Joel's Journey: Elijah's 18th Birthday!!

Friday, December 5, 2008

Elijah's 18th Birthday!!

Great party, food and Anna's amazing dessert for her brother!! As I mentioned before Terry gives each one a Birthday Blessing, writes it out and reads it to them. Here is what he shared with Elijah tonight.

Dear Elijah,

It was eighteen years ago that you came into this world in the year of our Lord 1990, and you have been going strong ever since!! You are such a great blessing to me and the entire family. It is a real joy to work with you and with Caleb and Daniel. It is fun to see the gifts God has given you and how they fit in with Caleb and Dan, even if the sparks sometimes fly; the job still gets done!! You are a fine young man and it is a privilege for me to be your father. I thank the Lord for that blessing, and I pray that He will continue to work mightily in your life to make you what He wants you to be. God has given you a very generous heart(and many of your brothers and sisters are glad for that quality) and it is an inspiration to me and challenge to me as well. May the Lord fulfill His word from Hebrews 13:21 and "make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Loves, Dad

I will just add to Terry's that I am so blessed by Elijah's work ethic, he loves to work and can handle difficult challenges. He is very tender with his sisters and has the qualities of leadership and others easily follow him. He is sensitive to make things right when needed with others and the Lord, he's a fine young man and I am honored to be his Mom!!!

Happy 18th Birthday, Elijah!!

2 comments:

kjvbaptist said...: oh i get it, now that he is eighteen he can make his own decisions, like getting away from Dodge and on to bigger and better things like FORD.; December 6, 2008 at 10:57 AM
Paige said...: yes that is right bigger and better things like FORD; April 30, 2011 at 5:18 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.