Jake's Journey with Apraxia

Today was our last day of speech.

This month has been very, very emotional for me. Joy, yes. But also a storm of other emotions as well. Many tears have been shed. Just when I thought I couldn’t cry anymore … that I had properly mourned this time – this tornado that entered my life and let me escape alive – another wave of emotion would sweep over me. It has marked a time of goodbyes. A new season. Change. Evolution.

I have been beyond blessed to have some of the most amazing angels working on Team Jake over the past few years. I think of them as angels because they are some of the most loving people I have ever met. They are unselfish and they have empathy. They put their own life aside to work hard and love on others. They are the hands and feet of Jesus. And each one of them entered my life at precisely the right moment in our journey with apraxia, etc.

Certainly this journey wasn’t all sunshine and roses and not everyone was nice, but you know what? The bad seems so insignificant now. And in its place is the overflowing love that each one of these ladies have poured into my little boy.

There’s something special about a person who appears at just the right moment in your life – a dark moment – and rescues you. When someone lends a hand when you desperately need it the most, it is something that you will never forget. Knowing that someone loves your child, rejoices in their victories, struggles with you through their challenges, prays for you when you don’t even ask them to, and works hard to do everything in their power to help your sweet baby heal, a fierce bond of friendship forms.

If it were not for each one of these special ladies and their expertise, Jake and I would not be the people we have grown into over the past few years. Words cannot express the gratitude that I feel!

Team Jake – Thank you for loving my child and for fighting this fight with me. Thank you for helping me. You were one in a million. While I am ready for this next chapter in our life, it truly breaks my heart to say goodbye.

 Congratulations, Jake! You made it!

After each speech session, Jake gets a sticker. His therapy office is awesome because they always have the latest and greatest characters to choose from. Yes, I am “that” mom … the one who lets her child put stickers on the window and doesn’t care one bit. I don’t think my mini van windshield will ever be the same again. After all, there wasn’t one layer of stickers, but two or three. And once it reached capacity, I scraped those stickers off with a razor blade and Windex, and let him go at it again for Round 2. Only apraxia mamas and speech-language pathologists know what each one of those stickers mean … and the work that each one signifies.

Best wishes to all of you in your own healing journey with apraxia and for finding angels to bless your life and love on your children.