Ryan's Transcendence

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

We didn't get any pictures of Mason at his blessing . . . so here he is with his Mom at CPK.

August 9, 2006

Dear Family and Friends,

Ryan is at Brother Bott’s Sharing the Gospel class. He has really loved his class and comes home happy and inspired to be a better person. It’s hard to believe that one week from tomorrow Ryan will be taking his American Heritage final and then we will leave Provo to drive home to Denver for a few days.

We’ve had a great time getting together with friends and family during the last week. On Saturday, Ryan, Dan Leslie and I drove to Park City for the Rugby Clinic. Ryan was able to get into a rugby chair and do some skill drills with about thirty other rugby players. He also wanted to scrimmage but isn’t medically cleared to have physical contact until a year post injury. He’s going to have a hard time waiting until December! The Utah Rugby Team (Scorpions) begin practicing on Thursday nights and Saturday mornings in the next couple of weeks. Ryan is eager to practice with them. Handcyclying, now rugby, next he’ll probably want to downhill ski which also looks like a lot of fun.

On Sunday we were able to be with Jacob and Alisha’s family where they blessed Mason. Julie and Jim’s family also drove to American Fork from Idaho for the blessing. Jacob gave Mason a beautiful blessing and we had lunch at a nearby park. It’s great having Alisha’s family so close!

After going to Mason’s blessing, we went to Marv Call’s home after her grandson, Tyson, (Ryan and Beth’s baby) was blessed. It was great to see all of the Call boys, Lyndon flew in from California and Casey flew in from Philadelphia to surprise Ryan and Beth. Calls lived close to us in Chicago and then Denver.

Monday we were back to school and also went to Neuroworx. Hayley and Ryan were in town for Ryan’s family reunion. Hayley came to Neuroworx to see the facility and watch Ryan work out. It’s been great to see her so often this summer. She is also counting down the days until she graduates with her Bachelors of Science in Nursing on August 25^th.

Today Ryan was able to finish registering for fall classes, buy his books, and work with the Accessibility Center to have his texts put onto a CD. I think he feels more confident every day about being in the dorms this fall. Tomorrow we are going to check out Budge Hall, Room 2002, his new home for fall. We also went to the Library Accessibility Center to check it out. We met Alisha, Riley and Mason at California Pizza Kitchen for lunch. We are missing Callum, Izzy, Tate and Sydney so it’s great to have Alisha’s kids to love on! They are so darn sweet and Riley loves to take rides in the wheelchair with Ryan.

Our BIG news for the day is that Ryan’s van should be in Denver when we get there Thursday night! His Toyota Sienna is being shipped from the factory in Indiana where they do the conversion package. The van will need minor adjustments from the dealership in Denver before Ryan can drive it. He also needs to drive a few hours with Shad at Craig Hospital and take a driving test with the state of Colorado before its official. Barry has worked really hard to get the van in Colorado so Ryan can do everything he needs to do before driving back in his van to BYU.

Barry continues to work with the insurance company, architect and prospective builder. We’ve had some bumps along the way and I’m sad to say our remodeling project has yet to begin.

We are both excited to be home a couple of days before Tyler, Rebecca and baby Sydney return to Virginia. It will also be good to celebrate Kaitlyn’s 16^th Birthday with her friends and family.

We hope you are all having a great summer!

With our love, Bridgette, Barry, Ryan and Kaitlyn

A happy Riley riding with Ryan on his chair.

Riley, Alisha, Mason and Ryan at CPK.

Ryan throw a ball into a basket while Halyley looks on. Ryan is practicing on balancing.

Kasey, Lyndon, Marv, Drew, Kevin and Ryan.

Ryan Walters with Kasey, Lyndon, Marv, Drew Kevin and Ryan Call.

Ryan doing a quad rugby drill.

Friday, August 04, 2006

August 4, 2006

Dear Family and Friends,

It’s late Friday night and we just got home from having dinner with Lynn Lynes and Ryan Cook and watching “The Grapes of Wrath” for American Heritage. We’ve had a busy week since we last wrote. It hardly seems possible that Ryan only has six more days of classes and then finals before summer term is over. Everyone warned us the time would go quickly and it really has zipped by.

We had company last Friday night in the form of a two-year-old niece (I can’t bring myself to say “great niece” YIKES!) Riley, Alisha and Jacob’s daughter. They moved into their home in American Fork so we kidnapped Riley on Friday night and enjoyed her most of the day on Saturday.

On Saturday, we had Lynn and Ryan over for dinner and to study for the second American Heritage midterm. Ryan, Lynn and Ryan are an unlikely threesome but they have a lot of fun together while they study. On Sunday, Shane and Jacie Summers and Jackie’s roommate, along with Vinnie Meyer came for dinner. They always bring a lot of laughter into our apartment. On Monday, Ryan ran into Stephanie Hillier and her brother, Christopher, and their grandmother in the Wilkinson Center. Stephanie is here for a LaCrosse camp and also for EFY. On Tuesday, Ryan had his second American Heritage midterm. Ryan does the multiple choice section on his own and then dictates his answers to me for the essay portion. That night we had Daniel Leslie, Alex (Dan’s roommate), Ryan Beaushaw (from Baileys in Colorado), and Matt Chandler over for dinner. Daniel is also a quadriplegic from Evergreen, Colorado, and also rehabilitated at Craig. Dan has a great demeanor. He is in the MAC program and is going on to law school when he is finished. Dan lives in our same complex and he and Ryan have a great time together.

On Wednesday, Ryan and I went to see Ryan’s cousin, Marc Michaud, at his work. Marc is amazing with cars and works for a company that makes and installs turbo packages and restores cars in his free time. Marc came for dinner that night and the boys are planning to get together while they are both in the Provo area.

Ryan is building a lot of muscle in his biceps and triceps as well as his shoulders. He works really hard at therapy and gives it all he has. I’ll post pictures of him transferring from the floor to his chair. When you think about moving your whole body with only your arms and shoulders it’s pretty amazing.

Tomorrow, we are off to Park City for a Quad Rugby Clinic sponsored by the National Abilities Center. There are skill drills in the morning and a lecture in the afternoon to talk about how Quad Rugby got started and the rules of the game. Ryan is really looking forward to going and Dan is coming along, too.

Over the past week, I’ve been working on a scrapbook with all of the cards, notes and letters that Ryan received while he was at Craig as well as compiling all of the past blog postings and updating our photo album. As I’ve read your notes my heart continues to be filled with gratitude for the love you have shown us throughout the past seven months. Ryan would not be where he is today without your support.

I would like to close tonight with a favorite quote from Tyler’s wife, Rebecca.

…may each of us know where he is going, be willing to make the

continuous effort required to get there, avoid any detour, and

be willing to pay the often very high price of faith and determination

to win life’s race.” Thomas S. Monson

With our love,

Bridgette, Barry and Ryan