This is the part in the story where we say goodbye.
The summer of 2014, right before Jake entered kindergarten, he was dismissed from speech therapy. Apraxia and the struggle to speak left our life. At the time, I began wondering what the future held for this blog. After all, when you’ve built your life around something, it’s hard to just move on and pretend like it never happened. The friends are hard to say goodbye to. The routine that I cursed, had become just that – a routine – steady, predictable.
During this time, friends I met along this crazy ride stepped up to the plate and essentially kept the blog afloat, sharing not only their time, but also their hearts. The blog grew, it became more resourceful, and the collaboration of all of these perspectives made this sweet little blog birthed in December of 2011 to one scared and stressed-out mama, more than worth the hours of labor that went into it.
Organizing the blog into more of a resource page or creating an e-book with the best of the best is something that’s been on my heart for a while, but the task of going through 56 months of blog posts was daunting.
Instead I decided to copy the posts into a book for myself as a keepsake. I synced my site to a blog-to-book program and was truly blown away at the amount of material within the walls of Jake’s Journey. Two volumes and 580 single-spaced 8 x 11 pages! That’s when it really hit me: This started as a labor of love and needs to conclude that way. Period. As long as children are still being diagnosed with apraxia, I don’t want this resource to fade away into the abyss of the world wide web.
Over the past couple of weeks, I worked a little each day to better organize this site. All of the posts have been sorted and are categorized at the top; any “fluff” has been deleted. Posts by contributing writers are blended in with the posts I wrote. No matter where you’re at in your child’s journey with apraxia, there is now something for everyone and hopefully, you will now be able to easily find it.
In the next hour or so, this post will be filed away and a static page will take it’s place. No more posts will be published. If your child has food allergies, however, I invite you to visit my new site: Quest for the Best where I will document my journey to find answers and solutions to Jake’s multiple food allergies. It will have a different tone than Jake’s Journey; more of a place I can store research, hypotheses, and test results.
I guess this is the part in the story where my family sails off into the sunset and lives happily ever after. Blog friends, I absolutely, positively could not have traveled this journey without you.
Sending all of you a big hug,
Jake's Journey with Apraxia 
A biter sweet goodbye! Congratulations to Jake (and your family) on this amazing accomplishment. I have personally enjoyed meeting you and your wonderful son and then went on to enjoy your blog posts. You have helped so many families! It’s been an honor to have known you guys on this journey. Best of luck to the next chapter of your lives!
Hi Tori,
I hope this gets to you!
I just read your last post and wanted to say, thank you! You were the first blog I saw and followed through our Apraxia journey and you’re the reason why we traveled to Lynn in AZ (we’re from AB, Canada). All that you’ve posted has helped me so much and I so appreciate all the time and energy and love and tears you’ve put into the blog, and more importantly, into your son’s journey.
Thank you for lifting me up when I needed it and I’m a better Apraxia momma because you put your voice out there.
Thank you and congratulations to your superhero boy who has worked so incredibly hard to get to where he is today!
Jennie
Thank you for not deleting your blog. We are new to this journey and I am hoping to draw encouragement and hope from your’s and the other’s stories and contributions.
You’re truly amazing, Tori. This post brought tears to my eyes. I had this sudden flashback to the day I came across Jake’s Journey. You were, 100% the inspiration behind What Would Gia Say?, and I just can’t thank you enough for that. My story today would be so different if it weren’t for you. You’ve been there for me as an apraxia mom, fellow blogger, mentor and just a good old-fashioned friend. You even believed in me enough to contribute a post :). I will definitely be following you on Quest for the Best, as you get to the bottom of Jake’s food allergies. Let the fight continue!
Thank you for keeping this blog up online. My 2 year old was recently diagnosed with Childhood Apraxia of Speech and I am very grateful for all the information that you have shared here.