Monthly Archives: October 2010

Callie loves her Panthera

Thanks to the donations to Callie’s fund over the past few months, Callie now has a manual wheelchair, giving her mobility, more independence and a way to maintain and increase her strength.

She loves having the chair at preschool because now she’s on the same level as her friends.

Here’s a photo of Callie at the school.

Callie in her chair

Callie enjoying her chair in the hall at preschool.

Concert for Callie in Ware Shoals Nov. 7

First Baptist Church in Ware Shoals, S.C., is hosting a Love Offering Concert for Callie on Sunday, Nov. 7.

The concert is open to everybody, so if you’re in the area and are free at 6:15 p.m., you’re invited.

Child care will be available during the concert.

Nathan grew up in First Baptist Ware Shoals, and church members have been very supportive and generous over the past few months as we’ve learned about Callie’s diagnosis.

Our family is planning to make the drive down for the concert. Nathan and I will also speak about SMA and our personal experience with Callie. We encourage anyone who’s interested to come out and join us.

Ware Shoals is about 45 minutes south of Greenville on U.S. 25. The church is on South Greenwood Avenue, the main street through town. Here’s a map.

Updates on Callie

Thanks to everyone’s orders with Mary Kay, another $125 has been raised for gene therapy research!

Ruth Edwards has generously offered to donate 10 percent of her profits to the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation from now on. Just put “SMA” in the comments section of your online order form.

In other news, we’ve ordered both a manual and a power wheelchair for Callie. We expect the manual chair to be here any day, and it could take 3 to 4 months to get her power chair. Callie chose “popstar pink” for the color of her power chair.

Callie continues to thrive in preschool and is currently going through a period of strength. The other day, Callie sat unsupported and played for about 20 minutes! That’s something she hasn’t done since infancy and it was very exciting. We’ve heard about other children with SMA having periods of strength. We also attribute this to her physical therapies and to the many prayers on her behalf.

We’ve started Callie on a calorie supplement that we add to her milk to help her gain weight. She’s still not to the 3rd percentile, which is where we’d like her to be. We’re hoping that she can gain some weight before winter sets in–if/when she gets sick, she needs to have more weight on her, and right now she doesn’t have any she can afford to lose.

We look forward to posting a picture soon of Callie in her new set of wheels!

Mary Kay fundraiser continues

Ruth Edwards, Mary Kay sales director, will continue her support of SMA research through Oct. 13. Ruth has also increased her donation to 25 percent of profits! You can go to Ruth’s site to place your order. She keeps every Mary Kay item in stock, so orders arrive quickly.

Ruth also sent out a flyer to every customer who ordered in September, telling them about SMA and Callie’s journey. Because of her, about 75 more people are aware of SMA.

We’re grateful to have her support and friendship.