November 29th, 2008 pm

It is 10:50pm. I know it's late, but I just got home from going out to dinner with my sister Beth, niece Rachel, and Kayla, Katie, and Molly. We had a really nice time. Mary had another good day. She really didn't do a tremendous amount of rehab today, but what she did was very good. When I arrived this morning, she was already walking with one of her therapists. After talking to Mary later, I found out the the therapist asked her "what do you want to work on the most this morning?" Mary answered "whatever you think is going to get me home the quickest". When the speech therapist intercepted us going down the hall heading back to Mary's room, she asked if Mary wanted to move up her therapy time with her to now. Mary said "sure". When we got done with Mary's speech therapy, she also got some "homework". We arrived back in Mary's room, and normally she would say I'm ready to lay down now. This time she said "Let's do my homework". All of these things really shows me that Mary is ready to take on this challenge, and she is doing it head on. Just in the last few days she has really realized that this is the way to get home to her family. She still gets tired, she still gets annoyed with me, but I am so happy to see the drive starting to come out in her. We all know how strong and independent she is, and I was so hoping that it would come out in her rehab. I think it finally is. Maybe not 100% yet, but she is definitely turning it up a notch or two. We had quite a few friends visiting today, and I know there will be some tomorrow. Mary enjoys seeing her family and friends, and I really feel that it picks her up. Granted, she is worn out when everyone leaves, but the positive stimulation is good for her. She still has not seen any of your wonderful, caring comments yet on this blog, but she knows about them. She is looking forward to reading them all. I am looking forward to her doing just that. Thanks to all.