Sunday, October 23, 2011

It's hard to believe that less than a year ago, I blogged about the miracle of my non-eater son, Trenton, finally beginning to eat two foods on a regular basis: Pudding and yogurt.  Yes, he only ate those two foods, and yes, we were jumping for joy about it!  He had truly never eaten food by mouth in his entire 4 1/2 years of life, so this was the first HUGE step on the long learning-to-eat-and-drink journey that Trenton had in front of him.  

No one could've expected that this journey would be coming to an end only a year later, but I am proud to declare that at the ripe old age of 5 1/2, Trenton is now eating nearly anything, and has even been drinking for the past 2 months!  It's absolutely remarkable to see how far he's come!  Jumping for joy isn't even close to describing how we feel about this--picture cartwheels and triple axels!  ;)  

Now picture a heavenly light shining down on the Feeding Friends Clinic, a wonderful place filled with angels performing feeding miracles every day.  :)  If you look back to last November's post, you'll see that I sang praises of the wonderful, amazing women who worked so hard with Trenton on developing the ability to eat.  Today's post is no different!  One therapist angel in particular, "Miss Colleen" (as Trenton knows and loves her), gets to claim all the credit for teaching Trenton to chew and to drink from a straw--two skills that are much more difficult to teach than I could've ever imagined.  There aren't enough words to begin describing how amazingly talented, patient, and loving she is with Trenton, and there aren't enough words to thank her for what she has done!  It's because of Colleen that Trenton sits in the cafeteria with his kindergarten classmates every day and unpacks his lunchbox.  It's because of Colleen that after 5 years, Matt and I can finally sit down and share a meal with our son.  She's changed our lives, and has given Trenton a gift that I will never take for granted.

Would you like to meet her?  And better yet, her family, too?!  Colleen's husband, Dave, and their children, Lilly and Henry are pretty amazing themselves!!  They are such a thoughtful, intelligent, creative, and fun family!  We had a great time at Coxhall Gardens in Carmel, and even had a special guest appearance by their dog, Lizzie!  Here are some shots from our evening.  Enjoy!
















1 comment:

Liz Todd said...

This post makes me CRY. She's AMAZING! (Well, you know that we could go on and on about Colleen!)

And look at how cooperative her kids were! What a dream come true they must be. I especially love the pic of the two of them laying in the grass. So sweet.