Joel's Journey: See what we have been up to......

Monday, May 18, 2009

See what we have been up to......

I guess to find out what we have been doing, here's a few pictures to show ya! Pickin' strawberries and eatin' em, picking sugar snap peas and doing the same....eatin' em, David and Kate came over Sunday eve and we went "a fishin," (David's first fresh water fish to catch) sowing seeds in the pasture, (remember Elijah's seed drill he found, he got it working) and look at Josiah, he thinks its summer with no shirt, white belly!!! and then on another day, David gave the little ones a thrill when HE wanted to play Playmobiles with them!!!!!

2 comments:

Janet said...: You always seem to be having such fun on your family! Family and friends together! God Bless you all - I so enjoy popping by to see your antics!
By the way, those strawberries look YUM!; May 19, 2009 at 6:07 AM
Jen said...: Looks like alot of fun! Is this the same area that Bethany had her raft incident? :) I enjoy reading and seeing all the pictures!

Jen; May 19, 2009 at 9:22 PM

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Joel's Story

Joel, our 11th of 13 and a twin of Josiah, at age 3 was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, a childhood cancer, on December 6th, 2006. Joel had three perfect years of health and he and Josiah celebrated their 3rd birthday Sept. 13th, 2006. The first of Oct. Joel started having unexplained fevers for a few days and would return to active play. After the fourth round of fevers we took him to our family Dr. which they said his iron was low, so we treated that for a few weeks and took him back only to have his hemo. showing lower than before. We were referred to a hematologists and saw him a few weeks with blood checks twice a week. At a visit on Dec. 4th we showed the Dr. the bumps, (which were tumors but we did not know at the time) on Joel's head and he was very concerned and we were told we needed to admit him immediately and start extensive tests the following day. Joel went through rigorous testing and then the dreaded results were given. Joel was at a stage IV the most extensive stage, but we were hopeful that the Lord would use the means of Chemotherapy treatments to restore Joel's body. Joel endured 8 1/2 days in the hospital, came home for Christmas, and returned for his second round of chemo Jan. 3, 2007. Joel had a seizure that night after midnight and went into a coma due to a tumor bleeding in his head area and causing his brain to swell. After tests the following days, the Dr. declared Joel "brain dead" and took us to court to force us to take Joel off life support, as we did not agree with the medical field's definition of death. Our family sought to stand with the scripture, "life is in the blood,"and until Joel's heart quit beating naturally, he was living. We were making arrangements to bring him home and on January 23, 2007 his little heart stopped beating and he went to be with the Lord Jesus in heaven. Our lives are changed forever. God is faithful in the midst of this trial and we look with great hope to be with him someday.