Joel's Journey: playin' an singin'

Monday, September 7, 2009

playin' an singin'

We had a good time with the Stinson family on Sunday evening!! Terry was on staff at a church in AR. with Bill, the father for 7 years. They go back a long way. Their oldest son was our Ring Bearer in our wedding, he was three at the time. We have known them for almost 24 years!! I have pictures of our Caleb, Daniel and their Andrew in the church nursery together. Its really is something to see them up there playing together as men now.

Daniel on piano, Caleb, Andrew, Sarah, Anna, Hannah, and Rebekah

Sarah, Anna, Hannah, and Rebekah

3 comments:

Unknown said...: These are great pics thanks for sharing. The kids had a great time and are really looking forward to doing it again. The girls and Andrew said they want to get together and just "jam out and sing" Sounds good to me but I thought they only liked jelly. Seriously it was a great time and I know they were a blessing to our folks so we will have to do it again.
Blessings,

Billy Bob; September 7, 2009 at 1:11 PM
Anonymous said...: Oh Wow! It's been so long since I've seen the Stinson kids. I remember holding that little, curly, strawberry blonde cutie in the nursery at church. I used to love to pick her up. She was such a little doll. That Hannah is Bill Stinson made over. She looks exactly like her daddy (only prettier). They are all beautiful. When you said your bunch was going to sing with them, I was hoping for pictures. Thank you for coming through with them. I LOVED IT!!
Ann Parker; September 7, 2009 at 8:10 PM
Mark's Mommy said...: Thank you for leaving such encouraging words and scripture on my blog. I have decided that someone can never get too much support...especially from someone who is in a similar situation. I really appreciate it.

I wish that I could gather up you, and all of the other bereaved mothers(parents) and have you all over so that we could have our own support group!

My email address is ajzurovec@hotmail.com, if you would like to write me sometime. I want to say more sometimes on "comments" on everyone's blog, but won't since everyone can read it.

Again, thank you for your love and prayers.

Angie; September 8, 2009 at 1:25 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.