Joel's Journey: praying

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

praying

most of you all know my dad and his wife Shirley. How they have blessed our lives. Last Monday Shirley had a stroke. She is still in the hospital. At this point they are just monitoring her. She is alert some days but not able to speak. Her right side has some paralysis. My dad is hanging in there and stays with her at the hospital there in Arkansas. We went up last Wednesday through Friday evening late. Glad we could. But if you think about it pray for them. Very tough situation. My dad lost his first bride, my mom and now he's dealing with similar situation. Lord wiling our hope and prayer is that God will restore Shirley. He needs her!!!!!

We are into school with our 3 rd week. It's going ok. I'm just not a teacher and I feel so challenged to do this. I think I would have a better attitude if I wasn'tstill doing phonics!! Ugh!!!!! Somehow we will get through it!! Ha!!

Kids are still swimming constantly!! I'm ready to take it down but they are like "mom!!!!!!" So guess we will swim til Fall!!! Hahaha!! Not really!!!

We went to a gorgeous wedding over the weekend!!! So fun!!

I love the hot, so I'm dreading the change of season! I was surely made for Florida or Hawaii!!!!

Have a great week!!!

2 comments:

Janet said...: Thoughts and prayers go with you from South Africa!; August 29, 2013 at 10:39 AM
Teena said...: praying for Shirley, your dad and all of you.

I am sad to see summer go too.

Much love; August 30, 2013 at 9:50 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.