Joel's Journey: playing around!!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

playing around!!

when the guys are away
the left-behinders
play.......

wiffle ball.......
we "wan and wan" on "wocks"
"wiff" two "wacky"
teams....

team #1
bethany
anna
josiah
hosie
josh

team #2
me
melissa
mercy
jeremiah
andrew

andrew getting a swing

jeremiah getting a good catch......aw he missed!!!

melissa getting a hit!!!!

mercy has some "power"

go girl!!!!

The last of the summer days is happening isn's it???? Seems like winter lasts longer than summer! :( Its still plenty warm here, inside and out and will be throughout Sept!! We will squeeze all we can out of it the last days for sure!

I read a verse this morning that encouraged my heart. Ps. 36: 5, Thy mercy, O Lord is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. I like the thought that all we need, desire, of His resources for this life is totally attainable, but it is not containable!!!!! His resources are limitless, inexhaustible, more than we could ever even need in comparison to us, who are so poverty stricken with everything we could even began to give to others and hardly offer back to God. What a blessed people we are to have such a BIG Savior! Just to meditate upon the riches of his mercy and faithfulness should make us more grateful for what we are receiving everyday and for not receiving what we truly deserve......nothing!

1 comment:

sarahdodson said...: Really cute pictures and very good meditations. How wonderful to know such a great and real God. I love it!; August 16, 2011 at 8:12 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.