Joel's Journey: Mercy is 6!!!

Monday, March 19, 2012

Mercy is 6!!!

Happy Birthday to Mercy!!! She is 6 years old today!! The 13th child, the 4th daughter, and the 7th child that was birthed at home!! I cannot even begin to tell you about this little girl!! But the statement that would sum a good idea of her would be, "she is the baby" of the family!!! They still scoop her up, like to snuggle bunny with her, and she makes requests to her older siblings that is usually never denied!! She still likes to sneak into our bed because she says "she just loves me so much!!" She is a 6 year old little girl with 12 older siblings so for some reason it's like she lives a 15 yo life!!! Haha!! She loves her farm, her dog Charlie that she got for her 5th bd, she loves to play with her princess dolls, and loves to have a "big" person jump beside her on the trampoline to make her fling high in the air!!! Mercy was 7months old when Joel went to heaven. She still talks about him.

We are praying that soon in Mercy's life God would call her, and breath grace on her heart, and give her faith to trust him as her Savior!!

Happy Birthday Mercy!!!!!

3 comments:

-stephanie- said...: Happy 6th Birthday Mercy! May God bless your day with happiness.; March 19, 2012 at 6:28 PM
Daniel and Jaynee Lockwood and Family said...: Happy Birthday, Mercy! What a little sweetheart you are! You are so very loved by God who gave you so many others to love you each and every day!
Cindy, you look beautiful! Miss you!!!; March 19, 2012 at 8:35 PM
Sarah said...: The youngest in our family (also 6) is the same way. Lydia's 6 going on 20 most days, cause she has a 12 yo brother, 14 yo sister, 16 yo brother, 18 yo sister, and me!; March 19, 2012 at 10:02 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.