My youngest boy, Jared, has gone through a lot in his life, including heart and eye surgery, a g-tube for feeding, glasses, tubes in his ears, major dental work to pull his front teeth and cap several others, a helmet to reshape his head, and other procedures. For most of his life he's seen four different therapists a week. Jared has Noonan’s syndrome if you didn’t already know that. Anyway, the one thing that he’s struggled with for the longest time is his walking. He had little braces in his shoes, which did help some, but this month he finally got some real braces for his legs. So now I joke with him: "Run, Forest! Run!" Well, he can’t quite run yet, but at least he’s walking straight for the first time in his life. It’s exciting to see.

You'll notice that his glasses are missing in this picture. That's because the little booger took them off and broke them for the second time in a week. We have a strap to keep them on, but he got them off anyway. Arrg!

Personal Experience: The other day, Jared gave a talk in his Sunday school. We were surprised when his teacher informed us that he volunteered to do it, but we weren't too surprised. Back in November he asked to go up to the front of the congregation during the main church meeting to share his testimony. When I saw my wife taking my 2-year-old boy up to the front of the room, I cringed. “What is she thinking!” But he got right up to the microphone in front of several hundred people and said all on his own, “I know that Heavenly Father loves me...” Needless to say, there were quite a few tears in the room after that. Well, back to the talk he gave. My wife got some pictures to hold up while he said the words to a song. Many of the adults in the room cried, but it was even more emotional for me as I mentally filled in some extra words to the song. Here are some of the lines:

He gave me my eyes that I might see... [which I've had surgery on and need glasses]
He gave me my ears that I might hear... [which I've had tubes in and which are lower on my head because of Noonan's syndrome]
He gave me my life, my mind, my heart... [which I've had surgery on and will need more in the future]
Yes, I know Heavenly Father loves me... [he truly does]