Continued Prayers...

Pap and Mammy and their 15 Blessings and counting....

I speak on behalf of Mom and Dad and the entire family when I again thank you so much for your prayers, love and support for Mom and all of us. God is gracious and answering these prayers as He continues to give Mom and the rest of us the strength that we each need as we go through this trial together. I see evidence of this as I look around at my family and see smiles across the room and laughter ringing in the air when we are together. Among the heartache and tears the joy of the Lord is with us. Even so, I update you and ask for your continued prayers. Mom has had a discouraging start to the new year. I personally was hoping to get past more than just the first day of the new year before we were hit with more disappointment and concern. But unfortunately that wasn't the case; on the second day of the new year Mom paid a visit to the ER. As grateful as we are to live in an area where medicine, medical knowledge, and help is just around the corner 24/7, we'd really prefer to express our appreciation from a distance. But instead, we soak up these resources and thank God that they are available. At this particular visit, it was discovered that Mom has a substantial blood clot in her leg. This is not uncommon for patients with GBM, and this newest complication brings with it more concerns. So we pray that the medicine to eradicate the blood clot would be effective. Also, we ask that you pray with us that Mom would be able to have a successful lab appointment tomorrow (Thursday). Mom's veins have always been a challenge for anyone who has had to draw blood from her, so as you can imagine, the cancer has only increased this difficulty. Yesterday they were unable to get the necessary lab work and the plan is to try again tomorrow. There was talk that if they can't get the blood drawn, she may need a port put in. This is a surgical procedure and it would be REALLY great (for many reasons) if it could be avoided. So we are praying that mom would have a successful lab appointment tomorrow so the port won't be needed. Depending on how tomorrow goes and the results of the blood work, Mom is scheduled to begin the next round of chemo at the end of this week. We pray that it goes smoothly and that Mom can be at ease as she anticipates this. We continue to take one day at a time and will wait and see what tomorrow brings. I will keep you posted on how all this unfolds over the next week. Thank you so much for your support and prayers! Before I leave you with this update and these requests, I also want to make note that God is so good to us. He is to be praised! It can be easy to take things for granted and in the midst of Christmas day I took for granted that we could all be together and celebrate. God allowed this to happen and blessed us in this way. This entire year has been especially difficult for my family and December was no different. It was filled with a gamut of events that could had kept any one of us from being able to celebrate Christmas with Dad, Mom and the rest of the family. The 20 days leading up to Christmas included surgery to remove melanoma, a stomach bug and pneumonia, a bad car accident requiring hospitalization, and the ever changing effects of brain cancer. But God protected us and made it possible that all 25 of us could be together on that particular day to celebrate the birth of His Son. We celebrated Christmas on Christmas day and had a special time together the night before as we held a Christmas Eve service in Mom and Dad's home. This was a special time and a highlight at the end of an overwhelmingly difficult year for us all. May we feel His strength and glorify His name as we go through the year ahead of us.