Joel's Journey: now a short post.....hahah!!!!

Thursday, December 23, 2010

now a short post.....hahah!!!!

Well, I hope you all are getting ready to enjoy family, friends, fellowship with others as we celebrate Jesus! Hopefully we are celebrating him everyday!! I love Him more in my life than I ever have. I feel like I know Him more than I ever have and yet, none can comprehend all of HIM! I feel like I call out to him more than I ever have, yet my words are so inadequate. I feel like I need him more than ever in my life for direction, for peace, for hope, for mercies, for blessings to be given unto my children. I am so thankful that whatever my need, it is HIM that will fill it! May HE, do that unto you, that Christ Child, the Holy One, the Savior!!

I had a interesting birthday yesterday, it was all good, but I spent much of it at the Verizon store getting a new phone which I am super excited about, but it took way tooo looonnngg!!! Bethany and I dashed back home and Terry suprised me with coming home from Ada and taking me out to dinner! We had gone to this one restaurant and it was a great experience the first time so we returned but it was not as great the 2nd time. We just kept sitting and sitting and they finally brought our salad and fnally brought our meal. The manager asked how it was and well......I guess it always "pays" to be honest!!! hahah!!!! Because of our mild complaint, our dinner was on him!!! So it turned out alright! Came home, got some coffee and snuggled in our warm house! All good!

Yall are a fun bunch to write to. I really never tire of blogging, sometimes I just get so busy to gather my thoughts but I really enjoy writing. But I have made observations about all yall! When I write about more generic things yall interact more, when I write about Joel, yall are so tender to comfort me, when I write about what we are doing yall seem to like that, when I share scriptures, there is small response but when I write about something like my previous post, kinda serious, yall go silent! I know your out there! Like Buzz in Toy Story says, "yall are a strange little bunch (man)!!" Anyways, just my observation, no big deal! :)

Well, gotta get the day going, lots to accomplish in a short amount of time.......

Kentucky bound....
(Lord willing)

3 comments:

-stephanie- said...: Happy Birthday!; December 23, 2010 at 9:41 AM
Unknown said...: Isn't it interesting. I too find that when I share something that I have felt inspired to write about, with scripture, people go silent. When I talk about Laynee folks are compassionate, when I share something fun, people are fun. But the very deep and meaningful posts render silence. I attribute it to today' society and comfort zone.; December 23, 2010 at 12:46 PM
Teena said...: Hope your birthday was great.... I posted on your "wall" but not sure if it went or not. :)

Ketucky bound? How fun!

I hope you enjoy your new phone... I have verizon too.. it takes so long in their store but I do enjoy my phone. :)

We are here... reading.... always.
I am so thankful for you. So thankful you are in my life.

Michael/Amber will be here tomorrow night.... he just called to tell me he found 4 (play) bow & arrows so he is getting them so the boys can have war!

My sister is planning to drive up tomorrow from Orlando. She hasn't been here since 2007.

Have a Merry Christmas!

much love,
Teena; December 23, 2010 at 4:16 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.