PRAISE GOD, CLEAR SCAN!! - May 7th 2014

Good morning!

 

When our children were little, their choir director told the parents the importance of children learning the "great hymns" of our faith, as well as newer praise and worship songs, that times of great joy and times of sorrow would come, and they could draw on those words of comfort and praise.  It is true for the parents as well.  Many times I find myself singing songs from their musicals, singing hymns from my childhood....Today it is "I stand, I stand in awe of You"...God has again answered our prayers for a clear scan!  When I got the written report, I jumped immediately to the last section, "impressions" and shouts of praise and joy rang out as I read the words "no indication of metastatic disease"!!!  Thank you so much for praying with me and my family.  We are truly grateful.  We give all the glory to God!  I will continue to learn lessons of faith and trust as I will now see my oncologist once every 8 weeks, a change from the every 4 weeks of the last two years, and the interval between scans will increase from three to four months.

 

It has been a long winter for me, and from a weather perspective, for all of us up here in the north country.  I believe spring is finally here, you can smell a freshness in the breeze, the grass is greening up, leaves are beginning to unfold on the trees.  For this, I am thankful.  It is a constant reminder that God is with us....always.  A very dear friend of mine has gone home to live with Jesus.  When she was diagnosed with lung cancer last fall, we began walking the road together.  God gave me the opportunity to share with her little things I had learned...but in the end, it was me learning from her.  I miss her so much! 

 

I do have a few things that we can be praying for together.  In April I got Shingles, not fun, but the residual pain and itching is actually worse making it difficult to sleep.  The nerves have been inflamed and have to "settle down" and I have been told that it can take months.  While being awakened in the night is frustrating, I have had some pretty sweet prayer time...there is a purpose in all things. Please join me in praying that my nerves would calm down.

 

I continue to have the tingling and burning from the neuropathy.  The TENS unit has not been especially successful, however the cream that I am using provides some relief.  I don't think it is worsening, but rather that I am tired, and less tolerant.  I am thankful for warmer weather that allows me to wear much more comfortable flip flops rather than winter boots and shoes. I would appreciate continued prayer that the neuropathy would ease up, and boldly, that it would be gone.

 

Thank you for walking with me on this journey.  I pray that you have seen the healing hand of God, and I pray that you share this as encouragement to others, that each of us would grow deeper in our faith, trusting only God and giving Him the glory and honor He so deserves.  Each of you is a very special blessing to me, and to my family, and I pray that you to will be blessed.

 

"Our God is an awesome God, he reigns from heaven above..."

Annie

 

Update and Prayer Request - May1, 2014

Happy May Day!!!

Oh what a gift spring time is, to see the perennials beginning to surface after their long winters sleep and to see the grass become green again! It's still pretty chilly around our northern neck of the woods, but evidence of spring is definitely upon us and we couldn't be more thrilled.

 

The promise of spring is such an encouragement as it tangibly reminds us of new life...and the hope that we have as we look forward and anticipate God's continual Hands of provision.

 

God's provision this past winter and spring has been sweet.  We enjoyed celebrating Christmas together at the cabin, all of us under one roof watching little ones play, snow shoeing, sledding, laughing...simply being together.

 

Not long after Christmas, we started the celebration o-birthdays as 10 out of the 12 of us have birthdays between the beginning of March and June.  With the birthdays have come milestones...oh, the milestones of crawling, messy meal times, story telling...oh, the joy of life with little ones!

 

For bystanders not knowing my mom's 'story', they'd never guess that she'd be in the throws of chemo-therapy.  My mom has mastered the art of carrying heavy infant carriers (complete with babies), baby sitting, negotiating with preschoolers and keeping up with the joys that being a 'Gram' brings. Watching my mom tackle life (and do it joyfully) is such a gift...getting to 'forget' about the reality of chemo and simply enjoy her as Gram is such a miracle and something we try so hard to not take for granted.

 

There have been hiccups throughout the past few months that have provided us with tangible reminders of our need to trust in the Lord. Saying goodbye to a dear friend, grand-kiddos (and pups) have gotten sick and an unfortunate stint with Shingles.  God's grace was all over my mom's case of Shingles...she was diagnosed early, prescribed with potent anti-viral drugs and only 'down' for about 10 days, which is truly incredible as her body was able to 'fight' despite her compromised immune system. The itching from the Shingles continues to provide discomfort and proves quite annoying (especially at night) which we are praying for relief from.  To date, the Shingles were isolated to just my mom...which is another answer to prayer.

 

The unexpected bout with Shingles meant postponing a scan that my mom had scheduled in mid-April.  My mom's oncologist encouraged the postponement because her lymph system was in the throws of battling the Shingles, meaning a scan wouldn't provide an accurate understanding of her body's health. The Shingles also meant postponing her chemo therapy for a week.  Postponing the scan and the chemo provided and opportunity to trust and gave her body a much appreciated break.

 

With that said, her scan has been rescheduled for this week...tomorrow (7:30am central time) with a follow up appointment scheduled for early next week.  Scans seem to evoke different emotions in all of us...but bottom line GOD REMAINS IN CONTROL and nothing about Him will change between now, tomorrow morning and early next week.

 

Romans 15:13 reads "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." 

 

We are praying that God would continue to fill our hearts with hope, that we'd overflow with joy and peace as we trust in Him...that we would overflow so much that we feel compelled to share our hope and we wouldn't have room for fear and what-if's to wander in...remembering that that hope only comes from the Holy Spirit, not from ourselves...the doctors or the chemo.

 

Would you mind joining our family as we pray...

-for relief from the itching

-for peace surrounding every aspect of the scan and follow up appointment

-for NO evidence of cancer, that the cancer would remain GONE

-that God would continue to receive the glory as we walk through this journey

 

 My mom told me that her heart has an incredible amount of peace about tomorrow's scan...God's Hands are already all over tomorrow...and we are so grateful for all of you...we couldn't walk through this journey alone. May you all be blessed.

 

Love,

Annie and family