Month: September 2016

Birthday Eve 2016

Rudy got a jump start on celebrating today with his friends and teachers at school…a birthday so big it will likely fill two blog post updates so here’s pictorial proof of Birthday Fun – Day 1!!

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Rudy got a hug and special greeting from Nurse Evelyn first thing this morning…
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…and then he got some birthday love from Mr. Latta and…
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…a few of his 2nd grade friends.
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Miss Ginny was all smiles on the playground with Rudy during recess!
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I brought a bunch of extra oxygen tubing to the classroom in the afternoon to make “silly straw” glasses with Rudy’s special ed classmates…
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…even the grown ups got in on the giggly fun!!
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Special friends!!
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The day ended with a very special visit from Christoph (cousin from Austria)!!
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A simply delightful evening…and a perfect end to a very special day!!!

It’s time to hit the hay…we all have a BIG DAY tomorrow as we continue the celebration at the 15th annual “Back to the Bayou” event supporting the Santa Barbara Rescue Mission!!  The Rescue Mission community was such a huge encouragement to us when Rudy was born, it will be fun to share tomorrow together!  🙂  Happy Birthday Eve Rudy!!!  It’ll be your official birthday in just 26 minutes!!!!!

Settled In and Moving On

School has been in session for a couple of weeks and all are settled back into the structured school/work/athletic & therapy schedules that keep this family on the go.  I hear good reports each day from Rudy’s new teacher and aide and we are looking forward to hearing more about his class at “Back To School” night this week.  After taking the month of August off at the Medical Therapy Unit, Rudy is back on the schedule with two PT and two OT sessions per week…this is in addition to the Adaptive PE, OT and speech therapy he gets at school so he definitely has a full slate of services that keep him working hard Monday through Friday.

We haven’t had any more discussions with the team at UCLA since our consult with Dr. Harake a couple of weeks ago.  Rolf hopes to make contact with Dr. Dan sometime this week to follow up on the post-cath conference.  I don’t expect there will be any major revelations as a result but the ongoing discussions and our inquiries keep Rudy on everybody’s radar and fan our hope that maybe, just maybe, something more favorable than what we have now will come out of it.    We’ll keep you posted…

One facet of our family’s life may be stuck in perpetual limbo, but the many others are charging forward as life tends to do so we’ve embraced all the transitions of the past couple of weeks and the fun milestones reached.  Life goes on and, despite what is (and isn’t) going on in Rudy’s body,  he is most definitely front and center in it all…a gift not lost on us.

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Rudy was an enthusiastic helper getting Wilson settled back into college…
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…he LOVES being “one of the guys” when hanging out with Wilson and his roommates!
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Max had to work on “move in” day but the rest of us helped usher Wilson into his sophomore year at APU! Go Cougars!!
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Rudy and his schoolmates had the fun opportunity to hear from Mountainview Elementary alum, US Women’s Water Polo team member and Olympic Gold medalist Kiley Neushul who visited the school recently. 🙂 So sweet! Rudy sure admired her gold medal.
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He’s also very proud of his new pair of shoes!
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A sweet moment captured at Ventura Pier at Rolf’s SUP race…
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…and in Ventura again a week later for Olivia’s first high school XC meet!
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Speaking of Olivia…she turned 14 years old on Friday and celebrated with donuts…
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…and a little pool party in the afternoon…
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…and a little dinner party in the evening! Life is rich for this young lady!!
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Speaking of life being rich, Rudy demonstrated his independence the past couple of weeks at church by sitting in the front row with friends. Another friend captured this picture of him praying today which pretty much melted all our hearts. Rudy is blessed to be a part of such a loving and genuine church community!

It’s hard to believe but Rudy’s birthday is just 2 1/2 weeks away!  He gets to celebrate with 300+ friends as it falls this year on the same day as the SBRM’s big annual Bayou Event!!  There is much to look forward to and lots of hard work ahead these next couple of weeks as we prepare.  Woo Hoo!