Caleb’s strides in speech have also been indicative of another success that we have seen in his recovery, and that is his cognitive abilities have improved. His speech has simply shown us that he is more aware of his surroundings, more understanding of norms around him, and more able to properly express himself in his social context. He has gone to a special ed preschool this last year, and his teachers there have all said that being in the classroom has really helped Caleb to mature socially. We’ve seen it too. It’s really hard to explain it, but he just seems to understand more. He responds to certain things, actions, and circumstances more appropriately than he ever used to. No doubt this latter news has really made Tiffany and I very excited, for this has been the very thing that we have prayed for, for so long. We have a long way to go in this area, but some news is very very good news.

As far as Caleb’s physical therapy is concerned, we actually completed it a couple of months ago. Vanderbilt therapists came to us and said that he was essentially age appropriate at this point, and that the only thing we needed to continue to reinforce at this time would be continued balance, something we always work with him on with his therapy routine at home. Having one less therapy a week has been a great relief as well. As for vision, Caleb continues to improve. His vision is dramatically better and every time we go back for more checkups, the reports are always good. Oh, and I almost forgot to report, that list of IEP goals that Caleb was to have for the next 3 years? He has accomplished nearly half of them already and soon we will be reevaluating them to make updates.

So for now, Caleb still goes to speech therapy once per week, as well as occupational therapy. Tiffany and I still work with him nightly reinforcing his various therapies and IEP goals. He loves school, and actually had his final day of school today. He will be returning next year to repeat his special pre k class, in hopes that by the time kindergarten rolls around, he might be able to enter a regular classroom.

For our other children, Colby is now 6 and has just completed kindergarten. We had the joy of being able to see him walk the aisle to get his diploma. He has struggled this year in school, showing signs at times of anxiety and stress. After many talks with teachers and other professionals we will soon be doing some family counseling with him. We have long wondered if the trauma of what he experienced at Fall Creek Falls contributed in some way to the struggles that he’s had in school this last year.

Till this day he still brings it up periodically and expresses fear over it. So along with other testing, we feel that this will be a good step, not only for him, but for all of us to perhaps lay some things to rest. Other than his struggles, we have learned that Colby is extremely intelligent. When he is taught one on one, much like when we work with him at home, he picks up on things really fast. I have to say as a daddy I am sad about one thing—gone are the days of rolling choos choos along and watching Cars. He is now full on into Transformers, Iron Man, and Spiderman. That’s ok though. Now I get to run around the house as a superhero, fighting all the bad guys who apparently fill our home. Now Caleb and Connor love to join me on the floor with the choo choos.Connor, who is now 2 1/2, has become quite the spunky little guy. He looks almost like Caleb’s identical twin, when he was 2 ½. He loves to play and cuddle, and is absolutely a momma’s boy right now. It’s fun watching Connor and Caleb interact with each other. They have become two peas in a pod, instigating mischief at any chance they get.

Chloe, who is now almost 7 months old, is now starting to get into the crawling position and starting to rock back and forth. Yep, you know what will be next. We’ve had struggles with her health over the last few months, most recently a string of UTI infections. We actually just found out today that she tested positive for a condition that has to do with urine travelling into the her kidneys. It is a potentially dangerous condition, but not with antibiotics. The doctor prescribed Chloe to be on antibiotics for the next year in hopes that her body will change and develop and the condition will work itself out. A year is a long time to wait for something like that, but we are confident that everything will be ok and that she will not need any further treatment.

Tiffany is absolutely the best mom I’ve ever seen. She works hard to provide for the kids as a stay at home mom, and has most recently taken back up her interest in developing a hobby around photography. Her days are filled with chasing the kids around the house, cooking, cleaning, and teaching the kids. I couldn’t ask for a more loving and previous wife. Her faith amazes me at every turn and ever since the accident, I have seen her love for Christ deepen in ways that I have seen in very few others.  One of the things that came as an aftereffect of all that happened through our son’s accident, is it afforded us the opportunity to really think deeply about the quality of not only our relationship with God, but also with each other.  When you nearly lose one of your children, life has a way of making you put all things under a microscope.  Call it God’s Sovereignty or what have you,  the result has been that we’ve progressively become more aware of the things that God has been doing in our lives.  This, like any process of change, has been difficult.  But the fruit on the other side as we’ve both grown into the things God has led us into has been beautiful.  God has done nothing but shown his love toward us, as he has Soverignly brought us through so much these past 2 years, and closer to one other.

As for me, I am still putting the finishing touches on the book. It went to the editor for Thomas Nelson and it was sent back to us for some minor revisions, mainly formatting issues, and tense issues. We also need to shave a little more off the word count, which to my surprise has not been that hard to do. My editor joked the other day that writing a book for the first time is like giving birth to a baby. Can’t say I’ve had the experience, but the process sure has been a hard one. Where it stands now is, once I get it back from my grammar and content editor, I will do a final read-through, and then it will go off to Thomas Nelson for their full review. I expect all that to happen within the next month. There is already talk of another book that may come after this one, one I would write…how’s this for a title…A Faith That Moves Mountains?

I continue to do graphic design and web design from home, as well as build my mobile marketing business. Things have been tough financially for us recently and as such, we are in the process of making lots of decisions. One decision may have me going back into the healthcare industry while I continue to work on my business. My heart of course is in ministry, and I pray daily that a door will open for me to serve in that capacity. I continue to speak as a guest speaker at times, in different congregations. I created a “tent making ministry” of sorts, called Fellowship Mobile, a spin off business from my mobile marketing company. It’s a text and mobile website application that churches can use to send out mass alerts, updates, prayer requests, etc. and use as a way to reach out to the community. My idea was to get at least 50 clients (churches) to sign up, which would create enough income for me to be able to serve a congregation for free—kind of a play on Paul’s philosophy in the New Testament–and a personal dream I’ve always had. Still debating on trying this idea.

All that aside, as a family we continue to grow and learn the many lessons that God continues to unfold in front of us. We have learned so much and continue to learn on a daily basis. We’ve been blessed with wonderful family and friends and a wonderful community of believers that we have now become a part of at the Smith Springs Church of Christ. We’re also blessed to continue to be surrounded by so many wonderful Facebook friends, who even to this day still ask and check up on Caleb. Your love and prayers are nothing short of awesome.

So as is custom, I would like to ask for a prayer request. First for all the little boys and girls who’s requests we post on Caleb’s Facebook often, and also finally for Caleb’s continued progress in Speech and his cognitive abilities.

