Today we took another trip up to Grand Rapids to see Josiah’s opthamologist. Though he did not lose vision, he was quite limited right after the accident in his ability to focus both eyes together (which caused double-vision) and he had limited range in his right eye. He had made quite a bit of progress before he ever left the rehab hospital, but the doctor was very encouraging today at his progress.  His vision is great and the issues he had with range in his right eye are gone. Great news to hear! He still cannot close the right eye all the way, which has caused some irritation on the eye. He has to have an eye lubricant at night and drops three times a day at this point. This should also clear up as his nerve damage heals

This was all great news, but the best part of the day was something we noticed as the eye doctor was examining him. When he smiles, we usually get just half a smile because of the damage on the right side of his face. But today he smiled and the right side of his mouth curled up into a slight smile as well!  This is the first movement that we have seen from that side. At the risk of sounding pathetically soft and emotional, it literally made me cry.  God has been so good to answer every prayer that we have offered up on Josiah’s behalf. We do not take that, or your prayers lightly. Josiah is a walking trophy of God’s grace and power, and we pray that others will see this as they hear and follow his story.

We continue to ask for these specific requests:

• Pray that Josiah will continue to make progress and get back in school here very soon so he can graduate on time.
• Pray that Josiah’s face will continue to heal! His lack of control in his face is the most frustrating thing he deals with at this point, so I know that seeing even the slightest improvement like we did today is exciting to him.
• Pray that we are able to lift up the name of Jesus to those around us. I know I have said this before, we would never have asked for this for our son and family, but we would also never want to limit or take away the opportunity for God to work the way He has. It is humbling to know that God chose us and is allowing us to be a channel of His grace and love.

2 Corinthians 4:15 “All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.”