Kevin's Healing Journey: Philadelphia, Thanksgiving, Pittsburgh

Monday, December 8, 2014

Philadelphia, Thanksgiving, Pittsburgh

The Sunday before Thanksgiving we traveled to Philadelphia for Kevin's six month revisit on Monday and Tuesday at the Family Hope Center. More details in the post below.

A rain to snow storm was expected on Wednesday, the day we were traveling home, along with all the other Thanksgiving holiday travelers. Our plan was to be on the road by 7:00 am. But for some reason Kevin woke up about 3:00 am. When Jon finally heard Kevin and woke up he said, "well we might as well go ahead and leave." Kevin immediately sat up in bed and gave his affirmative sound. We laughed because I think this was Kevin's plan all along. We were very thankful that Kevin did get us up and moving early because the storm did cover most of Pennsylvania, and because we left so early in the morning we did not have much traffic.

It was nice to arrive home and have a few hours to unpack, pick up the turkey, and take a nap before the first car load of family arrived for Thanksgiving. The rest of the family arrived on Thanksgiving day. We had 14 people overnight for Thanksgiving and it was a lot of fun! We went on a hike, we ate Thanksgiving dinner, we played pictionary, and we watched the Polar Express (which got a lot of smiles and laughs out of Kevin).

Kevin couldn't wait to start eating Turkey!

On Friday, we all traveled to Pittsburgh to celebrate Kevin's Great Grandma's 90th Birthday. Our family of 14 took her out to dinner and presented her with the album we made that included 90 memories and over 100 photos. On Saturday, the entire extended family went to Mass and a big birthday party for her.

Kevin was amazing the entire week. He handled the revisit at FHC like the champ he is. Not many kids could sit through the long days we have during our revisit. Then to come home and spend the Thanksgiving holiday with our family of 14 people overnight in our house. Then travel to Pittsburgh to celebrate his Great Grandma's 90th birthday. I was so proud of him during the celebrations, the best part for me was that the extended family got to see the true Kevin. He was charming, social, and smiling to all.

It was a big week of family and I am so thankful for:

Our FHC family that gives us Hope

Our related family that has Faith in us

And the Love we have for all of them

1 comment:

UnknownMonday, December 08, 2014
Sounds like a wonderful celebration for both occasions! He is a trooper, just like his Mom!
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My Blog

This blog was created to keep our family and friends updated on Kevin's healing journey. It is also our hope that others may find this blog to give help and hope to other delayed kids.

About Kevin

They told us Kevin would never walk or talk. But with lots of prayers, hard work, and extra hands, he began walking when he was four years old and we continue to have faith and hope as we wait patiently for his speech to develop. Kevin is now eight years old. He is diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy due to a brain-injury he had before birth that was caused by a stroke. In 2006, before Kevin was 2 years old, we found Glenn Doman’s book "What To Do About Your Brain-Injured Child" that had answers to help children with special needs and developmental delays. We began an individualized home treatment program for Kevin immediately and have been dedicated to our program ever since. We spent three years with the Doman family at The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential (IAHP) and now we are with Matthew and Carol Newell at The Family Hope Center (FHC). Twice a year we return to Philadelphia where Kevin receives a neurological evaluation to determine the progress he has made in the last six months. Then they provide us with an individualized, program that puts me in charge to help Kevin develop and reach his fullest potential.

Do You Know a Delayed Child?

The best recommendation we can give to another parent with a special needs or developmentally delayed child (brain-injured, brain-damaged, mentally retarded, mentally deficient, cerebral-palsied, epileptic, autistic, athetoid, hyperactive, attention deficit disordered, developmentally delayed, or down's) is to read Glenn Doman's book What To Do About Your Brain-Injured Child and/or Dr. Coralee Thompson and Dr. Philip Maffetone's book Healthy Brains, Healthy Children. By simply reading these books, you will gain valuable information to help your child which will begin to unlock the potential your child has. And best of all you will learn that there are other options to helping your child that you can do yourself. We would also highly recommend attending the parent course at FHC or IAHP. To read how our journey began and the successful progress Kevin has had refer to the January 2010 blog archive.