Sarah Rise Weekly Updates

December 21

I wanted to end the year’s updates with a positive glow, and I will get there, but for starters here is the honest grit… This week felt hard. At least for several moments sprinkled throughout. I don’t know if this was due to a change in the girls’ behavior or a change in my ability… Read more »

December 14

Sometimes things don’t go as planned and that is the best thing ever even if you don’t know it at the time. For Thanksgiving, the white potatoes had gone bad so Sonia and I combined our sweet potatoes, which neither of us eat a ton of, and made mashed sweet potatoes. We learned then that… Read more »

December 7

We started our day with a group meeting. I am consistently amazed by my volunteers with their creativity, thoughtfulness, and dedication to our program. Seriously!!! I have the best volunteers! We have lots of new plans for our time in the room and I’m excited to change the room around a bit. We are going… Read more »

November 30

When thinking about what I was grateful for on Thanksgiving, the list just went on and on. I am so very deeply blessed in so many ways. This whole journey with Sarah is a blessing in multiple directions, helping me become more of the person I want to be. As you know, one of my… Read more »

November 23

Last weekend, Sarah had a bit of a cold. She got over it in 2 days. That may be record speed for her, which would indicate that her body is indeed healing and getting stronger. On Tuesday, Sarah and I played two consecutive full rounds of the Alexander board game I made last year (Alexander… Read more »

November 16

We have had many amazing moments this week. The last night that Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop were visiting, they played with the girls and Carl with toy cars that can zoom forward if you first drive them backward. I was at Zumba, but apparently Sarah’s involvement was focused and relational, so that everyone was really playing… Read more »

November 9

One of our volunteers, N., has felt like Sarah is clearer each week in her communication, both in terms of pronunciation and also in terms of her thoughts. Awesome! There are some words where Sarah loses her clarity because she gets so excited. I often request that she slow down a tiny bit so we… Read more »

November 2

I have been feeling much better compared to last week! Thank you for the well-wishes. My headaches aren’t gone but sometimes I get two nights off in a row and feel like a normal person. This week, Carl and I had SR sessions that were totally awesome in terms of engaged play combined with practicing… Read more »

October 25

This week seems like it contained years. I feel like I have been through the wringer. My headaches got much worse in their severity and duration. I decided I could no longer continue without medication so I have started on meds and I think they are already helping lessen the severity, though I have yet… Read more »

October 19

We have two new volunteers! It is interesting how they seem to come in waves. For a long time I had no one expressing interest and then I had two within a day of each other not only express interest but come for their initial meeting and begin their training. I think I tend to… Read more »