Positive results from the latest scan!

SO SORRY I"M JUST SENDING THIS OUT!!!

Jon had his chest x-ray yesterday (last MONDAY) and it was CLEAR!  And his blood work was normal!  HALLELUJAH!  We are rejoicing.  You know God has performed a miracle in Jon's life.  A great reminder at this Christmas season what God did for us by sending His Son.  He loves us so much and He still performs miracles today!!

You know, this process is such a grueling process.  It is such an up and down process.  We are very grateful we have gotten to the point of having scans every 4 months.  And it is nice not to be living day by day wondering what news we would receive.  But there is part of us that lives 4 months to 4 months.  Because I can promise you, sitting in that patient room, waiting for the doctor to come in and announce "your body is free of cancer OR your cancer has come back" is the most excruciating experience.  Jon and I literally sat there on Monday in that IU patient room waiting for Dr. Einhorn to come in and thought, we could either walk out of here jumping for joy OR we could walk out of here with our world rocked once again.  We could walk out of that office and continue life as usual, or we could be making the next plan to kill cancer that had returned.  We could walk out smiling OR crying!  Thank goodness we walked out jumping for joy and Praising God for the great news. And praising God for Dr. Einhorn!  He is the BOMB!

God gave us a great weekend and gave our children a great weekend with Jon's parents.  When Jon and I go to Indy, we try to make the most of our stay in the city.  We love shopping, eating dinner at places we don't normally get to eat at, and just enjoying each other's company (since there is not a whole lot of time for that in our everyday lives).  So this weekend was especially special, thanks to several of our friends.  Saturday, we got picked up by a friend  and headed over to the Butler game.  Now this friend has the HOOK UP.  I will keep it a secret who they are--but if you are reading this, you know who you are!!:o)  She not only picked us up, but we got prime parking.  We had access to the hospitality room where all the big wigs mingle:o)  And then our seats were incredible.  Jon and I LOVE to go to sporting events and because of where we live do not have many opportunities to do that.  Jon and I were in heaven.  It was a great game AND Butler won!  And NO I did not let Jon wear his Duke gear to the game like he threatened!

So then on Sunday, after attending our Indy church service, we enjoyed shopping together and having a dinner date.

Then Monday night we were invited to an event by our dear friend who is in leadership with Dream Alive at the Colts practice facility.  That was way cool because I personally have never been in an NFL practice facility.  I am not going to take time to explain Dream Alive but here is a link

It is a great organization!  Please read about it.

http://dreamaliveinc.org

Anyways, some of you may remember that Coach Pagano (Head Coach of the Indianapolis Colts) reached out to Jon at the very beginning of his treatment in Indy.  So they emailed back and forth and have kept up throughout the year.  Well, since we were at his practice facility and office, we were able to thank him face to face for the encouragement he was during that time.  We were able to spend time in his office sharing stories and seeing things that meant alot to him that people did during his battle.  He showed us how he has our picture in his office amongst others that he reaches out to and prays for.  You know, some people may look at this somewhat like meeting a celebrity, we saw it as meeting a friend that had helped us during a very difficult time and has walked the same road!  He just happens to be the coach of an NFL team and is SUPER BUSY!  I am not trying to put him on a pedestal, because he is just a man that cares about others, but in the middle of his season, he took the time to meet with us and allow us to thank him.  I think we can all learn from this.  He is definitely an inspiration to Jon and I as we too try to reach out to cancer patients but get caught up in the busyness of life.  NO EXCUSES!  Very happy for Jon as most of you know he is a HUGE sports fan!  Definitely a fun experience, not everyday do you get to sit in the office of an NFL coach and chit chat.

#CHUCKSTRONG
#COLTSTRONG
#JONSTRONG (as Coach Pagano always writes)

But we will always and forever be:

GODSTRONG!!!!

because without HIM we would be nowhere.

Mark Waghalter's Celebration Service.

Jon and I felt God leading us to go to Mark's funeral.  Not only did God allow us to attend but to also be a part of this celebration of Mark Waghalter's life.  Candace, his fiancee asked me to read what she wrote to Mark and Jon was asked to say a few words from someone that had "walked that road."

