Joel's Journey: I Will Not Forget Thee...

Saturday, August 23, 2008

I Will Not Forget Thee...

The 23rd again....this number is forever imprinted on my heart. Is.49:15-16, Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me. Others may forget Joel, but first of all the Lord will never forget him, our family will not forget him, and his mommy will never forget him. Joel is still continually before the Lord. The months just keep ticking off. That number will never fade from my mind. I love you still, Joel, I miss you!!!

We are back up and running....our new computer is here and working great! We are so grateful for the Lord's provision of several folks that the Lord used to provide for our family. Thank you to those who know who you are!!!!

Andrew DID IT!!!! Last night at the rodeo, Andrew made his first qualified ride and not only that, he WON first place!! And to top it off he won $39. You should have seen him...he was literally hanging off the side of the steer for a while without touching the steer with his other hand until the buzzer went off!! I thought at first he was "hung up," but he was hanging on with all his might! The steer did step on his arm and upper thigh, but he's ok, just sore. Our crew was "hooten and hollerin." Micah came out the chute well and had a few good bucks but was not able to stay on. I guess you can tell we kinda like this stuff!! I can handle steer ridin', but I think we'd better pas on bull riding, says me!! It was two years ago in Aug. that Elijah rode his first bull. Joel and Josiah were all excited about that night!

Saturday agenda... we are going to have a big church crew here tomorrow, like all the families will be here, around 60 folks! So we are getting ready for that, Terry wants to plant some fall garden things, and I have a few errands to run. I am trying to get creative and get the birthday stuff together for Caleb and Daniel on Tues. They are having either a "Crazy Composers Party" or a "Creative Composers Party." I guess I am trying to decide if I want it to be serious or not. They are working on a big project right now submitting composition music for a movie that will be entered in the Vision Forum Film Festival in Jan. 09. http://burnsfamilystudios.com/movies/pendragon/

I read about a little 3 year old that was diagnosed with neuroblastoma in July, so he is just starting to fight this beast of cancer. I know so many of you are behind the scenes prayer warriors. http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/coleruotsala

I am so happy this computer is going....good-bye library folks, for now!!

Cindy

2 comments:

Mandy said...: Good to have you back!; August 23, 2008 at 8:58 PM
Anonymous said...: The good thing about the 23rd, is the 23rd Psalm. It's a good one to turn to when feeling low. Praying for you. Welcome back to cyber world from the comforts of your own home.; August 23, 2008 at 9:15 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.