Longer Days and the Broncos

I realized tonight that my posts have been following the same theme as many of our days, ups and downs. I try really hard to stay focused on each day and be positive, but there are times when dealing with all of this just becomes too much for all of us. While Jake is doing really well all things considered, it's hard to see him struggle with so many things that life throws at him. Had I posted earlier in the weekend, this would have been one of the "downs." He had a rough day on Friday (first day of PE, a lot of appointments and a long week), and that combined with some other things going on, took me to the place where I needed to have a really good cry and get it all out. I finally started to shake off the funk I was in on Saturday afternoon and ended the weekend on a better note.

We extended Jake's time at school three days last week to 3 1/2 hours. His fatigue levels are improving and we really wanted to give him the opportunity to participate in some of the things he's really been missing at school. One day he stayed for lunch and the other two he went to Art and PE. He got to have lunch in the classroom with a few friends since we were concerned that the noise and activity level in the cafeteria would be too much right now. He was so happy when he came home on Monday and told me all kinds of funny things his friends had shared. He's always really loved going to Art and was so happy to be back in class. To be honest, PE was probably not the other special we would have picked for Jake this first week, but it's what he wanted to do and I knew the PE teacher would make accommodations so he could participate with his class. A fire drill during PE threw a bit of a kink in things and class didn't end up going as he expected. After a talk with the PE teacher about what happened and how things will look next week, he's excited to go back again.

Jake got a pretty amazing surprise on Saturday afternoon. A couple of  my brother Ryan's friends(Zach and Taryn Wilson and Garrett Townsend)

had been working on something for Jake for awhile and were able to make it happen last week. They had gotten in touch with JD Walton (center for the Denver Broncos, currently on injured reserve) to get Jake an autographed  football. They were hoping for a few signatures and were so excited when they picked it up and saw that the entire team had signed it. Zach, Taryn and Ryan came over Saturday with the ball and a display case. Ryan was very worried the boys might try and play catch with it and wanted to make sure it was protected, we assured him that wasn't going to happen. :-) Jake's been getting into football more since he's been involved with the Warriors and has been watching the Bronco games with us, so he was pretty excited. And I think a little shocked to be honest! It was really cool to look over the ball and see all the players names he recognized. He couldn't wait to show my dad today who is a HUGE Bronco fan and he was blown away. Todd and I were really moved that Ryan's friends wanted to do this for Jake and appreciate all that went into making this happen. He is getting quite the memorabilia collection between this and the things Rush sent!