THANK YOU and MERRY CHRISTMAS

Dear GODSTRONG supporters,

You guys are the best supporters in the world!  You have been amazing throughout our journey.  We want to write one big thank you note because as of now I think we have written about 5 of them and we have  hundreds to write.  My goal is to write you all thank you notes, but that could take a year or years!

We are blessed!  I cannot even begin to tell you the amount of people that have prayed for Jon and our family.  It has been a huge amount!  We want to say thank you for interceding on our behalf.  Your prayers were felt and it definitely gave Jon a huge boost knowing how many people were supporting and praying for him!

If you...bought a GODSTRONG shirt, mailed a card, sent a package, sent a gift card, gave money, sent an encouraging text/email/FB message, called us, made a meal, took care of our yard, put Christmas lights on our house, got our mail, cleaned our house, signed the blanket, tweeted on our behalf, told a friend Jon's story, gave us tickets to a play, museum, etc in Indy, came and visited us, prayed with us and/or for us, ran an errand for us, babysat for us--even at the very last minute, gave Donna a day at the spa, had a playdate with us even when we were perfect strangers, opened your home for us to stay, gave us buddy passes at the last minute, picked us up and dropped us and family off at the airport, took care of our bills and paperwork, drove the sports car to keep it running while we were gone, checked on our home, gave my kids extra love and hugs, allowed Jon to speak and share his story, gave him the BEST medical care, if you are our doctor and responded to freak out text and emails ASAP, let us borrow your thule, rounded up high chairs and rocking chairs to use in Indy, made the dream of being at Cameron Indoor Stadium a reality, sent Duke gear to Jon, upgraded us to first class, donated a sick day, filled our cubbard, gave us tickets to the Pacers, made a video, welcomed us to CBS-Indianapolis, put your life on hold to spend 3 months being "Mandy the nanny", helped us move in and out of the Indy apartment, took a week or 2 to stay with us in Indy, made the GODSTRONG blanket, took Donna on a lunch date in Indy to feel "normal" for 2 hours, helped us pack and unpack in Bluffton, attempted an enema, took out Jon's stitches, substituted, donated sky miles, donated a children's book,  gave us a hotel room with your points, expedited a path report/slides or medical records, or whatever you did to minister to us we want to say …  THANK YOU! 

We are overwhelmed naming off all the things that you all have done for us(and know we are missing some)!  It's outrageous!  We don't deserve it.  You have gone way above and beyond.  I cannot tell you enough how we will forever be changed and we will minister to people in a whole new way because of the way you ministered to us.   We had over 1,000 hits on our blog the day Jon had surgery.  Knowing there were that many people and more praying was such a huge encouragement.  And then to be able to  share the great news on the blog after that was joyous! We are so humbly grateful for all of you!

I do have one small confession to make.  At the beginning of this journey I was so good about writing down every little gift we got.  As our time neared to an end at the end of October and we were exhausted and overwhelmed and were STILL receiving tons of stuff everyday, I stopped writing things down.  UHHH!  So, of course now my memory has failed me and Jon has chemo brain.  If you sent a package, card, gift, etc and want to know if we received it, will you PLEASE send me a message!  Email me, text me, FB me, whatever.  I promise I will respond!  Also, we did have our Indy mail forwarded to our home so if you sent a card at the end, we got it in Bluffton!

We also want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas as you celebrate the birth of Jesus!  We are not only celebrating the birth of Jesus this year but the rebirth of Jon's life.  As we celebrate the Christmas season when Jesus sent his One and Only Son to rescue us from our sinful nature, we as a family are celebrating Jon's life as the stem cell transplant rescued him--remember without that he would not be alive.  Also, you will have to stay tuned on a subsequent blog for the story of how God has now given Jon yet another chance at life because when he was born a preemie he was given a 30% chance to live.  Jon will write a blog post soon:o)

I will leave you with a funny story.  We were having our prayer time 2 nights ago with Jon.  We have added some people to our nightly prayer.  We have been praying for a little baby named Nash who was born early and his lungs kept collapsing.  So this is the conversation we had the other night right before prayer time.

Momma:  "Guys!  I have great news to tell you.  Nash is doing so good he was able to come home from the hospital."

Luke:  "Momma, that's great.  So he can breathe now?"

Momma:  "Yes!"

Luke:  "That's great, Momma.  We don't have to pray for him anymore!!"

Momma:  "Great, that's probably what everyone said when they found out Jon was clean and clear of cancer."

Luke:  "No!  We still have to pray for daddy and his "doodles"  (power port)

We then told the kids Jon will be getting his power port out right after Christmas and so when we prayed Emma Kate prayed for his "Christmas doodles."

Also, we always end our prayer time with all hands in the middle saying, "Strebe's stick together like glue.  1…2…3, the Strebe's are GODSTRONG!"  And now in honor of the lovely ladies below, we then say "SHHHH, the ladies are downstairs."  The kids bust out laughing and start screaming!  We do this in honor of our lovely ladies downstairs!

Blessings to the greatest supporters in the world!

The Strebe's are…

GODSTRONG!

I'll leave you with some pictures!

 Took a field trip to the Bluffton Fire Department.  We had the BEST time.  Firefighter Joel was awesome and spent so much time with us!  The kids had a blast!  And we learned a ton.  And to top it off, at the end they got a call so we got to see them jump in the truck and rush off with sirens and lights!  It was really cool!

 We like to take our lunch boxes to the park and have lunch!

Ryan's new underwear that he is still trying to warm up to.  He is still liking his diapers too much!