Hi there folks!  Here's the latest VNS report:  Cody seems to still be much happier, more smiley, and perhaps a bit more eye contact too since the VNS was turned on.  Still no negatives - no hiccups, coughs, voice vibration.  We go in Thursday to get it turned up one more setting.  Seizures have been better overall.  He's still had bad ones but I think he had a cold too.  We'll have to have a clear run with no cold to really see if it's helping yet.  Scars are healing up great - and he'll be able to soak in a bath soon.  There is a magnet you're given that you can hold over the device during a seizure that "may" help stop the seizure, lessen it's intensity, or help with the post-ictal state.  We've used it many times and sometimes it seems like it may help, others not.  He wears it on a velcro band on his ankle and at the first sign of a seizure we whip it off and press it against the device on his chest for 3 seconds.  Then you have to wait 2 minutes but you can do it again if the seizure continues.  Interesting.  No huge indication is lessens anything but it's really hard to tell because he has big and small seizures all the time.

He's got his 5 signs down:  "all done" "more" "open" "noise" (as in make a noise in my ear) and "eat."  He is proficient in all of them!  So now I'm debating about the next sign - could be banana, hot dog, hello, or outside.  Not sure yet.  He sure seems to love signing!  It is exciting to see!  His ABA work is going just great - he is imitating all kids of things.  He has a plastic "clapper" that makes a clapping noise when you wave it.  And if you sit in front of him with your own clapper, you can wave it and he'll imitate, you can hit the clapper against a drum and he'll do the same, or you can hit it against your own hand and he'll do the same.  That is HUGE for us!  Imitation is the gateway to all learning - so we're praying for a breakthrough.

Boy am I in a super fantastic Beth Moore Bible Study on Daniel.  Today she discussed when Shadrach, Meshak and Abed nigo were thrown in the fiery furnace because they wouldn't bow down to King Nebekenezer.  The King was shocked when he looked into the furnace and not only saw that they weren't burning - but he saw A FOURTH MAN in there with them - walking through the fire!  Sure enough it seemed to be God Himself.  And they emerged perfectly whole - and as the Bible says, with not even a smell of smoke.  Here are some points I got out of this - she said that the 3 men probably figured that 1 of 2 things could happen to them: 

1) Either the Lord would turn the fire off or rescue them so they'd not have to enter the fiery furnace - or - 

2) They'd get burned alive. 

They probably never imagined that

3) He would walk THROUGH the fire inside the furnace WITH them.   

Yet so often that's what He does.  He doesn't take away the flames - he doesn't allow us to get burned alive - he walks through the furnace WITH us.  In Isaiah 43:1 it talks about "when" you walk through the fire.  Not "if"....but WHEN.  We all will.  God won't take away every fire in our lives.  And so often I forget to reach out for His hand that is waiting, extended to me.  For some of us, the fire is life-long - which is what a special needs child brings with him or her.  A trial that has no finish line.  It's so easy to just trudge along - feeling the flames - feeling burned - cowering under the heat.  Not remembering or realizing that it IS possible to walk victorously "without even the smell of smoke."  I think the times I am not victorous (which are many!) are because I walk through this furnace alone.  Or at most I'll call a friend.  But rarely do I harness the power of the Almighty to walk alongside me, even carry me, so that the flames that threaten me don't even touch me.  He did it with Shadrach, Meshak and Abed Nigo!   Would He not do the same for us?  I have a lot of work to do in the area of clinging to Him - rather than just going it alone....in my own power.  On my own, I smell of smoke.  On my own, the flames leave me scorched, they eat me alive.  But there is the potential, if I choose it, to walk through the fiery trial of this life and not get burned.  And what a testimony that would be to others....to see someone walk through a blaze...and not even smell of smoke!  That's what I want.   I'll end with this great quote:  "when we refuse to bow down to the fire, our circumstances become a servant of the Gospel."

Love, Shawna