This was probably the most moving, touching funeral I have ever been to and it was truly a CELEBRATION of Mark's life.   I would love to take a little time to share some clips of the service.  It was truly life changing for me and my hope is that it was life-changing for many others.

Hundres of people heard the gospel (several times) at the celebration service a few weeks ago.  

Mark,

Your life made an impact, and in case you were wondering--you did make a difference in people's lives.  Your legacy will live on and many lives will be changed!

When your youth pastor, Mr. Dale shared that you affirmed your salvation in the hospital a few weeks before you passed it was very touching.   Touching to know that you vocalized being a sinner and knowing that God sent his Son to die for your sins and accepting Him as your Saviour so you could live forever with Him.  Thankful for Mr. Dale who told his wife he was going to let the Holy Spirit lead what he said to you in that hospital room. Thankful for a man who was willing to lay it all out and be bold in sharing God's salvation message with you and Candace, who later accepted Christ as her Savior.  We loved hearing how Mr. Dale continued to visit you in the coming weeks and how you had a deep desire for him to read the Bible to you so you can learn more about Jesus.

Then how touching it was to hear your brother talk about you holding his hand a few days before you passed and telling him that you wanted Him to know God so that you would see him again in heaven.  And then when your brother shared how you had not spoken for a couple of hours, but you lifted your hand to heaven right before you took your last breath and said "God, open the gates of heaven, Mark is coming through."  Some very powerful stuff!

Jon and I are so thankful to know you, Candace and your parents.  And we came to find out quickly you have an awesome extended family too!  You come from a great Christian heritage and people that care deeply for you.  Jon and I loved hearing the story of how you would wear your GODSTRONG bracelet everywhere and call Candace out when she didn't have hers on.  And by the way, she probably didn't have it on because it didn't match her outfit on that given day.  We were moved to know that Luke 1:37 meant so much to you, "For nothing is impossible with God."  We are touched that we could be a part of your life even if it was through the most difficult time.  We loved how up beat and positive you were through the most toughest time of your life, always saying how blessed you were.  And always telling us you were staying positive and keeping a good mindset.  Thank you for being willing to help out a fellow testicular cancer patient who was in a similiar situation with you.  You were so selfless, only worried about others even through your darkest days.  Jon was so moved and actually broke down when your grandfather told him what an awesome impact he had spiritually on your life.  Again, we are so humbled and honored to have been a small part of your life because you, Candace and your parents were such a huge incredible inspiration and encouragement to us during tough days.

\

I love this picture of you and Candace praying with your Godstrong bracelet.  I remember the day Candace texted this to me.  I had a happy heart!  I loved how we would trade pictures back and forth of being WAGSTRONG and GODSTRONG! 

It was painful to watch your family receive visitors at your funeral.  It was painful to know that Candace will be without you when her and I talked so many times about God healing you (on this earth) and ya'll have a future together.  It was painful to watch your parents, brother, sister, sister-in-law and extended family have to say good bye to you at way too young of an age.  

This is a conversation my twins had the other day.  It went something like this:

Emma Kate:  If you believe in Jesus, you will go to heaven.  If you don't believe in Jesus, you won't go to heaven.  Wyan, do you believe in Jesus?

Ryan:  No!  I don't want to go to heaven.  I just want to stay home!

Outside of this story being super precious, it is so true!  We don't want to leave this earth because we can't imagine what is being prepared for us in heaven.  We just want to stay "home" in our comfort zone.  But Mark, you accepted your fate.  You accepted that God would not heal your earthly body but that he would give you a brand new body in heaven.  So many people heard the gospel because you knew the Lord as your personal Savior and you were surrounded by many Godly people with your parents being at the top of the list! 

It was exciting to see you grow in the Lord through your cancer journey.  It was a GOD THING that we met you that November day almost exactly 1 year ago.  And we are thankful that you remained WAGSTRONG and GODSTRONG throughout your harrowing journey. 

