Thursday, March 08, 2007

the best gift

It's John's birthday today. This morning at 9:23 a.m. (California time), he sent me a text message that read: "She wrote her name & signed a bday card 2 me 2day." I called him immediately because that's fucking amazing, and when he answered the phone I told him, "dude, that's fucking amazing. Happy birthday!"

"That was the best birthday gift I've ever received," he said, and I could tell by the tone of his voice that it was completely true.

The fact that she wrote her name is huge. I realize that I keep saying that things are huge, but there are so many HUGE things happening and we should recognize them as such. About two weeks ago, Erica and I were in with Uma and we offered her a piece of paper and a marker--she took the marker and drew several straight lines on the paper. We weren't sure if she was trying to write something and couldn't, or if she simply wasn't interested in our test. But she wrote her name today, and that's an amazing sign. It's progress--it's HUGE progress. Uma's gonna kick any aphasia she might have squarely in the freaking butt and she's gonna take names later.

John asked me if I wanted to talk to Uma and I was like, "of course," so he held the phone up to her ear and I talked to her for a minute. When John returned to the phone, he told me that Uma had smiled and laughed, which is appropriate because I said some really funny things. Seriously.

I miss her so much and I can't wait to see her again. It's so hard to be so far from her. "I'll see you soon," I told her, "I'll fucking see you soon."

2 comments:

Anna San Pedro said...

The news of Uma's gift just made my month!!! She's a warrior, yes she is! Thank you for providing updates! LOVE JOY GRACE TO ALL!

j-dō said...

i am so excited for uma! she is awesome and inspirational.

when are you coming back to the east coast? calvin wants to meet you.