Bring it, 2018!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Thank you! Thank you for loving on us through your prayers, concern, and support. You all continue to be such a blessing and source of strength for Mom, Dad and the entire family. If there was a way I could better express our gratitude besides the words THANK YOU exclaimed across the screen, I would. Please know this simple form of appreciation is as heartfelt as they come. Unlike the frigid, winter chill outside, we send you WARM wishes and blessings as the new year has now arrived. Prior to 2018, like many of you, we celebrated Christmas together. It was a nice day filled with laughter, smiles, giggles, and back-shooting pain followed by an ER visit. Yep, you read it right. Even amidst celebrating Christ’s birth, the troubles of this world persist, making the celebration of His birth all the more meaningful. Praise God for His rescue plan of sending Christ Jesus to the world as our Savior. "She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21)

Resting in the peace and truth from these words, let's get back to Mom, Christmas and the ER. The side effects Mom must battle from the medications she is on are ruthless and reared their ugly head once again. Sometime in December, before Christmas, Mom twisted her back. I wish I could report that she was rock'n out to Christmas tunes while decorating her tree when it happened, but as shocking as it may be, that’s not the story. Instead, truth be told, boring as it is, she was sitting in her chair and reached to the side for a book. This back injury was on the mends until she aggravated it while reaching down for her Christmas present during our family get together. This simple maneuver sent shooting pains up her back, worse than before. Even though this put a pooper on her party, she was quiet about it and muscled through the day, trying not to let it ruin her time. This was evident with the smile that lingered on her face all day long and that wit of hers that she so freely shared with us (it must take a lot to muffle, not only her wit, but the honest sarcasm that accompanies it). But even tough, witty ladies can only take so much pain and, alas, on Christmas Eve night the back pain landed her in the Emergency Room. After a bedside examination and a scan, it was concluded that a muscle in her back was contracting and she was sent home with some much appreciated pain medicine and was told to wait on time to do the mending. We praise God for these resources and allowing her body to heal time after time. If only this were the single thing she had to battle, but that would be too easy, and none of us have been promised easy. So, another undesired side effect is the thinning of her skin. It is fragile and she often has soars on her arms and legs. They continue to heal, which we thank God for, but her one leg in particular has been giving her trouble. It has many sores and bruises and they have been sluggish in terms of healing. Please pray for these things; that her back along with the bruises, scrapes and sores on her arms and legs would heal. And pray that the quality of her skin would improve. Along with these requests, please pray that God would protect her from any infections that could result on account of the open wounds on her body. In the same breath, please praise God that her body continues to heal and that she has remained infection free through it all.

We also pray that as this journey continues to unfold, now into 2018, that God would be glorified. My personal prayer, selfishly, is that His glory would be made evident by Mom continuing to get better and that the vicious side effects, even though they are to be expected, would be non-existent. I pray this way because I have a God that can make that possible. Regardless, pray for me and all the family, that we would seek to bring Him glory through every situation. We want to praise Him and glorify His name no matter what is at hand because He is a faithful God through the valleys and over the peaks. We know and trust that "neither height nor depth nor anything in all creation will be able to separate us from the love that is in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:39). So praise Him with me for the peaks, like witnessing the improvements that have occurred with her mind and cognitive abilities. And in the same way, praise His name as we journey through the valleys, such as the ruthless side effects that plague Mom daily.

I leave you with the latest blessing of yet another good MRI report. The doctors were quite pleased with what they saw in the last MRI taken in December. Things looked about the same as the one prior. This is good news since the last MRI report was a good one. It has been explained to us by the doctors that there is a sliver of something in her brain that does not belong there. They do not refer to it as tumor per-say but will not rule out that it isn't, and it remains unknown as to whether it is scar tissue or swelling because all three of these appear the same in an MRI. And as good as things may look, it was expressed to us early on that doctors will not say a patient is, "in-remission," if they have been diagnosed with Glioblastoma, stage 4 brain cancer. To the best of their knowledge, they believe the treatments, the infusions she receives biweekly, are keeping any surviving tumor at bay. But we have a big God. In the words of my mother, "He is bigger than any dumb brain tumor," and Dad and others believe God has healed Mom of the brain tumor. Pray for us as we navigate all this, trusting God through it all.

We humbly ask for your continued support and prayers as we walk through this journey together. God is good through it all, praise His name. We pray that your year is full of blessings no matter what may come your way. Because I have God with me every step of the way I say, “Bring it, 2018!”

"...we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope," Romans 5:2-4

Happy New Year and many blessings,

~Jenna

The girl's table...little sweeties!

The big boys table...getting so big and so grown-up!

The little, big boys table...getting so big, not quite as grown-up!

The adult table...not acting grown-up at all! You can't tell from this picture, but Mom is the story-teller here and guilty of bringing laughter to the table.

Mom admiring her granddaughter's spunk and orneriness...which is very much how I think my mother acted at this young age. She is her mammy's mini-me in many ways. Eliza, now 19 months old, was a mere two months old when her mammy received the cancer diagnosis. They have been in a race to see whose hair will grow the longest ever since!

Below is a quick flashback to better depict the realness of this hair-growing competition. Here is a photo taken in October 2016; about 8 weeks after Mom's initial diagnosis. It's a race! IT'S A RACE!!

Back to the here and now

The granddaughters! Hess girls, Rhoads girls, and Hopstetter girly making memories.

The bookends. Oldest grandchild, Isaac, with the youngest grandchild, Jonah.

Mom, Dad and their beloved outlaws.

Mom, Dad, and some of their biggest blessings ;)

Merry Christmas from all of us!

I love them!

Last but not least...a rewind to Thanksgiving. THE PIES! This picture is the only one I captured from Thanksgiving. And for good reason...Mom insisted on keeping with her tradition of making pies for dessert. Pies, pies and more pies. Every Thanksgiving we joke that there is enough pie for about one per person. She did back-off slightly this year and cut-out a couple pies that she typically would have included on the dessert menu. So we were left to pick from this small selection. This here, folks, took hours upon hours with strategic planning and a little help. Typically, this would be no biggie for Mom. The last two years, on the other hand, have been a different story; and yet we still have had the pleasure of enjoying her pies on Thanksgiving. In 2016, she made the pies just after getting out of the hospital from having her seizure set-back. It took her more time than usual, which was frustrating to her, but she did it. This past year...well...this past year took her more time than she would have liked...way more time. Every step to pie baking involved her complete concentration and stretched her mind in ways that can be utterly exhausting for her now-a-days; everything from making the grocery list of ingredients to strategically planning what she could prepare when in order to space-out the multiple parts of baking numerous pies. Not pictured above are the re-dos that were encountered, the frustration, the tears and the determination. Instead, what you see is the victory. She completed the task, even when we were encouraging her to just let us take care of things. Praise God for her stubbornness and drive to challenge herself. You can't get in the way of a woman and her 40 years of pie baking no matter how bossy of a daughter that you are. Once again, thanks for the yummy pies, Mom! They were delicious. And a special thanks for not nixing Cherry off the list. It's my favorite, and no one makes it like you do!