09/17/2026
Incredible update on Parker!
God is Good!
Go Dogs!💚🙏
Another week of miracles, ordinary moments, and learning to keep putting one foot in front of the other. 💚🙏🏻
Yesterday, Parker WALKED. Not in the zero-gravity machine. Not suspended in a harness. He walked with his PT and PTA beside him, giving him assistance and he did it again today.
And then today, he climbed up AND down FOUR FLIGHTS OF STAIRS with his PT and PTA right beside him helping him. FOUR FLIGHTS. 😭🙌🏻
He has only been at Dodd for 2 weeks.
Watching his legs carry him across that room—and now watching those same legs take him up and down stairs—is almost impossible to put into words. Just a few weeks ago, we were praying for the tiniest movement. Now we are watching him take steps and climb stairs. Praise God. 🙏🏻
And it isn’t just his legs. His hands are coming along too. In OT, he can now pick up blocks and sort them into different colored bowls—one after another—in a fraction of the time it used to take him to move ONE. He is learning to feed himself, can get his own water to his mouth, and can even do a little swiping on his phone.
These things sound so small until you watch someone have to relearn every single one of them.
Brushing your teeth. Picking up a sandwich. Holding a cup with two hands. Getting it all the way to your mouth without spilling it. Brushing your hair. Using your phone.
The everyday things we never think twice about have become victories around here.
And I'm a little tough sometimes 😂 Parker will work his tail off in therapy, but the little everyday tasks are frustrating because I think they remind him of what he is still re-learning. I understand that, but I also know him and he has always been a worker so when he asks if I'm serious about him trying to pick up a sandwich, he already knows the answer 🤣
So we are all learning to sidestep self-pity when it starts creeping in and move forward—one tiny task at a time. We spent years breaking down the mechanics of throwing a baseball, hitting a baseball, fielding a ground ball or shooting a basketball, and he didn't same with 🏈 . Now we’re breaking down the mechanics of holding a cup and brushing teeth. Different skills. Same kid. Same work ethic. 💚
And somewhere in the middle of all this, we got some precious pieces of our normal life back this weekend.
I got to watch Channing play soccer, and what a JOY it was just watching her run around that field healthy and strong. I have spent a lot of years as the competitive mom on the sidelines with approximately 47 coaching tips running through my head. 😂 But the beautiful thing about soccer is…I know basically nothing. So I get to sit there and just say, “Great job!” like all the moms I have always secretly envied. 😂 And I LOVE IT.
Watching her run, work hard, and play felt like such a gift.
And Miss Gianna is enjoying her soccer season as well. I cannot wait to watch her on that field when I’m in town! After dealing with a three-month hamstring injury herself, it is such a blessing that she gets to be on that field again. I’m excited to watch her do something she loves! Of course, she is still waking up at 5:30 a.m. here and there to get to her basketball shootaround in because…why not!?
Then Saturday, Hudson, Parker’s aunt and Parker’s grandma came to Columbus early to hang out with Parker so Gary and I could sneak away for dinner.
I didn’t get a shower. I didn’t shave my legs. I didn’t curl my hair or put together the feminine, fun outfit I normally would when I get to go somewhere with my Wynk man. I threw on some lipstick with my jeans and whatever cabi was in my bag and decided that would do! 😂
Sitting across from Gary felt so familiar and so completely out of the ordinary at the same time.
We talked. We laughed, cried. We talked about God, about Parker, about our marriage, about what this is doing in each of us and how the Lord is growing our entire family through something we never would have chosen.
Then our two hours were over, and it was back to life as we know it right now.
But that night we got something else I have missed terribly: our boys together watching football. 🏈 ❤️
We watched the Buckeyes, I looked at a magazine, and we just chilled. And lying there, all I could think about was how badly I miss having our whole family under one roof with nobody else around. I miss our back patio. I miss watching the kids swim. I miss the completely ordinary life that I've always known was extraordinary.
But we will have those days again. In fact, on Sunday, we all got to be together, and I got to pick dinner, so we had chicken shawarma outside the Dodd while it rained haha 🤣 . I loved every second of it, along with the homemade hummus and garlic sauce. I’m not sure everyone else felt quite as much love for it as I did, but hey, we all get our wins—and compromise—sometimes in a big family.
For now, I am learning not to stare too long into the black hole of everything we have lost or everything we don’t know. It is too easy to fall in and so hard to climb back out.
So I mostly sidestep it while allowing myself the opportunity to grieve when I need to.
One foot in front of the other.
And apparently, Parker is doing the exact same thing. Literally. 🙌🏻😭💚
God is so good. We are so grateful. And we will never take the ordinary for granted again. Please keep the prayers coming for full function of every part of his body, mental strength, and for God's continued peace 🙏