Until we see you again...

Jon and Donna Strebe 

Outline of the past 2 weeks of the Strebe life

Notice:  I thought I would give everyone a good chuckle at the last 2 weeks of our lives.  I promise, this is not made up, dramatized, or embellished at all!

For almost 2 weeks straight someone has been sick!  It all started Wednesday, 2 weeks ago when BOTH babes at the SAME time said their stomach's hurt.

YEP!  For the next 5 days, they ran fever, threw up and had diarrhea.  They were very lethargic.  They took LONG naps everyday and would sleep 12 hours at night.  Here is Ryan at 10:30AM one morning already back to sleep in my arms.  Don't hate me because I am beautiful.  LOL

On the 5th day they had one last throw up session (had not happened in a couple of days).  And then one more day of being lethargic and it was over.

BUT the last day of the babes sickness, Luke woke up throwing up in the middle of the night (this overlapped with Emma Kate's last day of throwing up).  Needless to say we were up all night with both of them.

The above picture is 8AM Monday morning.  Luke was 6 hours into his sickness and the babes were on their last lethargic day.  Don't you love the buckets!?

The above picture is 8PM Monday night.  It got worse.  They couldn't even sit up.

This was Tuesday morning.  The babes were doing a tad better--sitting up at least. It was pitiful and painful to watch at times.

Luke continued until he was dry heaving the next morning.   He was getting weak fast.  So his second day (a week ago Tuesday) he would eat something like a popsicle and it would all come back up.  On that very same day Jon woke up with a bad case of vertigo.  So he rested at home for just a little bit and decided to go into work.  It wasn't 3 hours later he was texting me reports of his situation at school and it was not looking good for him.  He finally texted and said he was coming home.  He ran a fever also and had the stomach issues.  Luke went into his 3rd day and we thought things were better.  He was drinking and holding down a popsicle.  That was until 2pm.  And everything exploded and came out (I won't describe details).  I rushed him to doctor because I thought he was dehydrated. U can imagine, I'm crying on the phone with the nurse.  I"m yelling the at babes to get dressed and go to the bathroom.  I tried to call for help to keep babes but couldn't get in touch with anyone.  On the drive there I was lecturing them not to touch one thing and to not say a word while we were there.

Luke had not moved from the couch for 3 days solid and would even wear a pull up because he had no strength to get to the bathroom in time.  It was awful and I was extremely worried about him.  They told him to take zophran but I think he needed a bag of fluids.  He was one sick boy.  And by the way the babes could not have been more perfect in the doctor's office.  Did not say a word and did not touch anything.

Thank goodness Luke started keeping stuff down and by Friday he got up and played for about 15 minutes.  He was weak as a kitten!

So we were all set to go on a little vaca to Dollywood and Asheville on Friday after Jon's work.  Well, Jon came home from school (his 4th day of the virus) with diarrhea and the shivers like you have never seen.  He packed a little and then I convinced him to lay down.  Within 30 minutes he had a fever.  So we gave him some of his anti-nausea meds from his chemo days and he went to bed.  He felt better the next morning so we left for Dollywood.

Fast forward to Sunday night.  Ryan comes down with the croup.  I could tell it was bad Saturday night but Sunday night it sounded really bad.  I did all the home tricks they tell you but nothing was working.  We decided since we were out of town and at least 30 minutes from the closest hospital we better take him.  Jon, my sister and I drove with Ryan to the hospital.  Sure enough after they determined he did not have EBOLA.  LOL.  They confirmed that he had croup with stridor (he was retracting when we got there which I didn't realize).  They gave him a breathing treatment with epinephrine.  Then gave him a steroid.  They checked him again and were not happy with the fact he was not improving like he should.  So they did a chest xray and it confirmed he had a steeple (which means his passageway was very imflamed and very narrow).

They observed him for a while and he started improving and we finally got back to the condo at 6:30AM.  Our 6 hour ER visit was scary and comical all at the same time. Karen and I had the giggles from lack of sleep.  We kept calling Marcus and waking him up all night because he was in charge of my other kids.  Jon, by the way, did not find humor in our jokes at 3:30AM LOL.

