A day in the life of the Strebe's

"For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." (Ephesians 3:14-21 NIV)

5:30AM. Emma Kate cries in her bed.  I rub her back and get her back to sleep.
6:15AM. I get up to prepare for my tutoring lesson.
6:30AM. Luke gets up and comes bounding in where I'm working.  I send him immediately back to bed!
7:15AM. Jon leaves to go to Lab Corp to get blood drawn.
8:00AM. Jon comes back only to say it was already too crowded.  Did not have time to wait because...
8:20AM. I leave for tutoring.
10:30AM. I start making my "medical" phone calls that are on my list.  Top on list:  call Indiana Cancer Center to make sure they received ALL of Jon's records.  I find out they have not received pathology slides that were overnighted this past Friday.
10:32AM. Jon calls Emory to find out where the path slides are.  He finds out they had JUST been delivered and signed off on.
10:45AM. I start calling Indiana back.
11:15AM. Secretary confirms that everything we need has arrived.
11:30AM. We head to our pool for the kids.
12:15PM. Secretary at Indiana calls and says she knows we are from far away but Dr. Lawrence Einhorn has an appointment in the morning at 9AM.  I responded:  WE WILL BE THERE.
12:16PM. Jon calls his mom and tells her we need them to babysit.
12:16PM. I start calling a friend that I've reconnected with at Piedmont infusion room (her best friend is battling cancer and uses our same Atlanta doctors. This friend texted me yesterday and said "I'm praying that y'all will get an appointment at Indiana this week.  When you do call me and ill hook you up with buddy passes.  I can get them in 15 minutes."
12:30PM. We cry together and she starts working on reserving tickets
1:15PM.   Jon leaves the pool to go back and get his blood work done.
1:30-2:00. I take kids home and get them down for naps ASAP.
2:00PM. I start booking a car at Indianapolis airport.  I print off all new patient paperwork.  I print off flight confirmations.
2:45PM. Jon and I get packed and get ready to leave.
4:00PM. I go over with Jon's mom everything she needs to feed kids, and all she needs to know to take care of them!
4:30PM. Jon and I leave for the airport.
6:30PM. We get on our flight.  And that's as far as we have gotten!:)

Are you exhausted?  Because I am just re-counting our day.  God is good and he continues to show his faithfulness in abundance to us!!  I usually freak out about lots of things but today I honestly had a peace either way about the Indiana appointment.  We are in great hands at Sloan.  I just wanted to be able to lay all our options on the table and let God lead us.  But today I honestly felt like if it was God's will that we would get in.  And if not God was shutting the door.  Jon was more hesitant about this appointment because he doesn't want it to "confuse" us.  Please pray we will not feel confused when we leave.  But yet we will have clarity with where Jon should be treated.

I usually see the glass half full and Jon sees it half empty. Today when I found out we could get in with Dr. Einhorn (he pioneered the treatment for testicular cancer in 1974 that put the cure rate from 10% to 95%.  He also led the medical team that treated Lance Armstrong.). I just felt like God had totally paved the way and opened up an appointment for us to get right in--a miracle!! Jon's response was "oh great!  If Dr. Einhorn wants to see me, my case must be bad!!"  O brother!! We think 2 totally different ways!!

We are humbled that you would join with us in prayer for a miracle.  God can use these doctors in Jon's life but God will receive all the glory!! Pray for us in the morning as we have our meeting.

Most people know Lance Armstrong's cancer story and his LIVESTRONG foundation.  The day after Jon found out cancer was in his lungs--December 2012) he told me he wanted bracelets that said GOD STRONG.  Well in our whirlwind lives we never made them. I now have a friend working on making those to pass out to everyone.  They will be Duke blue because that is Jon's favorite team.

We are GOD STRONG!!!!!