Viral Post Update

As of November 24th, we have officially reached 15 million people. We have no words. Totally speechless. Thank you to everyone who has shared the picture, left nice comments, and showed James some love. I am a bit curious about those that laughed at or were angry at the picture, though.

I think I know from reading the comments where some of those angry or laughing reactions came from. There have been a few negative comments mixed in with the abundance of positive ones, and the gloves came off. We realized that James has more than fans…he has an army. And if someone attacks him, the army will attack. I have been hesitant to post the negative comments and be the better man, but after some of the comments that were made over the past month, I am done. Stay tuned for a separate post where I will publish some of the horrible comments for the world to see, including the names of the people who posted them.

Random Stuff

Things have been a bit slow in our day-to-day lives this past month, which is usually how it goes as we approach winter. There wasn’t enough to break things up into their own sections, so this section of the post is just going to be a bunch of random stuff.

• Stacy saw this in one of her Facebook groups. For those of you who have tube fed kids, here is another use of those syringes. Thanks feedingtubeawareness.org. I’ll report back if we try this the next time we have tacos.

• All of James’ school pictures are hung on the wall outside of his bedroom. The picture below are his 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade pictures. The first three pictures are before the spinal fusion surgery, and the last picture is after the surgery. He looks different, doesn’t he?

• The final two metal pictures that Stacy purchased after our family photo session in October arrived. If you like the way they look and want to get some of your family (or dog, or whatever), check out Stacy’s Thirty-One website.

• We have had some issues in the past finding good, quality one-one-one nurses for James. We have had a couple of really good ones, though, like the one he has now. On November 18th we had our IEP meeting for James and the subject of the switches that James uses to communicate came up. After the meeting, Stacy sent the nurse a text about the switches. Her response is below. We hope we are able to keep her for a long time.

• When you’re raising a special needs child, it’s hard to take care of yourself when you spend so much of your time and energy taking care of them. Many years ago, Stacy and I vowed to get healthier. Not just for us, but for James, too. It’s amazing to look at how much we’ve changed from 2009 after we brought James home from the NICU, to now.

• I know you will be reading this after Thanksgiving, but James wanted to wish all of his fans a wonderful Thanksgiving. He is blessed to have so many people (near and far) that care about him.

• The annual Epilepsy Awareness Month fundraiser that Stacy had raised the biggest amount she has ever raised. Thanks to all of you who made this possible. She will be sending money over to the Epilepsy Foundation Greater Chicago soon.

• James went to see the Caring Santa at the mall this morning.