Kevin's Healing Journey: Kevin's 15th Birthday Weekend

Monday, October 7, 2019

Kevin's 15th Birthday Weekend - October 6, 2019

Kevin's always happy to see the "You say it's your birthday" singing dog. A favorite birthday gift from several years ago!

Kevin had lots of fun activities to do for his birthday weekend! We started it off on Friday with Grandma at Holden Arboretum (see previous post for pictures). On Saturday, we spent the beautiful fall day together with Jon...since he was going to the Steelers game in Pittsburgh on Sunday. We started the day at the farmers market. Then we traveled with Kevin's bike to another section of the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail.

We biked/walked the Towpath Trail in New Franklin at the Vanderhoof Trailhead 2.3 miles to the Franklin Trailhead and back. My watch tracked it as 4.71 miles and it took us about 1 hour and 40 minutes. I love this new family activity for us!

On the way home, we made a quick stop to see
the Barberton mums at Lake Anna

It's always a good time and a good place to celebrate at Sarah's Vineyard in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park!

Sunday Birthday! After church, our friend Kristen joined us at Water Works Park where Kevin had a 3 mile birthday ride! This has quickly become a new favorite place to bike/walk. Then we took an afternoon break and Kevin requested to watch Little Mermaid movie...even though the Steelers game was on TV. We gladly paused it when the entire G Family FaceTimed us to wish Kevin a happy birthday!

Kevin attended our church's LifeTeen program on his birthday too. I provided dinner for the group on this night so that we could share Kevin's favorite treat, smoothies from Smoothie King. Kevin's favorite is Apple Kiwi Green. Kevin was funny...I packed him some cucumbers & hummus and added in some of his snack balls (energy bites) but skipped the apples because he was going to get a smoothie. But he kept requesting APPLE on his Talker because he always gets apple with his snack balls LOL. And then someone had one of the green smoothies later in the night...he gave a look like 'what are you doing that's my smoothie!' He knows what he can have and not have...he didn't have a problem with the other colored smoothies that the kids were having. I guess he's like a typical teenager boy...it's all about the food.

It was a big birthday weekend and long day. When we got home from LifeTeen, I was easily able to talk Kevin into going upstairs to watch Wheel of Fortune in my bedroom before going to bed. I got the best snuggles and smiles. He may be 15 years old but he still likes to snuggle with his mama! He knows it makes me so happy!

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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.