Nashville

Today was a day! I finally got to see Jude after the. Longest. And. Most. Fun. Week. Of. My. Life. I had so much fun with Clayton, he is such a great young man. We had a ton of fun playing with friends and relaxing being a half normal family. Clay really misses Jude, I found that out which I was home. When you're away from it, it's easy to think he's doing fine but when I am able to really talk to him I realize how much he misses Jude. He was able to bring a friend over on Friday for our (now annual) end of school party and decided against the sibling exchange program which would switch his friend for his brother. Instead he decided to keep Jude AND Carter, my poor refrigerator! With how much they fight I never thought I'd hear that coming from Clay!

After a week with Clayton I had to say goodbye again, I am getting so sick of I will see you soon excuses. He is being so strong not having his mom there, s often we forget about how much he has to deal with and only focus on the special needs. It's forever a struggle, give too much to your special needs kid and the other kids suffer but don't give enough and everyone suffers. I feel for all special needs parents.

Today Ryan and I met in Nashville, TN to switch Jude and although I would have loved coming here with my cousins, we had a great time. Clay was with Grandpa today and got to go to the end of the year camp out for Cub Scouts. Considering I have not had a response from my texts I think they're having fun! My mom drove up to Green Bay today to go see my grandma. 94 years young and still going strong, she is an amazing woman! She unfortunately just had a stroke thi year and it has brought her so much closer to Jude. It was one of those unfortunate events that make you stronger for going through, Jude thinks of Gram as his little ally. It crazy ti believe (shameless plug) KIDS HAVE STROKES too!

So the country music capital of the world was not lost on me, I had a couple of moments where music overtook me today. While we visited the Grand Ole Opry Darius Rucker was playing Don't Think I Don't which is near and dear to my heart then Van Halen reminded me of the good ole times of middle school. Nashville is a pretty cool city. We spent most of the evening with the folks at Hard Rock Cafe which was awesome! Johnathin and Dana at the Hard Rock Cafe Nashville are the best. They took a shining to Jude and he got 2 pins and guitar strap to start a collection. He was in high heaven!

On a functional standpoint, Jude gained so much stretch while I was gone. He worked really hard! He had a four pawed therapy visitor named Dylan that he loved. He misses the dogs so much it must have been a great break from therapy. But no rest for the weary, Ryan has a photo of Jude throwing the toy to Dylan overhead and with a straight wrist, amazing! When I put Jude to sleep I laid with his hand on my cheek and I loved how open and not tense his hand was. I laid there for an extra ten minutes easy because of that! We promised to go back to the apartment and have a reading night for at least an hour tomorrow.

In one week from today we will be done with therapy and back home to Indy. I will be so glad. The results that Acquire therapy are AMAZING. But it's a struggle for all of us. Being half the US away is tough on any family. Insurance so far has declined to pay the fee but we are still fighting that decision. We are so lucky to have our family, they have made up the difference that we couldn't. This therapy is so important now because his brain is still willing to accept the retraining. It is amazing what the brain can do. We will keep fighting for the insurance, the school services, and anything else we think Jude will benefit from because that's our job as parents. In a perfect world our children will get what the need no matter the cost, until then I will be Jude's voice like all parents do. For our children we will do anything.


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Location:Church St,Nashville,United States