Morning update:

This update is a tribute to all the families at this facility who are, for lack of a more eloquent term, “doing it.”

Every day they’re overcoming all kinds of crazy stuff with their kids to provide the best life they can. Kids using wheelchairs, with tracheo tubes, with neurological disorders.

There’s one family here from Georgia (the country) who have two daughters here, both with cerebral palsy.

Jack’s roommate, Mohammed, and his mom are from Somalia. Mo, (as Matt & I call him) has spent his entire 7 month life in hospitals because of a bad heart and lungs. I also wonder if he’s having seizures regularly but Mo’s mom doesn’t have good enough German or English for me to know for sure. Her husband and 18-month daughter live one hour away and the rest of their family still lives in Somalia where she showed me pictures of their town and the recent bombings.

So while there is no doubt that this is the hardest thing Matt & I have endured there are plenty of families who are enduring equally or tougher stuff and still manage smiles and hellos and attempt to talk to us in a mixture of broken English and Deutsch.

This is Craig’s term so I can’t take credit, but a few of our “fortunes amongst the misfortune:”

• the army vat of coffee in the cafeteria is actually really good
• we’re getting lots of fresh air and time outside in this nice weather and pastoral setting
• Matt and I are meeting our step goals (okay we don’t have step goals, but we’ve been averaging about 10-11km a day wheeling this boy around)
• the fact that Matt is off work so we both can focus our time and energy on Jack’s recovery
• all the incredible support and love we’ve received from around the world  both near and far.

Seriously thank you.