Joel's Journey: thank you for serving.....

Saturday, April 17, 2010

thank you for serving.....

to those that are members of that unselfish
organization in uniform
who hold devotion to duty
above personnel risk, who count on sincerity of service
above personal comfort and convenience, who strive
unceasingly to find better ways of protecting
the lives, homes and property of their
fellow citizens from the ravages
of fire and other
disasters......

Volunteer Firefighters....

thank you for serving
our community
Elijah!

2 comments:

j said...: That is wonderful. What a good example he is to others his age, younger and older. You have done a wonderful job raising your children. Will you please write a book on how you do that??:) I will be the first to buy!!!! Well hope you are all doing well and I am glad you are finding scriptures to fill your heart. God is good.

Love
Jessica; April 17, 2010 at 3:03 PM
The Ahlgren Family said...: LIJE GOT A UNIFORM!?!?! SWEET!!!!! Bet he looks real spiffy in it too!
Thank you for your sweet and loving comment on our blog the other day! We are thankful that we (heeded your advice) got a camera too! :) And we can't wait for the day when we can have ya'll over for dinner in our new house! We love you very much! :D; April 19, 2010 at 11:07 AM

Post a Comment

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.