Anyways, we had to cut our vacation short and come home in case Ryan had it happen again the following night.  We were disappointed but we did get to enjoy Dollywood with our family for 48 hours:o)

We are THAT family.  We have so much drama and so many issues.  But then I look and think about how many blessings we have and I wouldn't trade these sleepless nights for the world taking care of my precious children.  I cherish every second.  I even sat beside Luke for 2 solid days on the couch so I could get him exactly what he needed when he needed it and perused facebook way more than I needed to but I have caught up on a lot of things.  My kids and I talked about how thankful we should be that this is a virus that will go away!  There are children that have diseases or conditions that do not go away and they continually stay sick.  Or children that have to take medicine like daddy and are very sick.  So it is nice to keep things in perspective and count your many blessings!

So this Thanksgiving we are grateful to be together as a family.  A year ago Jon was finishing up high dose chemo and getting thoracic surgery.  We are thankful that God has healed him.  We are thankful to not have anything worse than a virus or croup that is treatable.  We are thankful for friends and family that have prayed and supported us.  And we are thankful for a God that heals, loves, comforts, shows grace and mercy and forgives us and gives us an opportunity to accept Him as Lord and Savior to live eternally.

We are blessed to be...

GODSTRONG!

**Just as an added humor, In the middle of writing this blog, I had major stomach issues (won't explain).  The whole time we have been praying I would not get this.  But I'm finishing this blog 12 hours later and I have been fine.  It was just funny I was writing the blog and it came over me!  LOL

"Who dies of testicular cancer anyways?"

That was my response when Jon was first diagnosed with testicular cancer metastasis to the lungs.  As I looked up the statistics there are about 300 men a year in the US that die of testicular cancer.  In my mind I was trying to say it was all going to be OK.  I mean I'm sure those 300 people that died just declined treatment or let it go so far that there was nothing the doctors could do.  That was my justification and my way of believing that no matter what Jon had to go through the outcome was going to be just fine and he was going to live a long life.  

Well, as Jon's situation got more desperate and the first round of treatment did not work and the chances of his survival went down, I became more afraid and fearful of what the future would hold.  I mean, now Jon was one of those rare people that would have to seek more intensive treatment to try and kill this cancer.

Along the path of Jon's journey with high dose chemo and double stem cell transplant, we have met a lot of great men.  Some young, some older, some metastis to the brain, some with a more aggressive type of TC,  from all walks of life with all types of careers, some even right out of college, men from all over the country that we have connected with and in hopes that we have been able to minister to  in some way.

Who dies of testicular cancer?  Unfortunately 2 of these very young men (24 yrs old) whom we have had the priveledge of getting to know have passed away.  I asked you in an earlier post to pray for both of these men.  I will ask you again to please lift up the Waghalter family in your prayers.  Mark passed away a couple of days ago.  He graduated from college a year ago, has a fiancee and should have had such a long life ahead of him.

We have been very open and honest with our children but the one thing we have never directly told them is that cancer has the potential to be fatal, or that daddy could have been one of these men with TC that we know that could have died.

So our children have been praying for Mark.  I received news of his passing the other night while I was out by myself running errands.  It really hit me hard.  This could be Jon.  My heart went out to these parents that lost their young son, this fiancee that lost the love of her life and her future husband, this brother that lost his brother, and so on.  Then I received a message from Candace, Mark's fiancee and this is what it read:

Well, I was in the grocery store when I read the text and I started bawling!  I'm walking through the store, cannot control my tears, everyone is looking at me and I'm trying my best to focus on what I was actually supposed to be buying at the store.  So finally when I was checking out I got a hold of myself.

