A MUST READ: 10 WEEKS AGO We got the phone call every parent dreads. Today our daughter does these things: With an assistant, eats 3 full meals a day, after Nicole feeds herself with a few bites and her arms get tired, the CNA takes over and feeds her the rest. She smiles what we’ve calculated to be about an 80% of a full smile, it’s an unforgetable sight to see all of her beautiful, white teeth, with her face following along. You can do anything you can think of to make her smile, she’ll only do it when it’s the correct time…or else just watch her face when her little brother walks in…that’ll do it everytime. Very cool to see them love each other like they do. He’ll lay in bed with her looking at pictures, or lovin’ on her. So, so precious. As the days pass, you can catch her being just a hair more aware all the time. She’s not all the way aware like we are, but she does know what you’re saying and understands, she’ll do whatever is asked of her to do, so that’s how we know. Because we still don’t know about her memory or awareness yet until she can tell us. Now, what we’ve all been waiting for: With 2 therapist’s, one at each side, for safety, Nicole Walks! We measured: she walks about 60 (sixty feet) one way to an excersize room It can be a little slow and in-balanced, but she does it on her own and every day gets better at it. Then stretches, listens to music, uses a big excersize ball, all with assistance at each side, they help her with balance and strenth, etc. and it is working, you can see a difference for the better every few days. We are lovin it! Then she walks back to her room, another 60 feet.

Now, what we’ve all been waiting for: I was telling her one day that she is physically able to talk, the dr’s tested her and her voice will work, and she can just try to experiment with her voice, to see what it sounds like. She smiled and turned her face away from me. I instantly new she was too shy and embarrased to try. “I told her it was just her and me in the room and I heard her very first voice when she was a baby and since then it’s always been an extra pretty voice, let’s see what it sounds like” She looked back over to me and in a way that if you weren’t looking at her, you would miss it, Nicole whispered with hardly any whisper to it: “I Love” then she smiled. I smiled back and said ” I Love You Too”. About 5 minutes later her dad walked in a I said “Nicole, tell your daddy what you told me” She looked at him, smiled and whispered with barely a whisper “I Love” Then we all loved.

The first time Glenn and I were driving down to tour the rehab center Nicole is in, I was looking out the window in the car, very destitute, sad, and worried. I was thinking about how many times i’d been to San Francisco simply to go down and enjoy the day..and how I felt going down on that day…almost nausiated. I saw a big old barn on the side of the road, it had these big letters painted on it. “Better Days” it said. I was thinking how much I wanted better days as we drove by it. After a few passes by the barn on later trips, i’d think here and there, yeah we are having better days. They are getting better and better as we see her progress more and more. I’ve enclosed a picture of the barn. I hope it brings you better days…it has for us. All of us.

Please keep praying for Nicole’s full and complete recovery, your prayers, your thoughts, your energy is working. Thank you from the bottom of our mending and cautious hearts.

(From now on, we will update you once a week…unless of course, something happens in between that you must know right away!!)