Joel's Journey: August 2016

Friday, August 19, 2016

hi

Well, hi everyone! My plan is not to blog anymore. It's been quite a journey. What started as an information page to tell Joel's story turned into a grieving journey then to just random everyday life and then into a very tough journey of making this place where i have posted several entry's of "real life situations." Someone desired an update about the many many posts I had up about our finances which I did delete most I think. It's so hard to be real and then people get mad for being or showing what "real life" is. So, I don't have news of anything really being different. Hanging by a thread I guess you might say. When your in debt $48,000 (which I had no idea about) you might say there's not much freedom to move forward. When you resort to selling a chair to buy a phone, pawning goods for something, selling coins to buy groceries, selling old clothes to buy new clothes, selling decor to have a little extra cash, it pretty much sums up that the road is tough for now. But, life is life and you just get up and breath everyday and find little bits happiness in a cup of coffee or a walk through a flower garden or a trip given to you by your very own wonderful kids happening for me soon. I'm sorry to leave on such a sad and not very positive note but hey, sometimes lemons are used for many different ailments!

So farewell, unless there's an earth shattering happening I'm off to see the world one way or another!!

Much love,

Cindy

my most precious blessings besides my kids!

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.