Greetings to all of you. This is a hard e-mail to write but we have to do what is best for Robbie right now.
PLEASE - NO UNSCHEDULED VISITORS RIGHT NOW. (Obviously, our close family is exempt from this request)
We are so very grateful for the love and concern that is being poured out over our son, over us and over our family right now. We have had friends, friends of friends, friends of friends of friends and then sometimes people who we can’t find a connection with come by.
Our needs right now is to really simplify the traffic going in and out of our son’s room and allow our focus to be on helping him do the work he needs to get better.
Robbie deeply desires to show appreciation and love to people who come. He wants to communicate with them and this can quickly overwhelm him (as well as overwhelm us as we try to help him). Also, when people come, Tanja and I then feel the need to show appreciation, answer their many questions, pray with them, etc. But doing that takes one of us away and creates a bigger burden on the other.
We have tried to ask visitors to just come just for short periods and share love and go but this is just not working. Again, know that we appreciate you wanting to come.
If you would like to visit, please e-mail us, tell us who might visit and when. If you do not get a reply, please do not plan to come. We want him to have some strategically planned visits that we know will bless him and not overwhelm him but we, again, just have to simplify his life right now. If you are in the area, feel free to come by his room and write a note to him on a stand outside his room. Please do not knock or be offended if we do not come out to say hi. You may see us and we may pass you by, just give you a hug and go on to do what we need to do. Again, please do not be offended.
If you have recently visited, please do not feel that this note is directed to you. We have been blessed but are just needing to change direction right and keep his room calm and quiet.
REGARDING GIFTS: Robbie is being blessed by many, many gifts and we decided today that this is one more thing that is beginning to overwhelm him. We appreciate EVERYONE who is showing our child love in this gift giving way (I am the most guilty of this by the way).
PLEASE, NO GIFTS OF TOYS OR FOOD FOR ROBBIE RIGHT NOW. We are trying to be very strategic with what we bring into the room. He has a great desire to play with and do all the things he did before and gets really frustrated when he can’t. Also, the room is just getting filled up with stuff. Just the effort of him trying to communicate what he wants can cause 30 minutes of frustration. His day is now full of very hard and challenging speech therapy, occupational therapy and physical therapy sessions. Robbie needs to focus on their games and challenges right now.
Please don’t think that we take any of your kind deeds, efforts and gifts to us for granted. We love you all.
Ken & Tanja