Five years ago I decided to get licensed to be a personal trainer mainly because the education would also renew my group fitness instructor license. I was enjoying leading a variety of fitness classes and thought it might be fun to be a trainer. It wasn’t. Watching people exercise, while not being able to talk to them because you’re counting their reps, is really boring. The education and experience was valuable, but I decided I was better suited to lead by doing (with music-not counting), so I stuck with group fitness.

If we’re being honest, it’s not the only thing I’ve tried and quit. While some may see this as a fault, I don’t. I love to learn, and there is a lot to learn through the formal (or informal) education process and beginning a new job. The experience is never lost, but continuing to invest time in the job becomes an evaluation of purpose. Why am I doing this job? What purpose does it serve for me, my family, and others? Is it where God wants me investing my energy, skills, resources?

So, fast forward five years through several other “jobs” and two more kids through adoption. We’d been home with our new 4 year old for only a few months and he was surpassing his 5 year old brother in all language skills. For two years Jay had been our baby, and we’d waived off some of his slower-to-develop areas not wanting to push too hard. He’d made so much progress that we were honestly impressed! But Kindergarten is on the horizon for him, and he not only continued to struggle with maintaining eye contact, keeping his hands to himself, and wetting his pull-up most nights – but now it was clear there was a disconnect with learning letters, numbers, and any type of symbol. Frustration was building as it was becoming easier for his new brother, Reece, and harder for Jay.

For the past 6 weeks we have been on a new adventure of sorts, packing a day bag, and loading up the crew to travel to Dallas once a week to participate in a program called Brain Balance. While many resources I found seemed to focus on the specific area of trouble, the Brain Balance Centers – developed by Dr. Melillo & based on the neurological development process – have a holistic approach. In addition to our time at the center, we have a pretty long list of daily home exercises that are parent lead. Yep, my personal trainer experience is being put to use again, with clear purpose. Plus, I’m learning a great deal about primitive reflexes, sensory input, clean eating, visual skills, and how they are all connected and used by our brains to process information.

Keeping up with the training is not always easy, but the progress we have seen so far has served as great encouragement. Jay missed out on a lot of stimuli his brain needed in the first three year of his life (before he was ours), but our brains are amazingly capable of creating new pathways. I debated about sharing the bed-wetting issue for fear of embarrassing him, but I know we are not the only family that is going through that and similar challenges. One week into the program he stopped waking up wet. Two weeks in, he stopped wearing pull-ups all together! It will be a full summer of physical, sensory, and cognitive training, but we are already also seeing growth in coordination, speech/pronunciation, memory/recognition of numbers and letter, and more. I can clearly see how the knowledge and experience gained through this process with Jay is going to benefit his younger brother, and I look forward to seeing where God decides to allow us to use it next.