June 10, 2005

Thank you all for the very heartfelt comments. It is comforting to know that Sam spends a lot of time in God's throne room on behalf of your prayers. Sam had his first official hippotherapy(horseback riding) session this morning. It was quite the traumatic experience for Sam in that he was made to guide, groom and ride the horse. He also had to feed his pony, "Fudge", carrots which he especially didn't like. He did okay while riding the horse but overall it may take a few sessions for Sam to understand what is expected of him. We receive free hippotherapy at SpiritHorse in Corinth, TX. A typical session of an hour-long therapy would cost around 70-100 dollars so we consider ourselves very blessed to have Fudge and all the horse trainers. We thank God for them. Also, this week we met with a biomedical consultant who will work alongside our DAN Dr. in healing Sam's body. Our consultant is an RN who stays on top of all the latest research in the field of autism and who is also personally affected by this neuro-immunological disease in her youngest son. She has suggested eliminating some of the supplements that would make it more difficult for Sam's digestive tract to heal and increased some supplements that would aid the neuro-pathways in his brain and bypass the stomach through transdermal applications. We are blessed to live in a time in which research is being done on the medical side of autism instead of living in the dark ages of the 1970's when they called autism the "refridgerator mother syndrome". They blamed mothers aloofness in raising their children as a primary cause for their child's diagnosis and the therapies they suggested were monstrous. A suggested read, "Let Me Hear Your Voice" by Katherine Maurice. She describes the horrors of "Holding Therapy" in it. God has so blessed us in that we were not handed a list of local institutions and told "I'm sorry, there is nothing we can do" by some psychologist. The tide has turned in the world of autism because the epidemic number of children affected by it. Current numbers point to 1 child in every 160 children, mostly boys...There are several culprits that create the "perfect storm" for autism to occur however many parents are convicted that their child's autism was as a result of the thymerosal(a mercury preservative) in vaccinations. They have a good cause to believe so in that children with mercury poisening display the same list of symptims as our children with autism. A suggested read, "Evidence of Harm" by David Kurby. With all that said, Sam lives in a time when we use the work "recovered". We now know that with intense intervention we can recover kids affected by autism. Thank you God! Our verse for Sam is from Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the plans I have for you", says the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." We cling to this...Thank you again for your prayers. We love you...Melissa