Thank you for your incredible support of our family this past year. As a celebration of how far Gus has come, we invite you to join us for his second birthday.

We are holding the celebration on April 17, 2010 from
2:00 pm - 6:00 pm at the Lockerby Farm in Alton, Missouri. Please RSVP at lockerbys@juno.com or call 314-423-2373 and let us know if you need directions.

a full year has gone by

March 16th was the anniversary of Gus' accident. In the past year, he has come a long way. We were given no hope of life, let alone of all of the recovery that has been gained...and we still have much hope for the future as he continues to move, laugh, kick, and play.

Again, Gus went into the pool for therapy. The weightlessness allowed him to move a lot more. This week, he gets to try a bike while his muscles are stimulated to contract. It's great to see him respond so well to the therapies.

We hope soon to get him off of formula. We have given him whole grain, healthy foods when he has been ill before and he has done really well on it. A dietician will work with us soon to figure out what all of his nutritional needs are.

Please continue to pray for us. His brain is probably done with the swelling at this point and progress usually slows down (that's what we are told). Please pray that progress doesn't slow down. Please pray for wisdom as we meet each day, hoping to do our best for him as well as all of our kids.

Thank you, esther

Mildred Rhian Lockerby

She is here! The kids are all excited and love their baby sister. Even Gus was fascinated by her.

Born monday the 22nd at 9:30 pm weight 8lbs 2 oz. We are taking a week off to celebrate and relax. Everyone is doing well.

Food, Glorious Food!

Lately, we've enjoyed watching Gus eat, eat, and eat! He loves food and now, he has little to no problems eating: no gagging, no choking, no aspirating! He is eating at least 1/4 cup each time, as long as he likes the food (meaning everything we normally eat). We wait to feed him his formula through the g-button now, and feed him the 'real' food first through the mouth. We are so excited to see such great progress and we are so proud of him.

Otherwise, Gus is making small improvements overall. He is getting stronger, more alert, and his response time is almost instant. He is now quick to laugh when thrown up in the air, tickled, or when anticipating the tickling (as when we play "Gonna Getcha"). Today he seems like he just wants to move. When holding him, he keeps bending out of our arms in different directions and laughing as we catch him.

The rest of us are doing well. We are excited about the baby being born almost any day now.

Thank you again and again for your prayers and support. We are so grateful that Gus is such a fun kid to be with. He laughs, plays, and loves to talk to us. God has been good to us and continues to show us his mercy.

This verse was shared with me by my sister, Francis and has been close to my heart for a long time. I wanted to share it with you:"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13

To him who is able to do all things, to him be all glory.

esther

Doing great!

Wow. The last few months have really been difficult. We saw Gus go through many of the stages he went through in the hospital and we were pretty shaken up about it, besides being exhausted physically, mentally, and emotionally. Through many tears and prayers, the progress seen over the holidays has increased. A couple of weeks after the Christmas holidays, we noticed Gus becoming more and more relaxed, to the point that he was at before Thanksgiving, when the chickenpox hit. At that point, we thought the medications might be too much because he was so relaxed, but they were never changed. During the last couple of months, we addressed the issue of increasing them and the doctor felt that we just needed to wait this out.

We are now at a place with Gus where he is relaxed and working hard on his muscle strength. We are so excited that God is so good to us! Gus loves the exercise: squats, tucking his chin and lifting up his torso, putting weight on his arms in a crawling position...and anything else we are advised to do. Last week and this week he did some new things at physical therapy: last week he 'walked' (the therapist made his legs move in a walking position) in a light gait and this week he kicked and did squats in the pool.

His response time is also becoming faster - he looks more quickly, tracks a little better, laughs faster and longer, opens his hands when told, says 'hi' when someone else says hi, is just beginning to grab a little at toys, and doesn't have as many problems with swallowing. More and more we feel the pleasure of God in giving him back to us. It's fun to see that he doesn't like bananas or orange juice but loves curried lentil stew. He loves movement, which is so typical of a 20 month old boy: he loves swinging upside down, being thrown up in the air, twirling around, and being tickled (all over his body). Any movement that can accompany "weeeeee" he loves.

Last week we had the 6 month review for the in-home therapists that work through the public school system. It was so encouraging to hear how he was just 6 months ago: didn't smile, didn't laugh, communication was difficult, wasn't sleeping well, muscle control was very difficult, had a hard time swallowing drool, was generally unhappy. What a difference. All of the people at the meeting were really encouraged about the progress. Along with the physical therapist, the occupational therapist, and the therapy coordinator, we were able to have Jo come from the 'Delta Gamma Center for Children with Vision Impairment'. She was the vision evaluator for Gus just before Thanksgiving. The evaluation had lasted over 2 hours and at the end, he could see better. She was really encouraging about the prospects of Gus having vision therapy. We followed her advice from the evaluation and have seen improvements in his vision already. His eyes move more together and he responds to visual stimulation, even without noise (like wiggling your fingers in front of his face makes him laugh). We were able to establish monthly visits with Jo and continue our current schedule of therapy (once a week from in-home therapists, along with twice a week at Ranken Jordan).

Besides the encouraging news about Gus, we are excited about the new baby. Gus loves children and babies so it will be really fun to see him interact with this one. He loves any picture of babies and when I tell him the baby is kicking him, he smiles. We now have a due date of March 4 (there was some debate...) and we are getting ready for him/her. The older kids are really thrilled.

Again, thank you. Your prayers are performing a miracle. gratefully, esther