It's in Black and White

This post has been a long time coming. Luke has flourished this year (socially, emotionally, and physically). His speech is understood by almost everyone.

Gone are the days that I have to repeat what he said to others and play translator. He is a verbal communicator and we couldn't be prouder.

Many of you know that I left teaching to devote my time to his care and ended up homeschooling Maggie in the process. While it was the most rewarding year of my life; it was also one of the most difficult. 

There were days that I didn't know if I had....enough.

Days when I wanted to call in sick and cancel therapy.

Days when Luke said I want to quit "peach". (which I responded without missing a beat...when you fix that sentence and say "speech" correctly, we will discuss it). 

Sounds harsh, but this apraxia thing can't be taken lightly.

We talk tough.

We love hard. 

And we work hard.

It takes work. A lot of it. And work, we did.

I basically scripted, prompted, cued and corrected all day long.

The good news is....after 7 speech therapies per week (4 privately and 3 via public school) from Sept.- May; Luke will only need to have 2 x 30 minutes of private speech therapy starting Aug 5th. (school therapy is also decreasing to 2 x 30 min. (1:3)

I write this not to pat myself on the back, but to stress that it isn't easy and it isn't always fun. 

But we persevered, made adjustments and pressed on. 

And because of Luke's hard work, our phenomenal team's efforts and God's grace....we made it. 

It's in black and white, too.

Luke's diagnosis has been downgraded to residual apraxia of speech and an expressive language delay. 

Yep. 

You read it correctly. 

We are beating apraxia. Although CAS sometimes shows up in motor planning; Luke is now testing above his age group in speech. 

Praise be to God. 

For without Him, none of this would have been possible.