Joel's Journey: foto friday!

Friday, May 11, 2012

foto friday!

Not many "foto's!" yesterday was a perfect sunny, very warm day! My kind!! Today is chilly, rainy and dreary....to me but Mercy reminded me that "rain" is good for the garden and it makes the grass grow!" it's a gift to us! Soooo many gifts each day that are given from the Lord! He also blesses us with good gifts that bless us while we are here in our temporary "homes!" Like a good gift of stone to go around our ovens on the wall! Hoping Terry can get it going tomorrow! Like a bunch of "extra" wood leftover from a job and we are making a temporary deck out back. I say temporary because I have a "dream for a BIG one "one" day!!!! One day I hope we can do a deck ALL the way across much of the back of our house with different levels and a HUGE stone outdoor fireplace!! It's ok to dream and pray and wait! But for now we are throwing up a smaller deck with two levels to get us by and have a fun little area for summer!! I want to get a little bistro set and a few chairs and pots and plants and lights and just make it a fun space for early mornings and late evenings and all in between!! What do y'all have planned for summer!?!? Sun and swim is planned for over here!! Yay!!

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comets down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning. James 1:17

Please continue to pray for Sue!!! Especially this week after chemo. .....and for the bride and groom, Kristen and Caleb! Thank you for making our family a part of your prayers!!

Have a great weekend and lets think "sun!!"

2 comments:

Jen said...: Would you be willing to share what iPhone camera/editing apps you use? I'm ready to branch out from instagram! Thanks!!! Hope the wedding plans are going well!!; May 12, 2012 at 7:15 PM
Sarah said...: I hear ya about the rain, it's 50 and rainy cold here today too! But I guess I can't complain after the beautiful weekend in PA. Doug was telling me about how sometimes it's over a hundred down there! That's crazy! Still, after all this cold rain, maybe I wouldn't mind so much! My summer plans include traveling to Long Island, Harvard, and Maryland!; May 14, 2012 at 8:44 AM

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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.