A Second Chance At Life

This morning my husband with teary eyes came into the bedroom and woke me up to show me the wonderful article written about Jayden in the Stockton Record by Joe Goldeen. Jose is a tough guy, but the article touched his heart. A couple of months ago Jayden's Neurologist Hutch asked me if I would be willing to share Jayden's story. Cyberonics, the company that makes the VNS, wanted to share success stories with the public. There are so many people out there that don't even know what a vagus nerve stimulator is. For our family it's a life saver. When Jayden's seizure started to worsen it never occured to me to describe them as life threatening. I guess that is nothing short of denial on my part. On any given occasion a seizure can be life threatening. Especially when they are lasting a minimum of 45 minutes! A good example would be John Travolta's son. He had a history of seizures, still no one would've thought that a seizure would take his life. Jayden's underlying cause for his seizures is still a mystery. But this doesn't change the fact that he is an awesome boy! It is amazing to me that a boy who has never uttered a word can send such a huge message and touch peoples hearts. I find strength to get through each day just by looking into Jayden's eyes. He makes me a better Mom, wife, and person. I think as we go through life we tend to take things for granted. Jayden helps keep us grounded. We are grateful for everyday that we have him. We are grateful that God chose us as a family to take care of Jayden and He keeps finding ways for us to tell Jayden's story. Special thanks to Hutch for thinking of Jayden as a success story, Colleen for contacting all the right people, Joe Goldeen for writing a great article, and all of you for following Jayden's progress. We appreciate and love you all.

Our Little Star

Jayden has turned into such a popular little guy. He was on the front page of the Stockton Record last Sunday with his teacher Amy Terra. With the state of California in such a budget crisis the future of Jayden's school Walton Special Center has seemed uncertain. Sundays paper reported that the $15 million dollar renovation and modernization to the school will not be delayed. Jayden attends Walton Monday through Friday along with 12 other students that are medically fragile. The classroom he is in is too small for the needs of the children. With all the equipment that is necessary to supply these children with adequate care our teachers at Walton do an awesome job. Just think how much better things will be when they have more room. We are all very excited to see how things work out. Look for Jayden to be in the Record again this coming Sunday. He is telling his story about how his Vagus Nerve Stimulator changed his life.

Cool Gifts

Grandpa Joe bought all of the kids gift certificates to the mall. While Andres and Jeana took off walking on their own I took Jojo and Jayden to Beary Sweets. It's kind of like a build a bear shop. Jayden and Jojo both wanted bulldogs like Thor. They got to pick out the animal they wanted, then Jojo helped by stepping on a button that allowed the girl to stuff the dog as full as he wanted him. Then after each dog was stuffed both boys got make a wish on a star and stick it inside their dog. Jojo dressed up his dog in a leather jacket and jeans while Jayden decided to make his look like an electrician like Daddy with a tool belt. Thanks Grandpa Joe for the great gift.

I love my Mom!

As most of you already know my Mom was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer in 2007. She battled long and hard and I am very proud to call her a "Survivor". She went through the whole thing so gracefully using Jayden has her inspiration every step of the way. This week she went to visit Dr. Mehdy who gave her a clean bill of health. He even asked her if she would be interested in talking to some of his other patients who are going through it now. He was amazed with her strength through such a trying time. She never waivered and kept her faith strong. She has officially finished all of her follow up appointments. Way to go Mom!

Goodbye 2008 Hello 2009

Another year has come and gone and we have lots of things to be grateful for. One of the things that I am most grateful for in 2008 was Jayden's stability. Because of his stability I was able to actually go to class at Delta.He has been growing like a weed. He's had no major issues this year other than a small cold. This is huge for a child like Jayden. He continues to eat pureed foods and drink bottles, relying on Mommy for his total care. In July my Mommy van was modified with a wheelchair lift, it makes life so much easier.

Jojo has had a really great year too. He played basketball, baseball, and football. He is doing well in school. The day after football season ended he was already talking about the next season and asking when it would start. He is a great big brother to Jayden. He kisses him goodnight every night. And sometimes tells me how he wishes Jayden could walk and talk so that they could play the Wii together. That breaks my heart. On New Year's Eve Jojo couldn't wait to open the bottle of sparkling cider. And ofcourse he had to drink it in a wine glass. He felt so grown up.

Andres and Jeana have done very well this year academically. Both these teens made the honor roll this year. We are very proud of them. Jeana is half way through her first year of High school and loving every minute of it. She's a cheerleader for the Stagg Delta Kings and is considering playing softball. Andres finished his final year of Northwest Trojan football and has been working out to prepare for High School. They are really great kids!

This is our super dog Thornelius Correa. He joined our family this year and has been a joy. Jose likes to play the tough roll and act like he doesn't like the "stinky dog". But we always catch the two of them playing around with each other. Thor, as we call him, really likes Jayden. He likes him so much that Jose almost had a heart attack when he found that the dog had jumped on the couch to,"play" with Jayden. He is very interested in Jayden.

It's been a wonderful 2008 and I am really looking forward to 2009 and what it has in store for our family. We hope that you all are happy and well and enjoying each day that God has made. He has truly blessed our family and we pray that he will bless yours as well.

Merry Christmas

I love Christmas! I guess I didn't realize until this year how much my children count on our little traditions that we have established for our family over the years. The day after Thanksgiving the Christmas decorations come out. Infact, this year we started even earlier. The kids were so excited to get started. I on the other hand was not. I was overwhelmed with school and finals. The last thing I wanted to think about was decorating the house. Now that Andres and Jeana are getting older they have become in charge of the tree. I no longer have to go down to the basement and drag stuff out. The two of them took pride in getting everything together. With Jojo following them up and down the stairs like a little puppy dying to tear into everything, they managed not to run him over and be graceful doing it. They did all the work and I just supervised. And I might add that our tree was absolutely beautiful! This Christmas we really enjoyed spending time with our family. The first stop was my Mom's house where Lori and all her kids and grandkids gathered together with us to open gifts. Our next stop was Jose's Tia Esperanza's house where we would eat her famous,"pasole". Jose didn't eat anything all day in anticpation of all the food at his aunts house. Our final stop for Christmas Eve was to see Jose's Abuelita Graciela. She was very excited that we came over. We really enjoyed visiting with Tio Frankie and Tia Ophelia as well. We should really get together more often. Christmas Day was spent at my Mom's eating turkey until we were all beyond stuffed. Our family is growing like crazy, our latest addition is my neice Renee's son Adrian, aka Rocky. It was nice to have everyone together visiting and realizing how blessed we truley are to have each other.