Vulcan Salute

Landon says he is definitely one of us.

He's been working on his Vulcan salute.

Eldon & Landon's Stikbot Video

Landon and I have way too much time on our hands. We found this neat toy at Walmart last night. It allows us to make stop action video with a phone camera. Check out our video. This is how we spent our Sunday afternoon. Watch until the end to see the video we made.

Teaching Landon to Write

I have begun teaching Landon how to write. He is a fast learner. This is what he wrote during our first session:

I am a boy. I’m seven years old and I am a little tall for my age. I am not skinny but I am slender. I have blue eyes and my hair is light brown with some red.

I like to dance, color, and play video games. My favorite food is pizza. I go outside to this big oak tree in the middle of the yard. I make outside stuff, give them to people and they pretend to eat it. They give me pretend money.

I go to school at the Blue Ridge Christian School. I am in the second grade. At recess, I like to play the computer. I like to type out “dance four” and dance.

My bad thing is I had a broken arm. My arm is getting better. I will wear a splint for one more week.

Sometimes I go to the hospital and they take blood from my arm. I went to Duke hospital and they said I need to drink more water for my kidneys.

I am learning to write. My favorite stuffed animal is Dotty. Her Birth Day is June 16^th. She is a rainbow cat. She is pretty. I like to play on my phone.

Landon

I will continue to work with Landon on his writing. He seemed to enjoy it. My goal is to get him to where he can write and post to the blog, by himself. Landon was fine until we started talking about the hospital. He is reluctant to talk about it. Posting to the blog could help him.

Please click the “follow” button to follow Landon’s blog. We need as many followers as we can get. Also, "like" and share to Facebook.

Eldon – Landon’s grandfather

Reviving Landon's Blog

We have decided to, once again, begin posting to Landon’s Update Blog. (This is the original blog. The blog we started when Landon was first born. The COTA blog was discontinued after Landon’s transplant was completed. We will transfer the post from the COTA blog to this blog soon.)

First, let me explain why we stopped posting updates and why we haven’t been posting to it for several years. After Landon’s small intestine transplant, we were watching for any signs of rejection or for anything else that could go wrong. Landon continued to heal and to grow. There was no rejection and very few complications. We were content to just watch Landon grow. He was, and still is, so full of joy and boundless energy.

We wanted Landon to live as normal of a life as possible. A life free from hospitals, doctors, machines, and feeding tubes. That’s what we prayed for and that has become a reality. If you meet Landon today and you didn’t see all the scars on his body you would think that he is just a normal young boy, and he is.

We wanted to protect Landon. Every aspect of his life had been public for several years. After the transplant, we felt like we just needed to huddle around Landon and protect him.

We became selfish with Landon’s life. Many people had followed his story, prayed for him, donated money for his transplant, and helped to raise money for his transplant. Those people, you, invested emotionally in Landon's life. It hasn’t been fair for us not to share the results of those prayers and all the hard work it took to get the transplant for Landon. It saved his life. It couldn’t have happened without you.

We have decided to begin sharing as much as we can about his life and to begin posting regular updates to the blog. Landon might even begin making some post here himself soon. He will not talk about the transplant. He doesn’t like to hear us talk about it and doesn’t like to see pictures of himself in the hospital or with the tubes in his body. If I can get him to do it, writing to the blog might become therapy for him.

I have discovered that there is such a thing as Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome after a medical crisis, such as what we experienced with Landon. We have begun working on a book about Landon’s life and his transplant. (I’ll write more about the book in upcoming post.) I have discovered that it’s very hard to write about some of the things that happened without crying, even though I know the outcome is good. Some days I just can’t do it.

Landon's grandfather - Eldon

P.S. - Landon recently had a broken arm and he wanted to show you his cast. His arm is healing nicely and the cast has since been removed.