Joel's Journey: Christmas already!!!!

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Christmas already!!!!

Christmas 2010

Before.......!!!!!!

a little bit excited...... remember those days???

after........

nerf hunt begins!!!!

ye got shot....by your sista!

a few new members.....
welcome....
"new" Woody
Jessie
Rex
Slinky

Micah....you can't have him!!!!

this was my craiglsit super buy!!!

I think Andrew got the most envied gift!!! LOL!

this was soooo funny!! Mercy said she wanted to give
Daniel a gift, so she took off looking throughout and came back with a $20 bill in
her hand. We were all amazed....
where does a 4 year old get that
kind of money!!!
she wrapped it up and was so proud!!!
awhile back, Andrew could not find
his $20 bill!!
somehow Mercy found it!!
Daniel, opened it and gave it back to Andrew
without Mercy knowing!!

Josh has a huge collection of Legos

We had a great time!! My dad and Shirley have been so generous to our family! Wonderful memories made with their grandparents!!!

Micah, Andrew and Bethany headed out to go hunting!

Anna is finishing up making some Christmas Peanut butter balls!

Little people are contentedly playing!!

Blessed!!

3 comments:

Cheryl said...: Great job capturing the memories!

Besh, where are YOUR presents?? I wanted to see your *special* skirt. ;)

See ya next week, Lord-willing!!

-Hannah B.; December 2, 2010 at 6:42 PM
Gottjoy! said...: Love! Love! Love! This pictures! Thank you for sharing your family with us, Cindy!; December 2, 2010 at 9:08 PM
Daniel and Jaynee Lockwood and Family said...: LOVE the Mercy story! I can totally see a couple of mine doing the same thing :)
What a fun time! Thank you for sharing!! The children all enjoyed looking at the pictures :); December 2, 2010 at 9:55 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.