Joel's Journey: six!!!

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

six!!!

meet "Russell"

The first text read "Man I am so tempted to buy a puppy for sale here." The 2nd text read, "an Australian shepherd," and then the 3rd text read, "I bought him!!" Bethany has NO resistence when she sees a puppy for sale!! But she is just an authentic farm gal, so what can I say!! Yes she tried to butter up her dad as he came through the door and he wagged his head a few times and then that was it!! Sooooo we have another doggie!! Should I say we now have 6?! Oh, whats a puppy in eternity?? Memories made to look back on and tell her children what she did when she was a gal on the farm!!

I will probably say this a million times but its literally the only words I can say I am living right now........so busy!! And the last few days of August and the month of Sept. doesnt look like its going to slow down. Birthdays, a Texas Ranger game, a missionary family from Mexico visiting us, camping trips, goat judging, goat shows, Kentucky trips, and maybe throw in a OSU game, more birthdays, and thats beside school we are fixing to start up after Labor day!! This year we are going to start using the ACE curriculum. I am excited to hopefully do some much needed catching up academically. To be quite honest, I ahve struggled with school ever since Joel went to live in heaven. I have just felt so scattered and without purpose in the schooling area. So Lord willing this year, I am praying it will be beneficial and we will go forward with a fresh start so to speak!!

Hope you all are having a great week!! Tomorrow/ in the morning is going to be a "smurfin" good day!! Will tell you more about that later!! haha!!

3 comments:

Teena said...: smurfin huh? lol

we are catching you with the puppies! We will soon have 3 dogs! Haven't told dh because he doesn't oome home til the 30th.

Can't wait to see all the fun stuff you post!

hugs,
Teena; August 23, 2011 at 11:42 PM
Jessica said...: Russell is a cutie! I wonder if he'll try herding the goats :)

How is Charlie??; August 24, 2011 at 5:34 AM
Lesli Westfall said...: This post is 'killing' me. Your pup, I LOVE...we HAD one just like it, "Clyde", we lost him about a month ago. He was 16 years old. Our BFF and buddy. He looks more like a Border Collie to me than an Australian Shepherd.

Larry and I were just talking about ya'll last night. Saying we need to sell all our stuff and move in to the farmland next to ya, get into the country life.

I pray you and your 'littles' and 'bigs' are doing well. Much love and blessings, Lesli; August 24, 2011 at 6:40 AM

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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.