Joel's Journey: Christmas tour......

Monday, December 13, 2010

Christmas tour......

Over at Kelly's she is having Christmas Tour of Homes!! I did this along time ago with the living room tour, I think it was! But I have enjoyed looking at all the links to the beautiful decorated Christmas homes! Hope you enjoy ours!

We are blessed with 13 children so two big tables are needed!
and we are getting new kitchen cabinets, so its not finished yet!

some sparkly snowmen!

our wood stove keeps us toasty!

our theme in our home decorations is western

my husband blessed me with this rustic shelf for our 24th anniv. in Nov

a western Christmas!

I think I can use these other than Christmas!

we have two large trees, the one here is a western themed tree and the
12 foot tree in the background is my great craigslist buy!!!
only $100!!

I made these just recently, glass boxes found at Lowes,
put 50 count lights in and wrap a wire bow
and you have shimmering gift boxes!

Merry Christmas
and
thank you for stopping by!!!

2 comments:

Teena said...: love it. It is beautiful.

Thinking about you....

much love,
Teena; December 13, 2010 at 11:04 PM
black tag diaries said...: love your main room! all the sparkling lights are gorgeous! i was also going to say how much i love your huge kitchen table... but after reading your bio... i see that you and your family couldn't do without it! enjoyed exploring your blog!; December 13, 2010 at 11:09 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.