Oregon Photo Journal: Days Five and six and seventeen hundred.. or just the rest of the trip.

How do I say everything about the retreat?? As you can probably tell, I didn't have time to write at all for the rest of our time in Oregon. Nor did I have time to take even a single picture. So all the pictures in this post are going to be thanks to my sister Sophie, who let me steal a couple of hers!
First of all, I must talk about Joseph. It's not the best picture, but his is him....Joseph has something called 1P36 Deletion Syndrome (if you click on the link, you can read more about it on Wikipedia). He was in his stroller (as he's still pretty small for a wheelchair) most of the time, although I would get him out to play in an inflatable pool filled with balls, or to lie on a blanket outside. But most of the time he's in there. The blue thing is his MP3 player- he loves his music! One of the things I really had to watch for with Joseph was to be sure that he didn't cry.. he has really strong gag reflexes, so if he cries he gags himself and then throws up. But if you get down and talk to him, or sing him a song or two, he'll instantly be smiling and happy again! I can't imagine being in a stroller all day long.. especially when you're only 4, so I don't blame him for getting a little fed up with it sometimes. But he really had such a sweet disposition, it was a ton of fun to be with him!

And this is Lucky, the boy that Allie was with!I think that his condition is undiagnosed... but he can't really talk.. he'd mainly communicate by sign language, of which he doesn't know much. But he'd come up to me and sign the letter "L" for Lucky, and then a thumbs up. I'd do it back to him :) He was an awesome guy to hang out with!

This post is getting long already, so I'll show a couple other special needs kids, and then talk about the rest of Joseph's family.


Rocco is the little boy in the first picture, and this is Trenton (left) and Max. These pictures are making me miss everyone a lot!!