Joel's Journey: elijah is 19 today!!!!!!

Saturday, December 5, 2009

elijah is 19 today!!!!!!

Happy Birthday
to
Elijah

Today Elijah is 19!!! My, how time goes swiftly! Elijah is my "working machine!!" He likes to work and "do" things. I am grateful for his work ethic, his heart for Jesus and he enjoys being with his siblings. Mercy calls him her "tic man," because he brings her tic-tacs. We had a big country breakfast and now the day is underway with cows, footballs games, (high school final playoffs and its at the OSU stadium, where we took our pictures the other day) finishing the shingles on the roof and then this evening the Journey of Bethlehem that they have opportunity to play at. Remember I decided not to do any more big parties for ages 17 and older, so on Monday evening we'll have his nice BD meal.

This is also a special day in another way. Dec.5, 1982 was the day I invited Jesus into my heart! 27 years ago! I am so grateful for Jesus, for changing my life, a sinful, teenager ( I was 20) heading down the wrong road and by His Spirits work, he drew me, convicted me and gave me the gift of faith and repentance and made me a new creature in Christ!

Have a great Saturday!!!

P.S. check out the picture below........now you know what we do for fun around here.......... (its Micah, he ran, jumped and cleared the table!)

6 comments:

Teena said...: How neat is that.... It does seem like yesterday that our children just arrived.

I love what Mercy calls him.

We will watch the UGA game as they play BAMA... we like Tim Tebow. Do you know him?

We have our parade. It is the next town over... it is tradition to go. It is cold here for GEORGIA folks. Suppose to be in the 30's!

Love all the pics!

That pic of Micah I called my Dakota in here to look! :)

Isn't it great that the Lord saved us? I was saved in Feb. 1980. I was raised in a catholic home. I am so thankful I am His.

Have a great weekend.
Teena; December 5, 2009 at 1:10 PM
Danielle said...: HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIJH! Hope you have a wonderful day! Sounds like you will with all your gonna be doing! :)

Besh.. :( Hope you get feeling better REAL QUICK! :)

Love ya guys!
Dannie; December 5, 2009 at 1:40 PM
Leanne said...: Great dollhouse in the background on that "standing on the table" picture!

19 years old!!?? Wow.

Praise God that you listened to His gentle beckoning.; December 5, 2009 at 1:44 PM
Mountain Mama said...: A BIG Happy Birthday to Elijah!!

And a Happy Born Again Birthday to you, as well.

So glad to see that your boys are similar to mine...they all do crazy boy things. Good thing you have added on so they can do things like that :)

blessings,
ashley; December 5, 2009 at 5:34 PM
Virginia Revoir said...: That is so awesome about your testimony. Thanks for sharing! I haven't heard one of those in looong time. :) I rededicated my heart to Christ 12 years ago after. I grew up in church but as soon as I turned 18, I couldn't wait to take off and do my own thing. (Which was living in sin). When I shook my head clear of the damage of sin, I realized that walking away from Christ was so not worth it.; December 7, 2009 at 7:18 PM
Anonymous said...: My husband got a chuckle out of that picture. Your boys are all boy like mine. We have six children, one little boy with leukemia.

Blessings to you,

Dawn; December 13, 2009 at 12:04 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.