(Day 334)

Good day all. Shawna has continued to make good advances in communication. She is definitely good with pointing at pictures and words using a drum stick. She even named her puppy using this form of communication. We received a gift of a beautiful white male shnauser mini mix. His name is Q-tip. He's 5 weeks old and hopefully Deb and Jessica are not alergic to him as Shawna and the family are already quite attached to him. He sits and sleeps very sedately on Shawnas lap while she carefully pets him. Its an amazing form of therapy. There isn't much therapy for the next couple of weeks but we have our hands full with visits and therapy we can do with her. Not includng the puppy training. The doctors still haven't given any instructions for the increase in tone but the physiotherapist has given us a stimulation machine where we attach probes to her right back muscle to make the left side release. This has proven to be very effective in reducing the amount of tone that is present in her left side. We hit a bad spot with the biking as Sawnas tone increased to the point she couldn't do it by herself anymore. Weve changed the way that we do the range of motion exercizes involving her legs and she has again been putting in some very good days on the bike. We remain thankfull to our Heavenly Father for what he has given and continue to thank you for your prayers and support. We would also like to take the opportunity to wish you all a blessed Christmas celebration and God's continued blessing for 2009. Al, Deb, Shawna, and family