Thank you all.

Blessings,

Tim Brown

For this update, let me first give some news about our family in general. Since completing the book some months ago I immediately shifted gears and began working as much and as hard as I could, doing a number of odd jobs, building websites, and building a business—one that I had started before Caleb’s accident. I just recently finished the groundwork for the business—a mobile marketing company. In case anyone is interested in checking out the business you can learn more about it at www.celligy.com

I have also been speaking pretty frequently, at various churches, mainly about Caleb and our experience and the things that God has taught us over the last year. I continue to serve God where I can and with whom he allows me to cross paths with. There are two beautiful souls that he is allowing me to mentor and minister to now. As far as ministry full time in a congregation that is not something that has presented itself as of yet, but I remain open to whatever God would have me do.

Right now I am doing a 3 part series for the Smith Springs Church of Christ. The topic is on God’s forgiveness, and the lessons have to do with looking at various aspects of forgiveness from the Book of Matthew. In them I share the texts that I struggled with to come to a place of forgiveness in my heart toward the teens that pushed the rock that day at Fall Creek Falls. On the 11th, I spoke about our forgiving each other and how it is we can find it to forgive those who have harmed us. Next Sunday (the 11th) I will talk about God’s forgiving us, and how much we have been forgiven. Then on the 18th I will share some personal things from my writings and how God resolved feelings for me personally through the texts that we’ve talked about. If you would like to hear the first sermon from this last Sunday you may hear it here:

http://www.smithspringschurch.org/index.php/sunday-replay

Tiffany is hard at work as a stay-at-home mom. The first few weeks have been rough as we are still in that sleepless night phase, Tiffany more so than me. I have to say I think my wife has now achieved superwoman status as I have no idea how someone can function on 2 hours of sleep at night, get up and get everything read the next morning, and then Colby and Caleb ready for school. Incredible! She takes care of and teaches Connor, our youngest son, throughout the day, as well as take care of our new infant daughter Chloe, whom I must say is an absolute delight to have with us. All the pink that I am starting to see around the house has certainly given the Brown home a new and happy flavor. She is certainly a princess.

Colby is doing well with school, and seems to be growing faster and faster each day. Gone are the days of Thomas the Train and Cars (those are Caleb’s favorite things now), and now we are in the superheroes, and play swords, and swashbuckling adventures on the living room sofa. It is interesting though because our night time reading with the boys have become quite an adventure itself. We still read books with Colby, but not when I do his nightly bed time Bible story, instead of just reading it, we act it out. Colby told me one evening as I was about to read him a story from one of his little Bible Story book, “No daddy I don’t want that book.” I was a little scared of his reaction thinking, “Oh no here we go…he likes superheroes more than he like Bible stories.” He then said, “I want you to tell me your stories.” In other words, Colby likes it better when I tell him Bible stories, much the same way I preach, standing up, walking around, and very animated. So we put the Bible story book on the shelf and now each night we take on a character, Caleb and Joshua secretly going into the land to spy out the land of Canaan, Jesus healing the little girl, David fighting Goliath, etc. Colby really gets into the stories and loves them. I am glad that he wants to participate!

And then finally as for Caleb, wow have we come a long way. The main thing of course was him starting school this last year. We went through a lengthy process of getting him his IEP’s (goals and objectives for the next year) and after a period of getting him acclimated to leaving our home every day and getting him into a classroom setting, we started seeing the results instantly. You may remember some time back, us talk about how Caleb had slowed in his ability to handle multiple therapy tasks and that his recovery was becoming more gradual. It seems however that right before he started school, it sped back up again. Caleb is once again learning at a more rapid pace, and is able to handle more activities at night, even coming to us now and asking us if we will “play beanbags,” “do matching,” or “color.” We believe that him being at school is making a difference socially as Caleb is acting more his age and seems to be more mature. He is also modeling behavior similar to his peers, so again I think the social aspect of him being at school has helped.

Academically, we are seeing the same kind of thing with his objectives at school that we have always seen at therapy. He learns new concepts at school, but he “gets them,” from all the hard work we as parents put into it here at home at night. One of his IEP goals was matching—learning how to match object to object, then object to picture, and then finally picture to picture. He didn’t get it at first, but after working with him nightly on it for 2 weeks, he immediately was able to take one of Colby’s matching picture games and match them with relative ease. This is a huge success for Caleb because it is showing not only the ability to match, but also a cognitive ability to reason—something that Caleb was graded quite low on when we did his IEP’s.

As far as his therapy at Vanderbilt Caleb is excelling in incredible ways. He just recently passed 5 out of 8 goals and has accomplished most of his OT goals. He was just evaluated at Vanderbilt and we hope to hear the results Thursday. In fact he is doing so much better that they have decreased the number of times he is going now, from the 2 times we were going per week, to now just once per week for PT and OT, and once every 2 months for vision. As for his vision, Caleb no longer has tunnel vision, but has 20/20 in his right eye, and 20/40 in his left (with a 30% left field blurriness). Again this is something that they believe that with continued work will get better.

As for his IEP’s I did want to mention that when he was evaluated, the way they grade students is from 0-130, with 70 being baseline average, and anything below 70 being considered “significantly delayed,” or what was once called “mental retardation.” Caleb consistently placed in the low 50’s range—a result that was hard to hear as parents. However in the words of the board of education, “This is where he is right now. We roughly have 3 years to get these scores us as high as possible. He needs serious intervention right now. Let’s hurry up and get him in school.” The 3 years she was referring to is the time when the schools re-evaluate Caleb and how he will then be classified for further education in school. The greatest barrier that they see for Caleb right now is not that he can do stuff, but that he can understand the things that he is doing, i.e. cognitive ability, problem solving, reasoning, etc. Those are the main things we are working on and those are the main things that we are praying about.

Taking a step back from all this, and looking at the big picture, even though the things that the board told us are scary, we believe that Caleb is continuing to learn and now that he is in school he is starting to show signs of growth in those critical areas: cognitive ability, problem solving, reasoning, etc. His learning how to match is a case in point.

Currently we are having an issue with the workload of the teacher at Caleb’s school. They have added so many kids to her class that Caleb has been lost in the shuffle so to speak. We don’t blame the teacher for this as she has been in communication with us about this every step of the way, and it has to do with her requests to have an assistant added go to deaf ears. We are currently communicating with the school, ARC, and the IEP board to make something happen. As parents of a special needs kid, we’ve learned to be a little more assertive than we’re used to being. But the fact is, if he is going to be in school, he is going to have to be able to learn, bottom line. Please pray along these lines. Thank you.

