Next Stop – Cincinnnati

This has all been incredible. First of all, thank all of you who have reached out to me in real life and in the digital world about what I’m doing for Jake. I appreciate it, but it’s just a normality for me. He’s my brother. It’s kind of like you thanking me for taking a shower. He’s not just my brother, he’s my best friend. He deserves more than what I’m doing for him anyway. He’d do the same for me. I look at it this way; we have one life to live and I’m not about to leave my broskie hanging in one of the hardest parts of his life. I’m going to back his ass up and do everything within my power to help him. Simple.

But at the same time, I see the beauty of life that you’re referring to. This exposes a part of me that I knew existed but didn’t know when I would have the opportunity to expose. It’s hard to deal with his injury, but at the same time, this offers me an opportunity to express my love for him. It’s not easy for a guy to show his love for a fellow male, even when he’s your brother. Even before the accident, I’d try to express my love to him and it would be a little awkward. It’s hard for 2 males to express that without crossing that line. But for me, there is no line.

On a positive note, Jake is finishing up at Seton Specialty Hospital in Indianapolis. The nurses have been amazing and we’ve had some great times. Jake has seen his largest progressions here. He went from simply opening his eyes to laughing within one day. All the nurses fight over having him on their shift. They also said they’ve never seen anyone recover this quick from a similar injury. I can’t tell you how many times they mention all the support he has. Everything from the people buying shirts and attending the Brothers event to his own brother being his “business manager”. I say this because his nurse actually called me that. I walked in Jake’s room and said; “what’s up broskie (he threw me some knuckles) apparently I’m your business manager.” He laughed. This was when I knew he was the Jake I know.

He’s currently responding to pretty much everything. If something is funny, he laughs. If I show him something to read, he scrolls his eyes over it and reads it. He’s Jake.

I get butterflies in my stomach just realizing his progress and seeing that it’s going just as I thought it would. He’s beyond superman.

People ask me if I think he will be OK. I respond with: “There’s no question in my mind, he will be better than he was before the accident.” They then proceed to ask me how I know this. I respond with: “Because I know Jake.”

It’s as simple as that.

Hopes are high.

I love all of you.

Much love!