Today marks 7 years since the date of Jake's inline of duty US military accident. I have tried my best today to totally focus on Jake and express the positive learning outcomes of celebrating his life. It was 7 years ago today that I totally lost my son to a very serious accident, where we as parents were told that our son would never make it through the night at one point. Yet then if he did live, that we needed to be prepared for our son to be a vegetative state and the possibility to be totally incapacitated and be placed in a long term nursing care facility. I would never accept that daunting outlook on his life, and that is why I fought like hell to provide him the best traumatic brain injury care and medical care to help rebuild his broken body and his big beautiful brain from his injuries. [...]

Today is Sunday April 5, 2020 and it marks the 6th anniversary of Jake's in-line of duty military accident from El Paso, TX. As you can see our updates are now fewer and farther between, as the progress and challenges have now come to a plateau. [...]

Another year has rapidly flown by and Jacob has plateaued in his TBI and his physical therapy recovery. We are not seeing as many frequent brain health and wellness changes as in previous years, and this is expected. He has incurred heightened sound sensitivity in the past two years though, and his pain in his legs and feet remain constant from the poly-trauma injuries where all the broken bones and surgeries have occurred. Yet the postive changes we are seeing - are Jake's acceptance to try new activities when introduced slowly, interacting with people socially when it is 1:1 or 1:2, and his willingness to be so helpful with home living routines with folding clothes, unloading and filling the dishwasher, and maintaining his personal bedroom and workout room spaces. Some of the new activities that are boosting his eye-hand coordination and reaction times include ping pong, putting on the putting green with estimating distance, length of a shot and putting green obstacles. He still is very interested in our families preparation of cooking and cooking techniques, and this has spiked his curiosity on several occasions. So we make time to explain, model the cooking strategy, and make associations of similarities and difference so he can make the cognitive learning connections. If you get a chance to talk to Jake, you will have to enlighten him with a conversation of "Gold Belly' his favorite online food ordering company. This is part of Jake's weekly living skills to do the research of interesting foods, identify where they are located from, read reviews and ratings of each food service, and then making a choice of ordering and getting sent unique high quality delicious foods. Some of his past orders in Caroline's cakes, cheesesteaks and pastrami sandwiches, gourmet mac and cheese, and Prince Street NY style pizzas. [...]

Today marks year #4 of Jake's military related accident. One would have never have thought that he has recovered to the degree that he has, and that we as a family would be in sunny California, working and finding some of the best VA medical care in the nation to aid in Jake's recovery. Each year Jake is still improving, even though we are not seeing the milestones as frequently as we have in the past, but most recently his key words, phrases and off the cuff funny comments he comes out with truly represents the Jake we once knew. [...]

Our brains are so very important in every cognitive and social aspect in our lives- so why is it that the importance of how our brains function and react to learning situations within classroom environments, work places scenarios, and within our family home interactions that it is not truly realized or appreciated? I believe the relevance of brain-based teaching and learning may be quite over whelming for some, due to their limited exposure or background knowledge of the why and how our brains work, and the complexity of understanding the varied learning challenges of an individual who has suffered a TBI. It is not until a life changing situation occurs-  and when it is internalized through a personalized learning experience- does it become the most important and critical learning aspect of all of our lives. [...]

Thank you Standford University Medicine and the Palo Alto VA for treating our son and our family with such respect, kindness and with high quality healthcare options. https://www.paloalto.va.gov/ Specializing in TBI  & neuroscience rehab care http://dvbic.dcoe.mil/aheadforthefuture We are finally in the best VA system that works directly with Standford University doctors, and ranks #3 in the country! Jake will be receiving the highest quality care of new/researched-based neuroscience healthcare treatments for his TBI and cognition skills, aqua-therapy/physical therapy for his constant aches/pains, and speech therapy to improve his quality and delivery of inflection/tone of his speaking skills. We are so thankful!!!!! #WeLoveJakeHarm[...]

Looking back over the past three years, I would have never believed where we have landed, how each of our lives have changed forever, and how close we have become as a family. Yes, it has been 3 years since Jake's motor vehicle accident within the US Army. We are so very thankful each and every day for the celebration of life. [...]

Happy New Year Friends and Family,

Our family transition of our move to northern California was successful and we are so enjoying the welcoming sun each and every day with the wonderful temperatures. We are now experiencing the California winter season, what this means.... morning temps in the mid to high 30's and day temps in mid to high 50's, and rain about every 7-10 days. Only one more month of these chilly temps and then February will welcome us with warmer temperatures into mid 70's, and then each month there after will be warmer yet. We love it![...]

Fall Greetings,

It is official- only 20 days before the Harm’s move to sunny California. WE ARE SO EXCITED! WE have found a beautiful home on the west side of Fairfield, CA in Green Valley Estates = totally beautiful and it has the gourmet kitchen to meet our expectations of our MN home, and best yet- it has plentiful walking paths to meet Jake's expectations to enjoy the outdoors. Jake is thrilled to have his own bedroom with ensuite for his privacy and independence. There is also a dedicated workspace for Naomi for her remote tech job with Dell. But best of all- we have a lovely outdoor patio to soak up the sun, plant an herb garden and vegetables, enjoy the California temps, sunshine and just RELAX. Oh and did I mention- we are 12 miles from Napa Valley? #LifeIsTrulyGrand Yes, we are so ready for this move![...]

I have been thinking a lot about our Jacob today, as today is his two year anniversary since his accident in El Paso, TX on April 5, 2014. So much has changed in two year's for him, for our family and now our future lives. He went from being a full-time active military soldier, to a permanently disabled veteran with a 100% disability due to his TBI and broken body. He was married just prior to the accident and within 8 months he was divorced from this same person that turned brutally ugly on Jacob and our entire family, and was none supportive of Jacob and his medical and physical condition. It was all part of the plan- we now realize this....[...]