therapy, an hour "break" for lunch (the people in the program are supposed to talk and interact with others), an hour of reading and writing, and an hour of constraint induced therapy for communicating. Very intensive, but everyone we've talked to has been super pleased and encouraged with the program.

My dad isn't quite sure of the whole thing yet. Therapy at Sister Kenny was great, but he was able to do a lot more out of therapy, too. We would head out for excursions all the time. Now though, his therapy lasts from 9AM- 4PM, and when he gets home he just wants to sleep. He is up for dinner then heads to bed. He liked the feeling of living a fairly normal life, instead of therapy taking up his whole day. We are all real certain, though, that as the days pass he will realize the progress being made. He is definitely giving it his all and will work as hard as he can! The program is until the end of May, and then he'll have a nice long break.



"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline." -2 Timothy 1:7