Thank YOU!

Dear Family, Friends, and Friends of Friends we have met during this journey,

We are so thankful to each and everyone of you for your love, support, guidance, and friendship during these last several months.

Brett and I continue to be surprised by the village supporting us. Family still flies into town to help when needed, friends still drop off dinners, an anonymous person at Cole's school left an envelope with cash for me the day before Thanksgiving, the list goes on.

We have struggled with how to keep people updated on things, but at the same time begin regain some privacy with our lives, as we are all still healing. Therefore I apologize there have not been updates on the blog for months.

Brett is healthy, going to Physical Therapy twice a week, Occupational Therapy once a week and running three businesses from the front office of our rented house in Wash Park. He calls it the War Room, with three large flat screen monitors and a TV on the wall above in case a baseball game or golf tournament is on that he needs to follow.

As Brett is so dedicated in his rehab and regaining strength, his neck is huge, and his shoulders are unbelievably strong. He has not regained feeling below his underarms, no movement in triceps or hands, fingers or thumbs. He does have amazing strength in his shoulders, biceps and some limited wrist muscles. There are many tricks we have learned along the way like bending utensils and creating super long straws for drinking have offered more independence with eating. Brett has always loved gadgets and he has all sorts of helpful things to help with using the phone and computer with voice activated technology.

Caroline started 1st grade at a new school and has settled in nicely. She is losing teeth, playing soccer year round and loves play dates with her girlfriends. Cole is in Pre-K at the same school he attended last year and is loving learning, and hanging with his buddies. Both children continue to amaze us with their efforts to help~ pick up things, hold doors, put on Brett's eating brace, take turns pouring "meds" from the shot glass into Brett's mouth, carrying in groceries and taking care of insect control in our old house!

I am still working at Qwest, and have an unbelievably strong support system around me also.

A huge highlight of our summer was a two week long trip to Brett's Family's cabin in Montana. His family modified the little cabin for Brett and added ramps to allow him in and out of the main cabin and onto the Party Deck. He was able to watch the kids enjoy the same lake he grew up loving. He enjoyed watching their smiles and hearing their laughter as they played with the cousins. The picture above was taken of Brett on his familiar spot on the deck overlooking the water, watching everything!

We have decided this will be the last update, unless circumstances change and we need to "get the word out" to folks.

Please continue to keep in touch, we love to hear from you!

With Love and Gratitude,
Brett and Kelly

brett@thefootmechanic.com
kjpurdom@hotmail.com