So now life, for us, is much the same. The boys come home from school and now instead of “therapy” which has historically tended to divide us as a family at night (Tiffany with some of the kids, while I am with the others—one doing things while the other does therapy), now we say that Colby and Caleb both have homework, and we try to do it together as much as possible in a family atmosphere. This has made for a much smoother and happier home! After PT, OT, ST, VT, and schoolwork, and after tooth brushings, jammies, books and night night, Tiffany and I collapse on the couch for a few minutes to chat before bed.

To say its nuts right now is an understatement, but I have never been more thankful. God has been exceptionally good to us and though each day presents new challenges, we still have our entire family together and that has meant so much to us this last year since we have been home. Nothing is the same as it used to be, and that is a good thing. Walking with God now every day is an adventure and more real than we have ever experienced in our lives.

As for the book, my poor editor has gone through about half of the book now. I say poor, because when I submitted the manuscript it was over 450,000 words! It is now nearly half that and she is still going through it. She is about midway right as we are in the middle of therapy at Scottish Rite. The bigger hang up with the book right now is money. We simply don’t have the funds to turn her lose and let her go at it hard and heavy and full time to “make it happen.” Caleb’s bills still continue to grow, and though I am working as hard as I can, I am still not bringing in enough for those “extra” things like that. But I believe that it will be done and ready right when God wants it to be done and ready. That’s one thing we have learned about God. His timing is always right.

Finally, I just got a call from Scott Arnold, news reporter from WTVF Channel 5, asking me if they could do a long segment for an update on Caleb. We agreed and will soon be taping that segment. I will let you all know as soon as it taped.

Please continue to remember Caleb in your prayers. Please pray for his cognitive abilities and for him to learn the things he needs to know. Also please pray that my “tent making” will grow so I can fully support my family, or that God opens up a yet to be seen door. Please pray for our editor to ensure that the book is being edited the way God would want. And thank you for all your prayers for our family.

God bless and talk to you al again soon.

Blessings!

P.S. I would love the opportunity to come and visit your congregation and share with you what God has been doing in ours and Caleb’s life.  I wrote a short blog post not long ago about some of the topics I have been speaking on.  Let me know if you need any guest speakers for your congregation.  Thanks!

As you know, our family went on a camping trip to Fall Creek Falls last year on October 16th. My wife, Tiffany, and I had taken two of our three sons, Colby, who was four and Caleb, who was two, on their very first camping trip. Our 9-month-old, Connor, stayed behind with family in Nashville. We were enjoying a beautiful day in the park with the boys and had hiked to the bottom of Fall Creek Falls. We had no sooner reached the bottom when a large boulder came crashing down the steep slope from more than two hundred and fifty feet above. Little Caleb was struck in the head. We rushed back up the trail with the help of various angels nearby, and Caleb was airlifted to TC Thompson Children’s Hospital in Chattanooga. There he remained for nearly a month in critical condition. Another month followed in Atlanta, where Caleb underwent intensive rehab at Scottish Rite. Only then were we finally able to finally bring Caleb home to Nashville. After two long, excruciating months, we were given the chance to start life over as a family again.

Caleb’s recovery has been nothing short of miraculous. After emerging from his coma, Caleb had to start over, literally. He had to relearn practically everything, like a newborn. And perhaps that’s what it was — he had been reborn. Within the first few months, thanks to the many amazing doctors and therapists, coupled with the fervent prayers of many tens of thousands of kind, caring folks all over the world, including yours, Caleb has regained over 2 years his development. Caleb is three-and-a-half now, and is doing more than we’d ever dreamed possible — walking, talking, running, jumping, and doing everything he can to be the little boy he was before. We still have a long way to go with his rehabilitation, but he’s a trouper, and each day we see him learn and do new things. We cannot help but be hopeful for his full recovery.

This accident changed our lives forever, in ways we could never have foreseen. Through it all, God has made Himself very present to us in countless miraculous ways. It was our faith that sustained us through the worst of everything that happened, and it has been our faith that has sustained us ever since. It’s easy to take life’s blessings for granted, not selfishly or ungratefully, but simply without realizing. You never expect life to change so dramatically, within seconds, and you certainly don’t ever expect to wake up one morning to find your healthy, happy child now has special needs. But I will say that each day I am thankful. God is so good, so generous. Every time I see Caleb smile, play with a toy, or hear him say, “I love you, Daddy,” I am reminded of God’s faithfulness to us. Our Father is One who always keeps His promises.

We still have a long way to go. Though Caleb has regained much of what he lost, he still suffers deficits with his speech, vision, balance, motor skills and general awareness. We hope to have him begin a special education preschool soon. Along with caring for our other three children, we regularly work with Caleb on therapy and help him with his exercises nightly. He continues to attend outpatient rehab at Vanderbilt, but we hope that, in time, he will eventually only need the therapy that we can perform with him at home.

There have been many things that we have learned over the past year — lessons about marriage, family, what it means to have a relationship with God, and how that relationship plays out in our day to day lives, how God acts in our world and why bad things happen to good people, living life for God’s glory no matter what the circumstances, prayer, forgiveness, faith, unity among Christians, miracles and how God still works today, and most important, love. These lessons are shared as we lived and learned them, in a book that I am now putting together. It is our fervent wish that one day God will use these writings to bless the lives of other families who may go through the struggles that we have, so that they may come out with their faith and families intact.

In the meantime, I feel compelled to write you for two reasons. One is to personally thank each of you and your congregation as a whole for all your prayers, both when Caleb was in the hospital and now. Your prayers and thoughts have inspired and helped us, and I have no doubt they lie at the root of the many miracles witnessed in Caleb’s healing.

The second reason is that I would welcome the opportunity to personally share with your congregation our story so they may see what their prayers have accomplished in our family’s lives. Caleb’s story is so much more than just the story of a little boy who was tragically injured by a falling boulder. That’s the story the media told. It is also more than the story of how tens of thousands prayed for him all over the world and how God healed him. That’s the story people—
—experienced on Facebook. First and foremost, Caleb’s story is the story of how God shapes His children and reveals lessons to them about life, and walking with Him. It’s these lessons that I have a burning desire to share with others.

