The Boy Who Will Not Fail....

No matter how many hurdles this kid jumps, no matter how many obstacles are placed in his way, no matter how many times he it told "there is no cure", no matter how many walls he has to break through, no matter how many life changes, teasing, humiliation, and newly forced upon ways of living are thrown at him, this kid will prevail.

His vocabulary does not nor ever has included the word "failure".

This is our Bear. Perseverer of all things seemingly impossible.



Twenty one months ago Kody's voice started to slowly but surely leave us. Every month that clicked by it got worse and worse.
These past six months or so have been heartbreaking. Dr. after Dr. could not tell us why he was losing the ability to talk.
That is until we found Dr. Barr, Kody's new neurologist in Orlando.
After researching for months and after taking Kody to specialist after specialist he was officially diagnosed with "Spasmodic Dysphonia", a condition in which the vocal cords do not work properly. There is no cure, only temporary treatments of Botox to the vocal cord muscle.
Speech therapy was an option...it would not bring his voice back but it would help him learn to breath, relax, try again.
We brought him week after week for his therapy only to have it not work.
It was heartbreaking for not only Kody, but for us, his family and for his therapist as well who tried so hard to help this teenager fit in with his peers.

Last month Kody had started using the sign language that we had been practicing. His voice was 99.9% gone and signing helped him get his point across.
Trust me, when he was pissed or upset, some signs were alot more graphic then others. Hey...just trying to keep it real here. LOL!

Bear lost his desire to smile and that was obvious by most of his recent photos.
He had the ability to smile...but his spark was slowly but surely being extinguished by that damn disease that was virtually unheard of in children.
We {his Dr's and us} searched and begged specialists from all over Florida and other states to take him on as a patient and treat him but to no avail. There was not a Dr. out there who was willing to inject this child's vocal cord muscle. Too much of a liability, we were told.

While some people lost hope...we never did. How could we? Bear had already beaten so many odds it didn't seem right to quit now.
So, we did the only thing we could..we prayed and we prayed and we prayed everyday, many times a day.
Kody's voice was not in our hands anymore...we had to turn our son over, once again, to our God.

While most Mom's from all over the world celebrated Mother's Day with cards, flowers, and hugs we also celebrated by visiting Kayara and Adriana in Cape Coral.
It was an awesome day...but I had no clue as to how much more awesome that day would become.

My friends and family...
Mother's Day 2009 will always hold a very special meaning for me.
It was on that day that, sometime in the late afternoon while Kayara and I prepared dinner for our families and the noise of our combined families chatting, playing, TV running, video games playing, that Kaysha spoke up and said "Has anyone noticed Kody's voice is back?"
Yes..you heard that right and just like that we were given another awesome gift.

Kody has his beautiful boyish voice back again.
He can talk, he can sing {though much like me and believe me, we will never be American Idol material!}, he can speak clearly, he can say "I love you Mom" and those are four priceless words that I thought I would never hear again from my Bear.

Once again, after twenty one long months of worry, frustration, sadness, and anger...our Bear is back and better then ever.
Next Friday he will graduate the 7th grade.
He will take off for another week of Camp Boggy Creek.
He talks for hours on the phone with his new g-friend, Ashley.
He sings in the shower, in the car, plugged into his radio, just about anywhere. He doesn't even need music..he just sings and he smiles and best of all...
Kody laughs.

What more could a Mom ask for?
Nothing...absolutely nothing. :0)

Have a beautiful day everyone and for Kody....sing today. It doesn't matter how you sing, or where you sing, or what you sing...just sing.
Voices are beautiful and Bear is definitely proof of that.

Love, Kim