Last Weekend...

as an inpatient! Jennie will move into the Shepherd apartment with our mom on Tuesday. The apartments are very nice, very accessible, and are one step closer to working towards moving home. This will be the beginning of the outpatient Pathways rehabilitation program that she will go to 5 days a week from 8:30-2pm. This program will last roughly two months. The plan is for her to get everything she can out of that program before the next step of moving back home to NC. That will be just in time for warm weather and trips to the beach! Once she returns, she will still continue to receive therapy while living at home.

Jennie went on her first outting yesterday with other Shepherd patients to the Mellow Mushroom for lunch and ate pizza. She was able to leave her wheelchair on the bus and walk all the way in to the restaurant! She has been speaking more this past week. She does well to repeat words one at a time back to you and is still working on her ability to say responses on her own. She is consistently able to answer "yeah" when talking in conversation with her and can also say "hi" on the phone when we call her. This past Thursday, Jennie's therapists all got together, grabbed her radio and recent "Best of the Grammy's" cd and had a dance party in the gym with her. She was up on her feet dancing along and even moving her hips a bit! She has definitely become one of their favorite patients and are all sad to see her go but excited for how much progress she has made in just 5 weeks. The nurses and staff at Shepherd have been so positive since the minute she arrived. They helped to renew our confidence that we have all been fighting and praying for a reason and it has truly made a difference.

On that note, thank you so much to all who have helped Jennie along the way; EMS guys, surgeons, doctors, nurses, case workers, and especially family and friends who have been so supportive and not given up hope. Hundreds of people have been involved in Jennie's recovery and I am certain that each of them have been guided by the hand of God who has truly performed a miracle in her sweet life.