So, I would very much welcome the chance to speak with you on:

1. Caleb’s Story and the Lessons Learned – an overview of our journey.

2. A Faith that Moves Mountains – These are the lessons I taught prior to our trip to Fall Creek Falls, without realizing at the time that God was using them to prepare us. They played out like a blueprint to everything we experienced.

3. Marriage and Family – Studies show that 85% of all couples who go through what we have gone through end up in divorce, allowing events to tear them apart instead of draw them together in support. Through our journey, we have been fortunate to have learned the keys to what keeps marriages together for a lifetime.

4. Walking with God – God showed us that walking with Him requires four essential elements to live the abundant life that Christ promised.

5. Where Is God When Bad Things Happen? – The question of God’s Sovereignty has been asked since the beginning of time. For us, the question was settled when we had to come face to face with whether our son was going to live or die.

6. Does God Still Work Today? – Throughout this entire journey with Caleb, we experienced God in a way in which we had never experienced Him before. The evidence was everywhere that God indeed does still work today.

7. Hearing God’s Voice – Though it was something entirely new to us, it was undeniable that, during everything we went through, God spoke to us directly, through His Word, through dreams and visions, and through others. God still speaks to us today in many ways.  And over the last year we have been surprised by some of the means that God has used to communicate his love and truth to us.  Here I  share what we have learned and experienced.

8. The Power of Prayer – We learned much about prayers as thousands prayed for our son and we watched the miracle of his healing. Prayer is the intimate communication between God and us; it has less to do with shaping what God does than it does about shaping us into the image of Christ.

9. The Peace of Forgiveness – Caleb’s accident was not an accident at all. It was caused by two teenagers and could have been prevented. Here, I talk about how I had to come to grips with my own anger and how God provides the peace of forgiveness.

10. A Church for God’s Glory – There are few times when we as Christians actually lay aside our denominational differences and come together and unite in Christ. After Caleb was injured, we saw the miracle of unity, as love was the banner that united numerous believers to pray for a common purpose — the healing of our son. Here, I offer an open dialogue about some of the things we learned and some thoughts that may help answer Jesus’s prayer for us, that we may all be one in Christ.

11. Faith, Hope, and Love – This is the greatest lesson of all that we have learned: love of God and love of each other. What does it mean to live a life from a whole heart in love and dedicated to God? How does that love then turn and love others?

These are the places where God has taken us over the last year. This journey has been like nothing we have ever experienced, and the journey for us has only begun. If you feel any of these topics would be a blessing to your congregation, please feel free to contact me as shown at the beginning of this letter. Thank you so much for your time. If there never is an opportunity to visit your congregation to personally convey our gratitude, please let this letter be our family’s thank you letter for all the love and prayers that you have offered up on our behalf this past year.

May God bless you and I hope to see you soon.

The Best Is Yet to Be.

Timothy M. Brown, Jr.

Tim, Tiffany, Colby, Caleb, & Connor Brown
3015 Baby Ruth Lane
Antioch, TN 37013
615-474-1859
Browntm1@gmail.com
www.timothybrownministries.com

First some updates on Caleb…

Our family has witnessed miracles too numerous to count. Most recently was the miracle of Caleb all of a sudden regaining more speech and his ability to start to sing. His favorite tune now is “Jesus Loves Me.” As of recent when he is not singing Jesus Loves Me, he is walking around just saying the name, “Jesus.” How fitting it is. Caleb has also re-enrolled in music class, and what Tiffany and I have witnessed (what we believe) is that music is going to be the key to unlocking his speech. He simply LOVES music.

We recently attended the annual rehab reunion in Atlanta, GA and enjoyed the day as Caleb’s therapists got to see him do things that were impossible for him to do last year—run, play, talk, jump, and most notoriously get into all the ice cream he could find, even if it was someone else’s ice cream next to him! He also loved the blow up play area where we almost couldn’t get him out of the jumping station.

That leads me to a very important announcement that I want to make. This October 16th, which is on a Sunday, we are having a special get together at our home to celebrate Caleb’s life. It will be exactly 1 year to the date of Caleb’s accident, and this year we plan to celebrate with in prayer, song, and celebration. We plan to begin at 1:30pm and eat between 1:30pm and 2:00pm. It is opened ended. All are invited. Come and go as you want. If you would like a bite to eat, please RSVP

As for some other updates, we are having our IEP meeting this Wednesday which will determine where the State believes the best location will be for Caleb’s special education preschool. Tiffany and I toured a number of the possible schools today and though we found some that we liked, we found First Steps to be in a league of its own. We loved their facility, teachers, staff, and experience. There are two hurdles that stand in the way at the moment. One being that First Steps is full, but they said that an opening may come up at the beginning of the year. And the second one is money. It costs over $170.00 per week to have Caleb there. There is a possibility we may get a discount, but at this point our family finances are extremely tight. And with Caleb’s medical expenses being at now half a million and going up $10,000 per month, using credit cards or anything else is out of the question. So where we are is where we have been for the last year, in a place of trusting in God’s provision and God’s will for what He wants with Caleb’s life. Caleb is God’s child. He has shown us that time and time again, and He will take care of him., ASAP, to browntm1@gmail.com

This leads me to talk for a moment about the book. I finished the book about 2 months ago and after having some trouble with a contract between myself and the previous person who was going to be an editor, I came across another editor who, to be honest, her work blew me away. She has the uncanny ability to take 100,000 words, cut it down to 50,000, keep the same voice and thoughts as I had before, and not lose any of the pertinent parts of the story. Once she heard about Caleb’s story, she jumped at the chance and now working on Caleb’s book full time. In her words to me the other day, “Tim, I really think I was born to do this.” What do you say to that? Wow! God is at work behind the book. And from what I have seen from her edits, the book is starting to look amazing.

As for the rest of our family, I am working numerous side jobs, building websites and doing graphic work, as well as working on various projects to hopefully be able to help charities and organizations that help children with special needs. Tiffany is doing well (just REALLY ready to have our baby girl). They revised our due date and now it looks like our daughter will arrive on 11-1-11. Nice numbers! As for her name (I know you all have been asking for a LONG time! LOL). Tiffany is set on Chloe, and I am leaning more towards Caleigh or Caitlin. I think at this point we are waiting on an angel to come down and just announce to us what the name is.

