Welcome to the last post of 2019. This year has a bit crazier than most, but before I share my thoughts about 2019 as a whole, let’s take a quick look at this past month…

School

The week prior to their holiday break, James’ school had another one of their spirit weeks. Have I told you how much we adore his one-on-one nurse? I think she may be one of James’ crushes.

Monday: Sports Day

Tuesday: Sweats Day

Wednesday: Festive Wear

Thursday: Buddy Day

Friday: Pajama Day

Christmas

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. James made Santa’s nice list this year, which didn’t really come as a surprise since he’s always on the nice list. Even with all the stuff that James has been thorough, he rarely complains or acts out. He really is a good kid.

As usual, he got lots of clothes for Christmas. I think we’re going to have to retire some of his older shirts to make room for the new ones. Someone also gave him a box full of books, which is perfect. A woman from respite care comes over once a month to babysit James so that Stacy and I can go out and spend some alone time together. That alone time is usually grocery shopping, which is fine by me. At least Stacy and I get to hang out without having to worry about James. Anyway, the woman that watches James loves to read to him. Now they have lots of books to choose from.

A Special Guest

A couple of days ago James had a special visitor. A friend owns a therapy dog and he stopped by to meet James. I so badly want a dog now. Stacy and I have been talking about getting one for a while, and James seemed to be okay with it so we might be adding another member to the family in the near future. We are still talking about it, so we’ll have to see. It would have to be a rather low-key dog that won’t jump on James and that doesn’t shed too much. With James not able to close his mouth or his eyes, we don’t want dog hair falling in his eyes or throat.

A Look Back on 2019

Wow, what a year this has been. The first few months were pretty status quo, with the exception of those sub-zero temperatures we had in late January. Although James spent as little time outside as possible, we think those cold temperatures still got him. He had a couple of days of respiratory issues, but fortunately we were able to manage it at home and it didn’t require a hospital stay.

We had a good trip to Indianapolis for Spring Break. Well, it was mostly a good trip. There were a few incidents that made us question if we wanted to just pack up and go home. A couple of weeks after our trip to Indy, James wound up in the hospital with pneumonia, which had us a bit worried because we were counting down the days to his spinal fusion surgery. We had been waiting a long time to get the surgery and we were nervous that an illness would postpone or cancel the surgery. We made the decision to keep James home from school until surgery so he wouldn’t pick up any germs that were going around.

Fortunately, he remained healthy enough for the spinal fusion. While the surgery was a success, he ended up having an extended hospital stay because his digestive system didn’t want to cooperate. We’ve learned that James usually has some digestion issues after surgery, but this time it took a bit longer for his digestive system to get back to work.

He landed back in the hospital for a couple of days in August with pneumonia.

And then came the viral post. What a whirlwind that has been. Although it is not spreading as fast as it was after Stacy first posted it, it is still reaching more people every day. As of December 8th, it has surpassed 17 million people.

Yes, we have had a small number of derogatory comments from ignorant people, but the positive, supportive, and loving comments grossly outweigh the negative ones. We want to express our gratitude to everyone that shared the picture, reacted positively, and left supportive comments. And a special thank you to those that confronted the bullies. I do believe in karma so the people that left disrespectful comments, made jokes, or turned James into a meme will get what’s coming to them. I just wish I could be there to see it.

All in all, I think it was a good year. Thank you for all of your well wishes and support. We wish all of you nothing but the best in 2020.