Sunday September 11, 2005

Sunday September 11, 2005 Zack sleeps until after 8:30 when Dr Shaw (on call this weekend for Dr Mook) comes to check on him. He eats breakfast and someone from Southeast comes by to pray for him and give him communion. Avery comes by after 11:00 and he is very happy to see her with a big grin on his face. They play Velcro ball and fight over who gets the green paddle. Zack finally gives in and lets her have it. He gets her to open his can of nuts (snake in a can) and scares her to death. He thinks it is so funny that he offers it to her again. She does flash cards with him and he comes up with some very funny answers. They go for a walk in the halls and when they come back he says they have been walking around Lake Forest (soon enough I expect him to be walking with me around the Parkway in Lake Forest). Avery leaves to go visit her Mom and Zack “reads” the funny paper. It occupies him for awhile and then Rita (Scott’s Mom) finds fingernail polish and asked him if he wanted her to paint his fingernails. He said yes (but thankfully they only do one hand since Mom might not like it). He does flash cards with her and she accidentally holds the scissor card upside down and he corrects her. He is getting much better at recognizing some words and relating them to pictures. Several of his friends arrive and he shows them his fingernails. Brittany asked him if he likes them and he said he thinks they’re cool. I arrive from church with the girls. I tell Zack he will have to eat lunch soon and get dressed. He shows me his painted fingernails. Rita was right…Mom didn’t like it. Brittany gets the polish off his nails and they all say goodbye. He eats lunch, takes his shower and gets dressed. At 2:00 the Elders from Southeast Christian Church come to pray for him and anoint him with oil. The Elders, Scott and I surround him and all of us touch him. Gary Ottman, Billy Beachum and Mike Batillo all pray for our family and healing for Zack. He listens intently with his eyes closed and hands folded in prayer. When they are through they talk to him about getting well and he shakes their hands. Then he blesses us all by singing Amazing Grace. It was ironic that we sang it in church today but this time was sweeter.
Donna arrives and Dana (our nurse today) comes in to give Zack his meds. She brings us a TV with VCR and we watch the tape of my speech at Christian Academy. Zack is in his recliner watching with us. He pays attention but it’s as if he is watching me talk about someone else (much the same way he looks through his photo album of hospital pictures). Dana says that one day soon it will click and he will understand that all of this has happened to him. Penny & Jay (Scott’s aunt and uncle) and Tony & Jill (Scott’s brother & his wife) arrive for a family birthday party. By the time we get to the conference room Rita & Louie and the Jaha’s have joined us. Zack has birthday cake, watches some of the Packers game and opens presents. He does very well considering people take turns playing the piano and there are several conversations. He motions for me that he needs to leave a minute. I walk him back to his room, he goes to the bathroom and then he is ready to go back. He is very good about telling me when he has had enough and usually a short break will be all he needs. Finally he tells everyone he is tired and they pack up to go. Zack takes a long nap and doesn’t get up to eat dinner until 7:00 PM. He sits down to eat and ask me, “Do you think I am more like myself”? I find it very insightful that he would question that he has been different or not himself. I think he becomes more aware every day. Zack, Kyle, Logan and I decide to walk to McDonalds. After we eat we take the long way back and Kyle talks Zack into singing different songs. It is amazing that he can remember the words to hymns and still get confused with his words in conversations. He is so polite even to his little sisters. I hope that side effect (and the singing) sticks around through his recovery. When we get back to the room I go through some flashcards with Zack. He identifies some words and uses them all in complete sentences. Kaitlyn and her Mom arrive and he beats her in the card game UNO. They throw the Velcro ball and she gives him a series of commands he has to do each time before throwing the ball. We are exercising his memory so I show him a card and where I hide it. They continue to play. After almost ten minutes I ask him to go find the card. We can all see it but Zack can’t find it. Kyle shows him where it was, he gets mad and tells me, “Mom I hate your events”. The next 40 minutes are spent trying to keep him out of bed. He keeps coming up with reasons on why I should let him go to bed and I have to remind him that he already took a long nap and has only been up 2 hours. We compromise and I tell him after we walk Kaitlyn and her Mom downstairs then he could go to bed. He tells Kaitlyn it’s time to go so we walk them (and the girls who they are taking home for me) all the way to the parking garage. We say goodbye and as he walks away he tells me that he had been trying to get rid of his little sisters for the last 3 hours. He was very sweet to them today but apparently they still get on his nerves. I inform him that he has to find his way back to his room by himself. This is a long trip and he gets us all the way to his elevators but then gets confused. He takes me back to the front lobby and we start over. This time when he makes it to the elevators he pushes the button and smiles. Even though I would not give him clues and he would question if a turn was right, he always smiled at his mistakes. We make it up to the room and he can’t wait to get in bed. We talk for a little bit while he lies in bed but then he tells me to go away. He is ready to sleep. He had a good day today. He told me he had fun at his party and it was good. He interacted with people of many different ages in a social setting and handled it better than a lot of other teenagers. He smiled at me as he rolled over to go to sleep. My sweet boy. How good is our God that he gives me back such a sweet boy. It’s been 65 days since his accident and look how far he has come. The Jaha’s gave him a Superman t-shirt today for his birthday and he is superman to us. I think about God looking down from the heavens and seeing how messed up our world is right now. He needs to send a message. He had to choose a strong messenger. Some get Katrina and others get Zack. The impact that Zack is making on teenagers that know him is only overshadowed by the impact he is having on those he has never met. He is thunder, he is superman, he is my sweet boy. He is a child of a loving God, sending messages of warning and of hope to a world crying out for something. God showed him the world and then reminded us that in our small corner that Zack is the only way to show you. For each and every one of us there is a message from God in this tragedy. I pray that everyone seeks Him to find the answers. Pray that Zack’s recovery will reach those whose hearts have been hardened by years of self indulgence or disbelief. Pray that the power of prayer will be a lessoned learned by those of little faith. Pray that those already walking with God will be strengthened in their witness by hearing of Zack’s recovery. Pray for complete recovery.