Joel's Journey: baseball and islands!!!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

baseball and islands!!!

Josiah!

Joshua

Jeremiah

We are having some nice warm days, so that stirs up little people to "git outside!!" Baseball was the agenda! One of the great advantages of a big family is you already have a team!!

The island has finally been delivered and the granite installed!! What a wonderful work space, 5 x 8 foot!!! Very thankful for each phase to the kitchen! Maybe it will motivate folks around here to "cook!!" haha! The cooking schedule is moving right along. Anna fixed a wonderful meal Monday night. Bethany is on for tonight!

Our annual Valentines Couples Party is Friday night. Thirty-three folks total, 10 couples in that number. We are having some special guests for the weekend as well, Bethany's best friend Danielle, she was in her wedding last August, she and her hubby will be here the weekend, then arriving on Saturday the Lindsey family is swinging by as they head back from a singing/playing tour. And a few more special guests will be here too!!! So Saturday night 30 people will be staying at our house!!! The Lindsey family has a bus and they will of course sleep in that! :)

Terry has been home yesterday and today and heading back to work this afternoon. He has had paper work, bids and tax stuff to deal with. So he has done a few mini projects while here. He took me out to eat for Valentines, a fun time! He also got me 24 red roses for 24 years of marriage!

Garden/planting season is under way. we are actually a bit behind but hopefully we can pick up speed and get what we normally have in the ground soon. I went outside yesterday and I smelled the most wonderful smell........manure! It was in the distance, but I just stood there and took deep breaths! Country is a blessing!!

Enjoy your day!!!

4 comments:

Abigail said...: The kitchen is BEAUTIFUL!!! I really love the island - nice and big! I'm sure you will have loads of fun working in such a nice workspace.

And baseball...we used to play for hours and hours on end. But somehow it always ends up being "extreme baseball" with quite a bit of contact...not sure why that always happens. Those are some cute pictures that brought back lots of memories.

Hey to all of the Morris gang!

~Abigail G.~; February 16, 2011 at 12:21 PM
Janet said...: What a beautiful home you have! I can't wait to hear about your Valentines evening! It's going to be so much fun!

Sending WARM wishes from a hot and humid (we've had HUGE thunderstorms today!) Johannesburg!; February 16, 2011 at 1:32 PM
The Cole Family said...: Beautiful kitchen! You guys needed the space. What a blessing!

The Cole's; February 16, 2011 at 7:04 PM
Anonymous said...: Wow! Your kitchen looks fantastic!

I can't wait to see pictures of the Valentine's party!; February 17, 2011 at 3:14 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.