Motivating Mondays!

For the very first Motivating Monday, I wanted to feature a friend's little boy, Warren. He is a cutie and has two great parents putting him first- full-time!
Read on as his mother, Amy, tells their story...
My son, Warren, was born a perfectly healthy, full term baby boy. When he was 11 months old, we woke to a parent's worst nightmare with an unresponsive, stiff child lying in his crib. After test after test, a life flight to a more advanced hospital, and endless doctors and nurses working together, it was shown that Warren suffered an arterio-venous malformation (AVM) rupture in his brain which resulted in multiple strokes. Our life as we knew it was over. Warren spent 7 weeks in the hospital and another 4 weeks in an inpatient rehabiliation center. He lost his muscle control, as well as his vision, and does not communicate with us other than an occasional smile when we play with him.

We see each day as a blessing just because we have him! Warren is a true miracle, and I'm grateful each morning when I can kiss those sweet cheeks and rock him in my arms. We put one foot in front of the other just like every special needs parent and have our days when life just seems too overwhelming. However, as parents, our responsibility is to take care of our children, and so I find joy every single day in the fact that I am a mother to a very special little boy and that God chose me...knew that I could handle this challenge...to raise a child with Warren's needs.

Warren has therapy five days a week which focus on building back his muscle strength and communication. We have become very creative with finding toys for him to play with whether it be feeling a pile of beans on his tray, helping him rip paper, banging his hand down on a tamborine or cuddling a soft animal. As summer approaches, we have put him in a baby pool in the backyard, played with sand in his sandbox, and recently received a JennSwing for the backyard which is very soothing to him. Although everything requires extra thought to figure out how we can make it work for Warren, we challenge ourselves daily to give him experiences that other children have. He is worth it!
You can follow updates on Warren and his family at http://www.howiswarrendoing.com