Shawn will be coming home this weekend for the Holiday Break!

So I will post an update next week with the latest news from him. In the meantime here is another story that shows just how far Shawn has come. 

Shawn Meadows, Photographer June 13, 2009

Thank you for your continued support and for sharing Shawn's story with your friends and family.
Shawn, Jim, and Katheryn Meadows

Life is a balance of Happy and Sad

Monday our dear friend passed away, so our family came together for the services on Wednesday and Thursday. Shawn's sister came back from her summer trip and we picked Shawn up from the Summer Bridge. We were all very sad to say goodbye, but were able to be together in our grief and share our happy memories.
Shawn was very happy to see his sister and show her around the dorm. They were able to hold each other in their grief and to make each other smile. They have never been apart this long before and the reunion was very good for them both.
Shawn told us about his new job. He seems to be enjoying it. He also told us about his music class.
Today, Shawn called to tell me that he found his wallet. We ordered Tile Finders for his devices and he has one in his wallet now too. We even have one to put on his keys if they are ever found. He has been locked out of his room a few times when he got home before his roommates, but he has handled that disruption pretty well.
Shawn went to the lake this weekend and then made himself a smoothie to cool off when he got back to the dorm. We didn't know that he could use a blender! New photos have been added above.

#smallthingsLeadToBIGTHINGS

Thank you for your encouragement and continued support of Shawn.
Jim, Katheryn, and Shawn

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Shawn got a Job Internship!

June 8th I had to take Shawn his medication refills and when I got there he was on his way out to a Job Interview, so I grabbed a quick picture and wished him luck. He called me later that day and excitedly told me that he got the job. It is an internship for now, not a paid position, but if he does well with job coaching it could lead to a permanent part time position after the summer.
Shawn has been doing well in the Summer Bridge program, but he has had some struggles. He lost his keys sometime during the first week of the program and they aren't sure where he last had them. Saturday this week he lost his wallet with his IDs, insurance cards, and money, they think he lost it on an outing with PARA, so they are working to get in touch with someone to check on it. We are hoping that they find it since it has all his information in it. He also managed to disable the iPad that has his Visual Schedule and Spending software on it, so we had to set that back up, this time I made a backup after it was set up.
Shawn has been living on campus for two weeks now. When we saw Shawn after the first week, he asked if he could come home for a visit. So we scheduled to check him out for this past Sunday. Unfortunately the visit was both sad and happy, one of our dear friends that Shawn considered to be an uncle suffered a cardiac event and seizure last week and was on life support on Sunday. So we took Shawn to the hospital to say good bye. He was very upset to loose his good friend. We stayed at the hospital a few hours visiting with our friends that had also come to say good bye, Shawn got to see some people he has missed while he has been in the Summer Bridge program. And he received many congratulations, so Shawn being here helped others to see some good in the world. We then went home and Shawn played video games for a while and spent time with us. He picked where we had dinner and then went back to the dorm. The short visit seems to help his homesickness as he was happy to be back at his dorm and hang out with his friends. They were grilling out on the back porch since it was such a nice day which Shawn loved, plus he got a second dinner.
Monday he started his new job internship, he didn't call me so I don't know how his first day went but I hope he will tell us all about it when we talk to him next.
#smallthingsLeadToBIGTHINGS

Thank you for your encouragement and continued support of Shawn.
Jim, Katheryn, and Shawn

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Shawn has been living on campus for a week!

For a week, Katheryn and I didn’t hear from Shawn directly.Today we couldn’t take it anymore and had to contact him. We got information from the Crossing Points web presence which occasionally showed Shawn in different activities like shooting pool in the dormitory recreation room or involved with his classmates in cooking activities. We got some reports from staff members directly letting us know that he was doing well, or we would hear from another family member whom Shawn had called—but never contact from Shawn himself. After all the strength of letting him flourish on his own and an effort to wait for him to call us, we broke down to call him on the phone. Katheryn asked him what he was doing, and when he said the dorm she asked if he wanted to talk on FaceTime. He was excited and hung up and called us right back with FaceTime. He apparently walked the halls of his dormitory going from his room to where his friends were and back but he invited us to come see him at the university. 
Katheryn and I went to see how he has been doing. He was very excited for us to be there and we could tell that he has been learning a lot of communication skills—his phone had texts and phone calls to and from family and staff members alike-all had been reviewed, so he is using Siri to help him communicate. We noticed that his lanyard didn’t have his keys on it, and staff said that he had lost them sometime Thursday or Friday, but they were working on resolving this. He explained what he had been doing, and one of his roommates came and spoke with us about the activities they had been doing as well. Apparently the guys all stayed up rather late last night (some reports were that Shawn was up until 5 am this morning) since the weekend gives them some unstructured time. All of his portable electronics were at minimum power—likely he had used them all night long and hadn’t plugged them in today. The late night was something he told us that he was planning for before he moved into the dorm last Sunday—almost a rite of passage in being a college student. All told, he was doing very well, but we could tell that Shawn was a bit exhausted this afternoon. As we were leavinghe was working with a mentor to do his laundry and he was a bit like a walking zombie, but was still functioning. 
He is enjoying his music class and told us about some of the life skills work he has been doing this past week. As we were leaving we were advised that the program is still working on getting him into an employment site for the summer, but that the site they are coordinating with is looking at a potential for lasting employment beyond just the summer program. If this works out, Shawn could be working at a recycling center, so fingers crossed.
Next week we will be having him spend some of his down time on Sunday with us—likely going to visit family. The mentors and staff suggested that he may well be excited for that as a break from the very busy schedule that he maintains during the week.
So we have counted fingers and toes, and he is doing well. There were some bumps along the ride so far, but that is expected while he is settling into his new surroundings.Already we are seeing some changes, small things that lead to bigger things.
Thank you for your encouragement and continued support of Shawn.
Jim, Katheryn, and Shawn

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Shawn's Battle with Epilepsy

Shawn has gone from 97% spike and wave activity to Seizure Free since 2009

I kept a journal to update friends and family when Shawn was having his worst seizures. I'm linking the blog posts in order below.

We are so thankful that Shawn is almost 4 years Seizure Free now, and we thank his doctors and the VNS for that. Thank you Dr. Matt Troester and Barrow Neurological in Phoenix, Arizona!

Shawn Getting wired up in the EMU July 2009

Click the link below to learn more about Shawn's battle with Epilepsy

Shawn's Neurology Appointment March 18, 2009 at 11:06pm