Colby is growing up and being a big boy, now in Kindergarten. He got is report card back the other day and had nearly straight A’s in everything. His social skills took a little time to adjust, but with him being in Kindergarten now, we have really seen him come out of his shell. As for Connor his new nickname is Mr. Grabber, as he seems to have lost interest in toys and is much more interested in whatever he is not supposed to grab off of tables, end tables, sinks, trash cans, etc. Oh, and he is also starting to say his first words too!

As for Amani, our nephew. Tiffany (my sister) continues to go and see and spend time with him daily. He now weighs 2lbs, and 7 ounces. He no longer needs any breathing help, as my sister described it, “He is breathing excellent now!” Her prayer request is that he continues to grow and be healthy and strong. He will remain in the PICU until the time that he was supposed to be born (sometime in December, I believe). He will have a checkup soon for his eyes and brain to make sure things are developing the way they are supposed to. I will update you all when I hear more information.

And then finally, as for Caleb. Caleb seems to have gotten over that slowdown period that he had a few months back. He now enjoys therapy again and is tolerating us working with him more. He really is trying to express himself a lot more through music and through talking. He has a really funny sense of humor. Just the other day I was playing Xbox with Colby and Caleb kept putting his mouth on my legs and blowing on it to tickle me. And of course when I reacted, he giggled uncontrollably. Love that little boy. He can now jump on his own over objects, and is now working on walking up and down stairs completely unassisted without holding hand rails. They are working on helping him to start recognizing the letters in his name as well.

You all have walked this journey with us and every day it seems I bump into another person who says, “Oh I heard about your son. I prayed for him.” God bless you all for your prayers. They are the stuff of miracles.

Oh one more thing…I have been speaking recently at various churches on some of the things that God has taught us throughout this journey. I decided this week to (every few months) send out a letter to churches in the Nashville area, all the way down to Chattanooga, communities. My hope is to one day personally thank each and every single one of the churches who’s members prayed for our son. My main aim is also to tell the story—to tell how God used prayer to work a miracle in the life of, not only a little boy, not only in a family, but also in the lives of thousands of people across the world. So be watching your church mailboxes, you may get a letter soon. I am willing to go wherever God leads me. I made a promise to God that I intend to keep. I intend to shout out his glory from the roof tops for as long as I live. If you need someone to speak at an upcoming event, gospel meeting, revival—you name it, I’ll be there. God bless you!

In Christ,

Tim Brown

Yesterday we were told that Caleb is now entering this second phase of his recovery—that his ability to regain things he lost is slowing, but is still progressing. Again, as we were told, this is a natural part of brain trauma. Some of the changes that we were told we need to make have to do with the way we have been doing therapy with Caleb for the last 7 months. Whereas before we had a very structured evening routine of therapy where we would work 2, 3, sometimes more hours of therapy, Caleb is now increasingly becoming unable to be attentive for that long, and he is now starting to push back, be resentful, cry, and not want to do therapy. The therapists have said that with where he is now we need to treat him more like an average 3 year old, in the sense of just letting him play and have fun, and incorporate therapy exercises where we see we can and as he can tolerate them. The structured evenings with lots of therapy was good for the initial stage as Caleb’s brain was rapidly learning and wanting to learn more, but now because his brain ability has slowed, it is causing him increased frustration and anxiety. So now as we change our therapy routine (which will no longer look like a routine), we have been told that, one or two completed reps for a therapy is a success. Learning for Caleb at this point will not be as rapid as it has been in the past. It will be more gradual. Tiffany and I are making a change beginning today to stop “therapy” as our family has known it for the last number of months. We are now seeking to have a more informal, fun, family time in the evenings where therapy can happen, but it is not noticed as such.

As we have decided to structure it, we have cut back on the number of therapy “sessions” with Caleb to 4 nights per week, instead of 7. We’ll work with him on the different types of therapy on the days when he doesn’t have that therapy at Vanderbilt. He’ll still go to therapy at Vanderbilt 3 times per week and still have a session of vision and speech. We in turn will look for more informal ways to integrate physical, occupational, vision, and speech as well as music into our day to day routine, always keeping an eye out on the current goals that the therapists have set.

As I said it was hard at first hearing this news as another of the things we were told early on is that brain trauma patients can plateau at any stage. In other words some patients increase in their functionality, regain back some of what they lost, and then they taper off and plateau never regaining much more. We have asked the therapists at Vanderbilt their opinions on this and all have stated that they do not believe Caleb is stopping with his progress. They have said that he is very smart, loves to learn, loves to play, and is a very happy little boy. His challenges still stem from the brain injury. Like any normal 3 year old his attention span is low, and with Caleb’s brain injury, they have told us it is even lower. His vision is still deficient but improving. His balance is still off but getting better.

Change is always hard and for the last 7 months Tiffany and I have felt like we were on a train going full speed—being relentless about therapy every night so as to make sure Caleb gets back as much as possible for the first year. As textbook becomes reality we find that not all things go by the book. We have met many families who have not seen much progress in the first year, only to have lots of progress in the second, third, or more years. So all in all, I now no longer see the news and something to be alarmed about. I don’t believe Caleb is plateauing. He still loves to learn; but now his learning will take a new nature. It’s time to change. We’ll slow down, make it less informal, do less, become more focused on what we do, and most of all work to give Caleb as happy and normal of a 3 year old life as possible. That, in the long run, will be the very best therapy for our little guy. God has been very good to us over the last few months. It is hard to believe that all of this began 8 months ago. Over the course of the last near year our family has learned so many valuable lessons, about faith, life, love, and family. All of it would never have been possible without you and all the thousands who have prayed for our son. We ask that you still mention Caleb in your prayers. God bless you all. Blessings.

