Tuesday, November 25, 2008, Nashville, TN., 8:54 p.m., C.S.T.~

Dear Rebekkah Rachel~

Hey!  It's your little buddy, Johnathon, writing!  How are you?  Here's hoping that you're feeling much better by now, that you're getting stronger since your last surgery/hospitalization!

I know it's been rough on you; I am sorry you are having to go through so much!  It hasn't been an easy year for me either (having to have a trache tube put in, learning to talk all over again, hospital stays, etc.), but compared to a lot of people, I am blessed, very blessed.

For one thing, I am still alive.  In just a month, in fact, a month from tomorrow, I will be sixteen.  A huge milestone, considering that doctors were ready to sign the death papers on me; they didn't think I'd live.  Then when I got diagnosed with Duchenne's at the age of one year, they thought I'd be dead by the time I was five. 

Wrongo!  I proved them wrong!  And I still continue to do so even now!  Every day I wake up with breath in my body, or the strength to continue to do things is an answer to prayer, a huge blessing from God!

I have plenty of things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving time!

Besides my health (such as it is), I am looking forward to seeing my brother, Erick, who is coming in tomorrow.  It's been a few years since we last saw each other; we are both stoked, lookin' forward to it.  Now, it will be hard for him to see me with a tube in my neck, but he should be glad I'm still kickin'!  LOL

So, enough about me.  How are YOU doing?? That's the million dollar question!  I certainly hope you are doing much better by the time you get this e-mail; there's nothin' worse than having to spend a holiday like Turkey Day (or Christmas, which is even worse!) in the hospital; you've been down that road, as I have.  Not fun, is it??  Anyway, I think of you every day, wonder how you're comin' along.  There's not a day where I don't pray for you!

We are fine, meaning the family.  Today, Anh and his girlfriend, Thu, came in from Oklahoma, and Steffi and her boyfriend, Turk, came in from Texas.  (We went to the airport to pick them up.)  Tomorrow, Lightning, Darnell, and their kids are coming, as are Dwerlina and her family, and Melizza, as well as Dianna.  It is going to be a very full house!  And tomorrow my brother, Erick, joins the fray!  Whee!!

It's going to be tons of fun (not to mention, exTREMEly crowded)!! 

It's going to be interestin', that's all I have to say about it!  LOL

I just wonder if the Golden Corral can handle our group! 

We are going out to eat Thanksgiving Day, after we watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  Then, after we "stuff ourselves", we will come back home, collapse and die on the couches or floor, and veg out, watch football games until we go to bed by nine, ten.  We will then rise the next morning and go CHRISTMAS SHOPPING!!  (YUCK!  I HATE going Christmas shopping on the day AFTER Thanksgiving; it's an absolute NIGHTMARE!!)

We kids are out of school from now until the first of December; then we go back, for a few weeks, at least, until Christmas break, and that will be two weeks long.  I just hope the teachers don't pile a lot of homework on us before then; I'd be so hacked off!!  I HATE it when they do that!!  GRRRR!!!!

Well, I am getting stupid; I am getting sleepy all of a sudden.  Guess I'm gettin' medicine head; meds startin' to kick me in the a**.  I will write in here again soon; I just wanted to write to you, wish you a happy TURKEY DAY!!  May it be STUFFED with God's blessings, and may it be SAFE and fun for y'all!

Love ya and miss you like crazy(cakes)!  Take care!  Bye for now!

~Love, your boyfriend, Johnathon Irwin-Allen. :D X0X0X0X0X0