Joel's Journey: joshua is 12 !!!!!!

Friday, April 2, 2010

joshua is 12 !!!!!!

Happy Birthday

to
Joshua

Joshua, our 6th boy, 8th in birth order, (bred and born on the farm:) is 12 today! We seek to encourage and admonish our boys when they turn 12, they are entering, embarking on "young manhood." Tonight Terry will exhort him with blessings of manhood and hopefully Caleb, Daniel and Elijah will have time to share some scriptures with him as well. (big work day) For a loonnnggg time I have been praying for Joshua but especially back in Jan. knowing his 12th BD was soon arriving, I felt so burdened for him and sought to be fervent with pleadings to the Lord on his behalf. As opportunity arose through out the days, I would try to speak truth and share with him his need for Jesus. About a month ago, Joshua came to Terry along with Josiah and they both invited Jesus into their hearts! I was filled with extreme gratefulness to the Lord for his mercy upon Joshua's heart and for allowing it to all take place before his 12th BD.

Joshua is very talented!! He has an incredible ability to draw. 3-d pictures are a breeze. He can draw life like animals by just looking at pictures. He can draw house plans, floor plans and the house itself in 3-d! When he gets older, Terry, Caleb, Daniel and Elijah will have their own architect to build neighborhoods!!! He still enjoys jumping on the trampoline, very scary to watch! I am thankful for the "new man" I am seeing and fruit that is springing forth!

So tonight, a Lego party!!! He already has soooooo many but it just goes along with what he likes to do and that is create!!!!

I love you

Joshua!!!!

5 comments:

j said...: What a sweet boy. Cute too!!! Or handsome. :) Hope this day is special for him. Praise the Lord for Joshua's salvation! I would love to hear the scriptures for manhood!!! Blessings..........; April 2, 2010 at 12:28 PM
missy said...: Happy Birthday to your young man! I remember when you told all of us about his salvation time a few months back. Would love to hear more about what all you guys do when your sons turn 12. And a Lego party, mine would love that! Missy; April 2, 2010 at 1:15 PM
Mandy said...: Looking forward to the Lego party pics! All the parties have been so great! I've been bad about commenting lately, but I look at the blog every day and think about all of you often!; April 2, 2010 at 1:37 PM
Anonymous said...: Happy birthday, Josh!!!! Have a great party! :); April 2, 2010 at 4:39 PM
Anonymous said...: Happy Birthday fella.
Would love to see some of the 3-D drawings he has done.; April 2, 2010 at 8:57 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.