Tim

Monday October 18^th, 2010

Toddler Severely Injured At Fall Creek Falls – WRCB Channel 3, Chattanooga

Boy, 2, In Critical Condition At Children’s Hospital After Freak Accident At Fall Creek Falls – The Chattanoogan

Two-Year-Old And Family Need Your Prayers – And Response – The Chattanoogan

Toddler Struck in Head with Boulder at Fall Creeks Falls – WDEF Channel 12, Chattanooga

2-Year-Old Hit In Head By Boulder At Fall Creek Falls – WTVF Channel 5, Nashville

Tuesday October 19^th, 2010

Emergency Workers Talk About Fall Creek Falls Incident – WRCB Channel 3, Chattanooga

Falling rock at Tenn. park hits 2-year-old – WRCB Channel 3, Chattanooga

Toddler Hurt By Falling Boulder At Fall Creek Falls: Hikers, Emergency Personnel Help Save Child – WSMV Channel 4, Nashville

Toddler Still In Critical Condition Following Boulder Accident – WTVF Channel 5, Nashville

Toddler With Head Injury Holds His Own At Children’s Hospital – WDEF Channel 12, Chattanooga

2-year-old hit by rock at Fall Creek Falls State Park – WATE.com, Knoxville

Boy, 2, struck by boulder, hospitalized – WKRN Channel 2, Nashville

Two-Year-Old in Critical Condition After Rock Falls on Head at Tenn. Park – Fox News.com, via Associated Press

Fallen Rock Leaves Boy in Critical Condition – WTVC Channel 9, Chattanooga

Falling rock at Fall Creek Falls State park hits 2-year-old – WBIR, Chattanooga

2-year-old in coma after being hit by boulder at Fall Creek Falls park – The Tennessean

Toddler in coma after being hit by boulder – The Tennessean

Falling rock at Tenn. park hits 2-year-old – The Tennessean

Wednesday October 20^th, 2010

Brown Family Has Thousands Of New Friends Pulling For Son Caleb’s Recovery From Head Injury. Officers Investigating Whether Teenagers Dropped Boulder From Top Of Fall – The Chattanoogan

Helping Caleb – WRCB Channel 3, Chattanooga

Fund set up for toddler hit by rock – WRCB Channel 3, Chattanooga

Minister father of 2-year-old hit by boulder asks for prayer – The Tennessean

Thursday October 21^st, 2010

2-Year-Old Boy Hit By Boulder Improving, But Still In Coma – WTVF Channel 5, Nashville

Boy Cries For 1st Time Since Hit By Boulder. Doctors Predict 2-Year-Old Will Have Brain Damage – WSMV Channel 4, Nashville

Boy injured by boulder shows some signs of improvement – WKRN Channel 2, Nashville

Antioch Boy, 2, injured by boulder shows some improvement – The Tennessean

Antioch 2-year-old awakens for 1st time since rock hit him – The Tennessean

Friday October 22^nd, 2010

Parents Of Caleb Brown Get “Wonderful News,” But Face “Scary Day”

2-Year-Old Who Was Struck By Large Rock At Fall Creek Falls Is Showing Signs Of Waking – The Chattanoogan

Parents of Young Caleb Brown Speak to Rachel and Brian in the Morning – WDEF Channel 12, Chattanooga

Boy Cries For 1st Time Since Hit By Boulder – WSMV Channel 4, Nashville

Saturday October 23^rd, 2010

Toddler continues to show improvement after being hit by boulder – WKRN Channel 2, Nashville

Caleb Brown Beginning To Show Movement, Trying To Open His Eyes – The Chattanoogan

Boulder fell 240 feet onto child, deputy says – The Tennessean

Boy still unconscious; police unsure if boulder was thrown – The Tennessean

Chattanooga Man Saw Teens Throw Rocks From Top Of Falls – The Chattanoogan

Please pray for baby Caleb, accident at Fall Creek – Topix.com

Police investigate child hit by rock – Timesfreepress.com

Sunday October 24^th, 2010

Toddler Recovers after Boulder Hits Him – WTVF Channel 5, Nashville

Family reports Caleb moving, breathing – The Tennessean

Injured boy’s signs good – The Tennessean

Monday October 25^th, 2010

Caleb’s Run – 5K Fundraiser for Caleb Brown – Sportserasons.com

Caleb Brown Likely To Recover From Rockfall Injury – ChattanoogaThePulse.com 95.3 FM

Wednesday October 27^th, 2010

Caleb Brown Improving – WTVC Channel 9, Chattanooga

Thursday October 28^th, 2010

Caleb Brown Improving, Investigation Moving – WTVC Channel 9, Chattanooga

Police continue to investigate toddler hit by rock – WRCB Channel 3, Chattanooga

Caleb’s Comeback – WTVC Channel 9, Chattanooga

November 1^st, 2010

Long Road To Recovery For 2-Year-Old Hit By Boulder – WTVF Channel 5, Nashville

A Cry Brings Smiles To Caleb Brown Family. Family Goes From Nightmare After Rock Injury To Lots Of Positive Signs – The Chattanoogan.com

November 2^nd, 2010

Act of Kindness Helps Family of Caleb Brown – WTVC Channel 9, Chattanooga

November 4^th, 2010

Boulder Hits 2-Year-Old on Head; Boy Critically Hurt – Justice NewsFlash.com

November 5^th, 2010

Response to freak accident is a powerful expression of faith – The Tennessean

Positive progress for Caleb Brown – WRCB Channel 3, Chattanooga

Caleb Brown Having Stomach Surgery For Reflux Problem – The Chattanoogan

November 7^th, 2010

2-Year-Old Boy Hit By Boulder To Start Therapy Next Week – WTVF Channel 5, Nashville

November 10^th, 2010

Toddler hit by rock is leaving the hospital – WRCB Channel 3, Chattanooga

November 11^th, 2010

Caleb Brown Moves To Scottish Rite Rehab Facility – The Chattanoogan

Fall Creek Falls Accident – Caleb Timothy Brown Story – Mini Documentary Done By 180 Degrees Ministries

November 12^th, 2010

Caleb Brown Still Making Progress As Therapy Starts In Atlanta – The Chattanoogan

November 13^th, 2010

Caleb Brown Takes His First Steps – The Chattanoogan

Local Family Honors Hero for Saving Child Twice – WTVF Channel 5, Nashville

November 14^th, 2010

Caleb Brown Meets Jeff Foxworthy; Uses Sign Language – The Chattanoogan

November 15^th, 2010

Boy Hit By Boulder Rehabs In Atlanta Hospital – WSMV Channel 4, Nashville

2-Year-Old Boy Hit By Boulder No Longer In Coma – WTVF Channel 5, Nashville

November 22^nd, 2010

2-Year-Old Boy Hit By Boulder Doing Well In Physical Therapy – WTVF Channel 5, Nashville

November 23^rd, 2010

Gallatin firefighter saves boy’s life at park – The Tennessean

November 24^th, 2010

Minister’s 2-year-old son, hit by boulder in state park, continues to improve – The Christian Chronicle

November 28^th, 2010

Toddler Struck By Boulder Speaks – WTVC Channel 9, Chattanooga

November 30^th, 2010

Firefighter is little boy’s hero – PriorityDispatch.com (Text from The Tennessean article “Gallatin firefighter saves boy’s life at park”)

