We always thought that our son, Jeffrey Deric, would be a professional athlete; yet when he was a year old, the dreams we had for him fell flat to the ground as our hearts broke in two.

Our son was born seemingly healthy, but when he was about six months old, we discovered that he was behind his peers.  He wasn't sitting up on his oen and he seemed inattentive somehow.  There were other signs that something was going on, so we took him to our pediatrician.  The pediatrician, in kind, suggested that he be seen by a neurologist; he suspected that something neurological was going on with our son.

We then took him to the neurologist.  It was hard seeing Jeffrey undero painful test after painful test, but we had to find out what was going on with him.  It was soon discovered that Jeffrey had cerebral palsy.  He would probably never walk; if he did, he would probably need to walk with the aid of leg braces or crutches (or perhaps a wheeled walker) or use a wheelchair for longer trips. It wasn't known whether Jeffrey would ever talk.

We were determined to help our boy in any way possible.  We enrolled him in early development classes to help him reach his full potential.  In addition to that, he underwent a whole regimen of physical therapy.  Speech therapy.  Occupational therapy.  Anything to help him grow and learn, so he could catch up to his peers.  Still, it wasn't easy acceptng the fact that Jeffrey would never play baseball or football on his own.

Jeffrey is now four, going on five.  He is finally walking: he took his first steps at the age of three; he is walking with braces on his legs and two crutches.  He isn't graceful (he falls often), but he IS walking, which has been an answer to prayer!

Other than his physical slowness, Jeffrey is like any other boy.  He is loud.  Adventurous.  Boisterous.  On the lookout for mayhem and mischief.  The animals aren't safe when he's around: he is too rough on them, even after we've told him about it over and over again.  He picks on his older sisters with reckless abandon, and he loves stirring up excitemtment at church or during Sunday school.  Nothing keeps him down; if he does, he gets bored and is more apt to get into trouble.

We don't know what the future holds for Jeffrey, but we are with him every step of the way.  We will do all we can to ensure that he succeeds in life!

~End of part one.~