Hayden's Journey: Baltimore Feeding Therapy Weeks 6&7

This is our last week in feeding therapy in Baltimore!

By the time we finished up this program will be approaching eight weeks of therapeutic time due to participating on the weekends.

I recently had a friend ask if it seem like it had gone fast. I'm not quite sure on how to answer this. The weeks have gone fast but the days have been long and hard. We have had the majority of Sundays off and Thanksgiving and Christmas day only.

Instead I would choose to focus on gratitude and how through my insignificant struggles I more fully appreciate the everyday comforts of home.

I appreciate that we got to spend Christmas with my mom who drove up from South Carolina. She gave us the boost we needed for us to continue on for one more week. She got to participate in our half-day program on Saturday after Christmas to see what it is that we have been doing.

Getting a post-Christmas hair cut

I appreciate the people that work at the subway station and keep the elevators clean (which is not often the case) and working so that we don't have to carry the wheelchair down the escalators.

I appreciate my apartment shuttle driver that is able to offer us a ride to the grocery store and many trips to the hospital.

I'm grateful to live in a safe and secure apartment with great views.

I appreciate the free bus that helps me carry the groceries back to the apartment with Hayden that is also wheelchair accessible despite the less than savory individuals accompanying us along the way.

I am grateful that Scott has been able to safely walk back-and-forth from work every day.

I'm grateful that we got to spend time in the city where Scott step father Barry grew up.

I'm grateful that he has the opportunity for employment and that he has a good education with an able body and mind.

I am grateful for a city that has good public transportation and that I don't have to rely on it at home. I will appreciate having my own vehicle to go anywhere I want to anytime more than ever after two months of not driving.

The solar power harbor cleaner I got to see while walking home one night.

I'm grateful for the highly educated caring staff at Kennedy Krieger arranging for us to see many specialists outside of clinic and get other opinions on a moments notice. Due to the skilled specialists at Kennedy Krieger, we were able to get training on a separate program for neurologic bowel which eliminated our need to go to Cincinnati for a 10 day training program.

I'm grateful for a patient dependable nanny that has been creative and keeps our children occupied when there is very little space for them to run around during the day.

I'm grateful for the volunteers and charitable organizations that remember families in the hospital. I'm grateful that we got to do sibling Christmas gifts from the hospital for Hanna and for Garrett and not only Hayden. They truly understand how parents are unable to plan any Christmas for the family when you have a child in the hospital.This time here we will remember always. We may not remember the gifts but we will always remember how we felt and the kindness that was shown to us.

I am grateful to have been adopted by church family members. I'm grateful for the people that don't ask how to help but actually show up and help in ways you don't know you needed. I am inspired by these people and will have my eyes opened to be more of the pay it forward type. I'm grateful that Hanna was picked up for an activity days program at the Inner Harbor Ward.

I'm grateful our kids each have their own bed in our apartment in one room. I'm even more grateful that they will each have their own room to not bother each other when they go to sleep every night at home.

I am grateful that our apartment has a stackable washer and dryer so we don't have to go to a laundromat. I will be extremely grateful to return and have our full-size washer and dryer.

I am most grateful for the investment of time that we've seen in the success we've measured for our family and that we get to return home successfully completing this program.

Hayden will complete the program accomplishing his goals of being able to eat socially age-appropriate food with the setting of his family and peers without vomiting. He is also able to tolerate cleaning his teeth. We will have some ups and downs as we transition the program from the rehab to our home environment. He has now been introduced to a dozen foods that he now eats orally that he didn't before we started. It is a joy and shock to see him initiate new food that he enjoys to eat with confidence thus reducing our fear of vomiting and choking.