December 1^st, 2010

Update: Toddler hit by boulder talks again – WRCB Channel 3, Chattanooga

December 2^nd, 2010

Caleb Brown is Going Home from the Hospital – WDEF Channel 12, Chattanooga

December 5^th, 2010

Miracle Child Caleb Brown To Be Home For Christmas – The Chattanoogan

December 6^th, 2010

2-Year-Old Boy Hit By Boulder To Be Released From Hospital – WTVF Channel 5, Nashville

December 7^th, 2010

Boy Hit By Boulder Leaves Hospital: Caleb Brown Once Again Giggling, Says Family – WSMV Channel 4, Nashville

Boy injured by boulder to be released from hospital – WKRN Channel 2, Nashville

2-Year-Old Boy Hit By Boulder Released From Hospital – WTVF Channel 5, Nashville

Toddler hit by boulder headed home – WRCB Channel 3, Chattanooga

December 8^th, 2010 / The Day Of The Press Conference On Our Way Back Home

2-Year-Old Boy Hit By Boulder Welcomed Home – WTVF Channel 5, Nashville

Caleb Brown Takes Road to Recovery Back Home – WTVC Channel 9, Chattanooga

Antioch boy injured by boulder heads home – WKRN Channel 2, Nashville

Boy hit by rock at Fall Creek Falls going home to Antioch to continue recovery – The Tennessean

Caleb Brown Headed Home – WRCB Channel 3, Chattanooga

Caleb Brown Goes Home – WDEF Channel 12, Chattanooga

Caleb Brown Goes Home – WDEF Channel 12, Chattanooga

Caleb Brown Family Makes Chattanooga Stopover To Issue Thanks – The Chattanoogan

Caleb Brown Headed Home; Family To Hold Press Conference – The Chattanoogan

Caleb brown continues to recover – Times Free Press

December 9^th, 2010

Caleb Brown walking two months after rock falls on head – Times Free Press

Hero Meets Family He Helped – WTVF Channel 5, Nashville

Caleb Brown Comes Home – WZTV Channel 17, Nashville

December 12^th, 2010

Boy hit by rock at Fall Creek Falls going home to Antioch to continue recovery – The Tennessean

January 16^th, 2011

Caleb Brown Starts Vision Therapy: Tells Family “I Love You” – The Chattanoogan

January 19^th, 2011

Boy Hit By Boulder Reaches Major Milestone – WTVF Channel 5, Nashville

January 20^th, 2011

Fallen rock does not crush Family’s Faith, hospital’s will to save a young life – Article written to honor Caleb as he was chosen as this year’s featured “Miracle on 3^rd Street” for Erlanger Hospital

February 3^rd, 2011

Caleb Brown: Improving Every Day – WTVC Channel 9, Chattanooga

Caleb Brown Continues To Make Remarkable Progress – The Chattanoogan

February 4^th, 2011

Caleb Brown Book In The Works – WTVC Channel 9, Chattanooga

I will no longer be preaching as of this Sun. in order to give my full attention to Caleb’s therapy and to family. Our decision was one that was made after many weeks of praying, seeking God’s guidance, and seeking the wisdom of others. As such Tiffany and I came to the conclusion that we needed to be plugged in somewhere where we could mutually have other families to help us and others who have gone through similar things that we have experienced, plus Tiffany and I feel the need for wise counsel for ourselves (dealing with the emotions that have come from Caleb’s injury), as well as we need to get Colby some help for things he is dealing with. After expressing these concerns with the elders we by mutual agreement decided that it was best for my family to step down from the position to let God direct and guide what and where our focus should be next.

We will soon be approaching a publisher for the book.  As I have been seeking God’s guidance there have been a number of doors that have opened up recently that seems to be pointing in a particular direction.  While we don’t have enough yet to go on to say that it is a done deal, we certainly have a pathway ahead of us that we are going to pursue, that could lead to the book being published by a nationally known publisher. Over the next few weeks we will be approaching a nationally known editor who is affiliated with this publisher.

We ask that you continue to pray for our family, my work/ministry, the book, Colby’s heart, and most importantly Caleb’s continued progress.  The things to be focused on in prayer are his eye sight, his ability to have balance while moving and walking, and his ability to string more than one word together to create a sentence.  We are really working on getting him to say 2 and 3 word sentences.

Thank you so much for all your prayers and for your continued love of our family.  Blessings.

A couple of other things that have happened recently was at one of our latest therapy sessions, we were supposed to get a new list of goals for the next 3 months (as you remember Caleb accomplished 6 out of the last 7 in just 1 month). The therapist came back after the session and told us that she apologized but that we would have to get our new list of goals next week.  The reason?  Because as she observed him that day, she said she saw that he had already accomplished a number of the new goals for the next 3 months as well! Oh well, back to the drawing board I suppose! The therapists have told us that they are amazed at how rapidly Caleb continues to recover.

We got much the same report the other day when Caleb had his evaluation with TEIS.  With everything that he was tested on, Caleb excelled all expectations.  The therapist mentioned that Caleb shows signs of being exceptionally smart.  He followed all of her commands, repeated words, and even demonstrated things to her that they didn’t even think were possible for him to do at this time.

We ask that you continue to pray for Caleb.  He has really started to talk more which as you can imagine, we love to hear his little voice.  As we have been saying prayers before dinner every night, the other day he repeated something Colby had said.  We thought it was very fitting.  He said, “God is great.”

As I mentioned in an earlier Facebook post, Caleb had been featured in this year’s Miracle On 3rd Street, at T.C. Thompson in Chattanooga. Here is a PDF of that article.  It was so wonderful for our son to be recognized this way!

If you would like to see the article, click here.

A number of you have asked about his eye sight.  This is the latest that we know…At Caleb’s eye therapy evaluation last week they told us that he has tunnel vision.  He can see pretty well in front of him, less in the upper and right quadrants of both eyes, and the worst is in the lower left quadrant of his left eye. We have started vision therapy and, along with prayer, hope that his vision will improve as everything else has.

Caleb continues to improve with his motor and speech skills.  He can stand on his own from a siting position, reach for objects, turn lights off and on, open and close doors, ask for things, repeat words, and recently I have been hearing him say things where I had no idea where he learned it from (just like a 2 year old!)

