Joel's Journey: our weekend/ their weekend!!

Monday, September 5, 2011

our weekend/ their weekend!!

Well we all went different directions!!! and it all happened on Friday!! Kristen treated Daniel to a "surprise" visit to MD for a little belated bd for Caleb!! Like a total surprise, blindfold and everything!!! From what I hear they haven't stopped since he has
been there!! It made my heart happy to know they were together again!!

For the "others," Bethany, Elijah, Anna and Micah, they went to Missouri/Arkansas, whichever place has Table Rock Lake for real camping (no electricity) with a sweet family!! From what I have heard they have had a great time too and got a bit roasted!!

For the "leftbehinders" 6 of them, well we could not be outdone so we did our own stuff!! Friday night we went out to eat at Applebees!! Josiah, Jeremiah, Andrew, Hosanna got GIANT hamburgers which I was questionable if they could even eat them, but they did!! Josh got steak and shrimp like Terry, and I got some quesadillas, and Mercy got a :her size/reasonable size" burger!! ha!

After our little eatin out, we made a stop at Academy for 2 guys some tenny shoes!! Hard choice when there are likey hundreds to pick from!! But they made good choices!!

Our last stop for Friday evening was this new place I have been wanting to go, Pinkitzel!!! Its a whimiscal little candy shop that has any kind of candy, cupcake, chocolate you might want!! They each got to pick something out!!

On Saturday, Terry took the 4 little guys, well Andrew is not little but anyways, to the first OSU game this season!! They were pretty excited!! And Terry even managed to get some pics for me!!

Course us girls, Hosanna and Mercy and I had to do something girlie.....so we did what girls do best.....SHOP!!! We made our rounds to some favorite places and of course the Disney store was the "hit!!"
Then we came home and us girls continued to have our fun by watching a movie!!

It has been a memorable Labor Day weekend!! The "lake" people will be back tonight for our annual burger cookout and Daniel will be flying back Tuesday!!

What did you do????

5 comments:

Janet said...: Oh my! I could get lost in that Cupcake and Candy shop! What a busy, happy week-end! You take care now! :); September 5, 2011 at 2:28 PM
Teena said...: Wow those cupcakes/candy look awesome!

You guys inspire me.... even through a very very touch time.

Hugs,
Teena; September 5, 2011 at 5:21 PM
Jessica said...: What SWEET family memories for you all :)

Guess what I did?...Organized a Corgi Meet Up at our property (locals brought their Corgis over to play in the creek, etc.)

We also gave Julia a room makeover (paint, reorganization, etc.)

Hugs!; September 6, 2011 at 5:26 AM
Katie @ Team Skelley said...: What a beautiful family! I enjoyed reading about your weekend, your happiness shown through my screen. Just lovely.

Thank you for your nice comment over at Team Skelley! :D; September 6, 2011 at 4:21 PM
Eli's Lids said...: I'm love love loving your blog! What a blessing to have such a beautiful big family!! I would love to have more than 4 (due in days!!) but still praying for my hubby's heart!; September 13, 2011 at 10:13 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.