A couple of you have asked about Jacob, and I know a lot of you care, so here's where things stand ...
Jacob is hanging in there. He's at home with us in Dallas. His friends have all left for college, so it's tough for him. But he was able to see light from his iPhone a foot from his eye last week, so that's progress.
We return to New York next week to check in with the surgeon. Where it goes from here is, in the surgeon's words, "In God's hands." The fact that through a seven-hour surgery, they were able to save the retina and replace the cornea is nothing short of miraculous. According to the surgeon, Jacob is only the 15th person in the world ever to regain light perception under these circumstances. His favorite baseball jersey number has always been 15.
Our prayer now is that in time, he will regain most or all of his vision. The surgeon says it will take many months -- likely about a year -- to know where things end up. There's no way to know for sure how much vision he will regain, and there will be one or more surgeries ahead (he has no lens) -- but the key is patience, and while that's difficult, I do not believe God has brought Jacob this far to stop now.
He will head to Oregon in mid-September, and be red-shirted this season.
Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers -- and thank you Coach May, more than words can express.
p.s. -- I offer this next thought to parents of younger players: You often read here about the importance of young players getting good grades -- and that baseball ends for everyone -- it's just a question of 'when.' While we fervently pray that baseball is not over for Jacob, we take comfort in the fact that he graduated with a 4,.2 GPA that includes 20+ college credit hours. Because no matter what, he is positioned to be successful.
We can't know what the future holds, but we can control what's in our power. I hope and pray your sons understand that, and position themselves to be successful no matter what.
and continued prayers and thoughts!!!!!!!!!!
