Joel's Journey: dairy show wrapped up......

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

dairy show wrapped up......

Being at the goat show/fair today for 10 hours, my feet hurt a bit but it has been an extraordinary Dairy Show these last two days for Bethany!!! Today she got one 4th place and in all the other classes she placed either First or Second!!!! Yesterday and today she brought home six first place ribbons and seven second place ribbons! One of the goats that placed first yesterday, placed first again today by a different judge. A lot ahead for that goat!!! I am so thankful and proud of her and her hard work she has put into our goat program. She has sought, read, researched, bred and flown them in to build her herd, and now has a incredible foundation herd. All these are young goats and if they are doing well now, Lord willing the future will hold exciting things!!!!

Dave and Kate joined in on the "adventures" today!!! In between showing we walked around, checked things out, and had our lunch we brought. Caleb, Elijah and Daniel worked today, so they did not make it up until around 4:30 or so. Bethany had finished showing by this time, so we were ready for the fun!! Before the guys arrived Dave and Jeremiah went over to the Marines booth and you could do chin ups and receive a prize for how many you did. Dave did 12, his hands were underneath, Jeremiah who is 9, did 9 and 1/2, his hands were over the top of the rail!!! I could not believe he did that many!!! So when the guys got there, Dave had to challenge them and see how many they could do!! Caleb, Daniel and Micah did 11-12. Elijah beat em' all with 16!! The top number to beat was 21. Elijah did get his name on the little board there by the booth, I guess until someone else passes him up!!! Them thar' are farm boys!!!! :) We went back over to the barn and enjoyed our BBQ I had in the crock pot on buns. Next, was the Race Cars!! They just do not go fast enough!!! Josiah sure liked riding with his dad!!! Dave treated us to some Funnel Cakes, messy but yummy!!! We strolled through and found a vehicle for me in the transportation building, like dreamin'!!!!!! Oh, well, we can dream!!! Getting late so Terry and I decided to let the younger generation have it, we took the five little ones and headed home and left the big rides to the big guys!!! It was a great day, fun, fellowship with each other and also true answers to prayer for Bethany!!!!

Home tomorrow, Anna's BD! Grocery day Friday. The Boer show is on Saturday so Bethany will take goats up Friday afternoon, wash and get them all ready!!! One thing about Dairy showing, the classes are smaller but with Boer's there can be 30-40 in one class. Oklahoma is one of the top Boer goat states for competition.

I'm tired........

4 comments:

-stephanie- said...: You should be tired, sounds like a busy day. Congrats to Bethany and her wins.; September 23, 2009 at 11:49 PM
Jessica said...: Congratulations to Bethany. May she have more success this weekend! Boers are the favorite around here :); September 24, 2009 at 5:36 AM
Eliya said...: GO BESH! Congratulations on all the wins - that is AWESOME!!!

And Happy Birthday Anna!; September 24, 2009 at 6:58 AM
Ash said...: Looks like ya'll had tons of fun!:); September 28, 2009 at 2:44 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.