We ask that you continue to remember Colby in your prayers.  We will coordinating with the child life specialist at Vanderbilt to help him work through some of the issues that he is having with fear, particularly around his fear of death, of one of us dying and leaving him alone, or one of his brothers dying.  I have been spending some special time with him teaching him about God, His love and care for him, and praying with him.  I have been listening to him talk and helping him as much as I can on his level.

God bless you all.  I look forward to resuming more writing and longer updates.  Please pray for our financial situation, the mounting bills, etc.

Blessings

Tim

Greeting,
Well first I want to thank everyone for being here today.  I want to thank Jason McKeag, Brian Smith, and all those who have helped put this reception together.  I want to thank all those who have prayed for Caleb, for those who have stopped by to visit, sent flowers and cards, who have helped us in so many ways get through the last 2 months.

Introduction
On an October weekend nearly 2 months ago, my wife and I, and two of our sons, Colby and Caleb went on what was supposed to be a weekend camping trip.  It was the very first camping trip that my sons were to experience.  And on that first day after sleeping in a tent, we woke up the next morning and had a blast together as family.

Later that day we decided to go and take a trip to the bottom of Fall Creek Falls.  And on October 16^th, 2010 our lives changes forever.  The story that you all know is the story about a rock falling some 250 feet from above, and hitting our son Caleb in the head as he was being carried by his mother.

And though it was that rock that made the news, that spread Caleb’s story to the entire nation, it was another Rock that has brought all of us here today.  And that Rock is God himself.

Prayer has been such an integral part of this story since the very beginning.  By the time Caleb was in his third and fourth day in the PICU at Erlanger, at T.C. Thompson Children’s Hospital, in the most critical part of the time when his brain was swelling, already thousands of people across this nation were praying for him to make it; and to survive.

It was prayer that kept us going through that first part of this journey, as God labored through the hands of the doctors and the nurses who brought Caleb back from the edges of death and nursed him back to life.

It has been prayer that has gotten us through this second part of the journey, as we made our way down to Atlanta, GA and spent nearly the last month there. We have seen, literally, miracles happen on an almost daily basis as the therapists have worked with Caleb.

And now as we begin this third and final part of the journey, we also believe that it will be prayer that will get us through this as well.

Updates
As many of you know, as you have heard updates on the news and updates on Caleb’s web site, Caleb has come a long way in the last 4 weeks.  When he first arrived at Scottish Rite, he could barely hold up is head, he had almost no use of his left side, he couldn’t walk, couldn’t talk, he could barely see with his eyes, and he had only just barely smiled at us about two or three times.

I never will forget the first day we were there at Scottish Rite, when the doctor who evaluated Caleb said, developmentally, Caleb was about the same as a 5 month old. But, then we began therapy, and the people who had fallen in love with Caleb continued to pray.

And immediately we began to see Caleb excel in everything the therapists worked on. By the end of the second day, Caleb was already starting to hold himself up, paying attention to his toys.  By the end of the third day, he was smiling more, playing more, and interacting more.

And by the time we got to the end of the first week, Caleb had gone from a liquid diet through his g-tube, to eating on his own, regular table food—no longer needing the use of the g-tube.

And now as we stand here with you today, Caleb has met and exceeded most all of the goals that his physical, occupational, and speech therapists had laid out for him.  His sight has improved dramatically, as you have seen today he can walk with assistance, he loves to play with his toys, he has started saying a few words (our favorite of course has been mama and dada), and overall he is much more the Caleb that we all know and love.

And though we are so thankful and so joyful about going home today and seeing our other two children, of going home and actually being back in our home for the first time in two months now, and bringing our family back together…we also know that the journey is not over yet.

Caleb still has lots of rehabilitation still ahead of him. As one of our therapists mentioned a few days ago, in the course of 4 weeks, Caleb has gained about 13 months in terms of his development.

But Caleb still has lots of challenges. His eye sight, though it is better, is still intermittent. Caleb also has a long way to go with his fine motor skills—in his ability to pick up and place things, and do specific things with his fingers and hands.

He also has a way to go before he can learn to walk on his own (although we are very encouraged that we may see him do that pretty soon…one thing that we have seen recently is that he is very motivated to walk again…he loves it).

He also has a lot of work to do on his speech.  One of the things the therapists believe about Caleb is that he still knows all of the words that he knew before, but that the part of his brain that helps process speech and allows him to speak has been damaged, and it’s just going to take time and more therapy for him to be able to walk again.

Where We Go From Here
So where do we go from here?  We plan to leave here in about 10 minutes, head on over to T.C. Thompson and see some of the doctors and nurses that were so much a part of our lives for that first month then we were there, and then we’re going home.

We will have evaluation meeting with the therapists at Vanderbilt on Thursday and Friday, and that will determine the next approach in Caleb’s therapy, how often he will go to outpatient therapy, what he will need, etc.

We will go home and work out a new routine with Caleb and our other two boys, we will work out a new normal for our family, we will continue praying, and we will continue working with Caleb at home…until he has regained everything that he lost.

Conclusion
Before I open it up for a few questions I did want to take just a moment to say “Thank you.” From the bottom of our heart, thank you, to all the people who were there that day at Fall Creek Falls, who worked to help save our sons life, to Michael Tagert, to all the people at the top of the trail…

…to the people who prayed with us and prayed for us as we waited for help to arrive and afterward, people like Jamie Walling…

…To all the people who worked on our son as he was flown to Erlanger. To all the staff at T.C. Thompson who saved our son’s life more times than I will ever know, as he struggled to survive those first couple of weeks…

…To the amazing therapists at Scottish Rite, who lovingly worked with and adapted all of their techniques just to fit Caleb…

…To the now near 9,000 people who follow Caleb’s progress on a day to day basis, to the hundreds of churches, and to the countless thousands of people across the world–who have all not ceased to pray for him.

We want to say God bless all of you, and thank you again…from the bottom of our hearts.

As I said earlier, this journey is not yet over. We still have a long way to go.  And as we begin this third and final leg of this journey of faith, I would ask you to please not forget about Caleb, please continue to pray for him and for his progress…and if you want something to do, please join Project Prayer For Caleb and spread the news about praying for his healing.

And finally, people all over have asked us if we are going to continue to give updates on Caleb’s progress, and the answer is yes, we do plan to give updates and write about his progress, again, until he is fully healed.

And so if you would like to follow him progress, if you want to join Project Prayer For Caleb, you can do so by going to www.HelpCaleb.com

Thank You.

Questions