Let me introduce you to Joe, a high school senior, who was at Gillette this week volunteering his time to work with the kids. He was helping Luke make a wreath Christmas ornament out of spray painted green jigsaw puzzle pieces. The kid making a wreath next to us was trying to pick up his completed project, but it was all sliding apart because there was so much glue on it. When Joe began the project with Luke, he handed him a bottle of Elmer's and gave Luke a suggestion. Joe told Luke not to use too much glue because it would take forever to dry. So, with a straight face and in a very serious tone, Luke reassured Joe, "that's O.K.......I'm here till January." Joe burst out laughing. It gave Mom some laugh therapy, too!
This is Abby, the daughter of some of our family friends. They popped in for an early morning visit while Luke was eating breakfast. It was refreshing to see familiar faces from the "outside".
Our church sent Luke a bouquet of balloons. Luke was so happy--he totally loved it. He had me tie them on his prone cart, so we could go out in the Gillette Lobby for a walk "and make other kids happy". We did, and we saw some babies smile and kids asked Luke if it was his birthday. Some good conversations kid to kid were had. The next day Luke wanted to take them out again on another walk, and he asked me if we could leave them in the lobby for all the kids to look at who were waiting for their appointments, "to make them happy, too. " Below is a picture of the hallway entrance of our unit.
Then we had to go on another mission "to make kids happy" and Luke took his guitar out. He told me he had to find ten kids to play for. We found one teenager girl in a wheelchair named Pandora who couldn't talk, but smiled hugely and her Mom said Luke made her day.
This is Sally, who is a head, head nurse and is always so friendly to Luke. Luke sang her "Feliz Navidad".
It may seem like all fun and games, but I've been trying to show the lighter side of some of the fun we have in the evenings. Luke was exhausted from eight different appointments from 9:00am to 4:30pm, but it was too early to go to bed after dinner. Luke is working very hard with his therapists (I get worn out just watching all of the activites for strength training they have him doing). Since Luke has to spend so much time on his belly (for his back to get stronger), we try to get out of the room on the prone cart and be with people. Luke is supposed to get his wheelchair today! He has been asking for it for several days now. He can't wait to show it to you.
