Joel's Journey

Thursday, September 13, 2012

happy birthday!!

Happy Birthday to Joel and Josiah!! Josiah is 9 today!!!! So it's time for a Lego birthday tonight!!!!

Joel..... Forever missed, forever loved!!!

Monday, September 10, 2012

Some new Fall friends!!! I guess what ever season it is, we like! I hate to see Summer go but the crisp mornings, evening fires in the chimanea, Autum smells of cinnamon, football games.....it's all wonderful!! Hope your enjoying the verge of Fall!!!

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Happy Saturday!!!

my fav........ solid blue skies!!!!!!

Friday, September 7, 2012

Aa-Ee-Ii-Oo

Made it through our first week of school and I'm still alive!!! Ha!!! Did some a-e-i-o's this week!!! Mercy is really into it but phonics is killing me! Ha! Why can't they be born with reading skills!!!! Seems like homeschooling back in the days of Caleb, Daniel, Bethany, Elijah, Anna was soooo much easier!!! I think it's more me, I'm older and just don't have all I use to! We will keep moving forward!

Have a great weekend!!!!!

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Evening downtown!

Hope you all have a great labor day tomorrow! Nothing particular happening here.... just being home and enjoy the day. Hard to believe that summer, my fav season is coming to a close! I like Fall, the smells and I love pumpkins. We put the swimming pool away. What a great summer we had with it this year. Hopefully school starts Tuesday! We are all trying to get motivated!

Be safe and have a great day tomorrow!!!

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.