Big brother Riley will be three years old on Tuesday. Caden and the rest of our family celebrated Riley’s birthday over the weekend at Chuck-E-Cheese. I am not sure who had more fun between Riley, Caden, and me. Cousin Kurt and many other party goers helped Riley collect and cash in over 1000 prize tickets from the games at the end of the day.
Speaking of birthdays we have another big birthday fast approaching. Caden will celebrate his first birthday in just a few weeks. We plan to celebrate Caden’s birthday privately as a family. That said a year of blessings and showers of God’s grace will not go unrecognized here at the Osborne house.
All friends, family, and prayer warriors for Caden are invited to celebrate a wonderful year of miracles. Please join us at our house on Saturday, November 5, 2005 from 11:30am to 1:00pm. We are going to grill hotdogs and burgers. Bring your empty belly along with a Coke, side dish, and/or dessert. Please RSVP via email or phone no later than 10/30/05 if you plan to attend. Once again, this is not a birthday party. It is a day of celebration of the things that God has done in our lives over the past year.
Greenwood Genetic Center
We took Caden to the Greenwood Genetic Center last week. We spent several hours answering questions and discussing issues related to Caden’s health conditions. The doctor is assessing all of the information that he gathered on Caden and our family and he plans to send us a letter in the next few weeks summarizing his observations and recommendations for future tests and treatments that we should consider. We will keep you posted on the results of his findings.
Caden’s Progress
Caden is doing well with his physical therapy in particular. He is sitting up for extended lengths of time each day. He is becoming more interactive when we play with him. His progress with eating by mouth is slow, but improving. He continues to sample different flavors, but can only swallow approximately a half a teaspoon of food in a 30-45 minute period. He still gets tube feedings of special order formula four times per day. He does still require suctioning several times per day. Praise God, he sleeps through the night for 10-12 hours without needing any suctioning at all on most nights.
Thoughts
It is amazing how the smallest of people can lead you to your biggest lessons in life. I will forever be thankful to God for the journey that I have been on for the past year with Caden and our family. I can not believe it has only been a year because I have collected a lifetime of experiences.
Oh yeah, don’t forget to check out the latest pictures HERE.