I walked in the door and little sweet Luke, my 5 year old runs out of his room and says, "O momma, I'm so glad you have your Godstrong shirt on because I have mine on too!"  Well, I lost it again.  I start bawling thinking about what an impact Jon's journey and story has made on so many people.  Luke says, "Momma, what is wrong?"  I blew him off and told him nothing.  He is a very insightful little boy and relentless so he asked me again what was wrong.  I bent down and told him Mark had passed away.  Oh the look on his face.  He was truly sad.  I told him what Candace had told me in the text about the Godstrong bracelet and he just hugged and hugged me and said he was so sorry.

Fast forward to the next morning:  Luke announces to the babes at breakfast that Mark had passed away.  And Ryan says, "Daddy, I'm glad you didn't die because I wove (LOVE) you!"  Well, Jon then lost it.  So we might not have directly told them that cancer can be fatal but they get it.  They know that cancer could have taken Jon's life.

Jon celebrated his 38th birthday today.!  Such a blessing.  We have celebrated!  We have rejoiced for another year that God has given Jon.  We don't understand why God would save Jon's life and not Mark's (or Jaron's).  We have lots of questions but we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is a good God and He loves us more than anyone!  His plan for us is greater than we could ever imagine.  And some of these answers we may never know on this earth.

We are so thankful for the people that we have been able to encourage, minister to and love on while on their cancer journey.  But with that comes walking this journey with them.  And for some their earthly journey has come to an end.  And Satan likes to use that in my life to start doubting that God has healed Jon.  He really sends lots of messages to me that make me extremely fearful, like to the point of panic attacks.  Jon goes back for his appointment December 8th.  This is the first time we have gone a 4 month stretch.  While it is great to get to that point where each scan is farther apart, it also makes me start being very fearful of the future and what the scan will show.  You can definitely be praying in the next month as we approach Jon's next scan.  I have major SCANXIETY!!!  THANKS for praying!

And the Strebe's continue to be

GODSTRONG. 

I will leave you with the verse that I sent Mark about 6 weeks ago:

Romans 15:13

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.

The only true and lasting HOPE we can have is to put our trust in Jesus Christ.  There is nothing else on earth that can give us that eternal HOPE.  Mark's mother text me a few days ago and told me Mark had peace with his salvation.  Hallelujah!!

This is Jon-it's been way to long!

Hey everyone,

      It has been way too long since I last posted a blog.  For that I am truly sorry!  I must say, we as a family have very much enjoyed our summer together.  It is the first time since I can remember not working or having to deal with fighting cancer.  It was such a blessing to spend quality time with my family, and even experience what it is like to be Mr. Mom.  Wow, I knew my wife was special, but after taking on her responsibilities I now realize that she is super woman!!
     My wife and I made a trip to Indianapolis two Monday's ago for my every two month check up.  It marked the year anniversary of the start of my high dose treatment rounds.  It is a big milestone as far as the medical field goes.  I am blessed to say that my scan and blood work was totally clear!  Praise the Lord.  We now go from a 90% cure rate, to a 97% cure rate!  Even though, I may never truly consider myself "cancer free", it is a very good place to be!!  Thank you goes out to everyone who has prayed, and continues to do so for me and my family!  We are so very blessed to have people who are so faithful and diligent in their support for the Strebe family.   We now will go back to Indy every 4 months for my checkup.
     When you have a relationship with God, there are times in your life where you cry out to God, and say what are you doing in my life right now?  You don't understand why you have to go through some of the things that you are going through, you just trust that this is God's will for your life.  Sometimes, you never find out why you were given the opportunity to struggle.  For me, I have had many of the moments in my life.  However, I must say recently I have discovered some of the reasons why God has chosen my family and I to be challenged in our fight against cancer.
     It is because of my diagnosis, and subsequent healing that God has given me the opportunity to use my story to reach others for Christ.  Donna and I feel an extreme burden to share our story when appropriate, and use it for His glory.  Many of you know that I was given an opportunity to speak in a local church in Indy last October, just a day after receiving a round of high dose chemotherapy.  An amazing opportunity for a pastor to give up his pulpit to a person whom the only thing he really knew about me was that I was battling cancer, and was a friend of an elder at his church.  However, it was because of Cori's decison to allow me to speak in his church, that I was able to reach the people who attended that evening.  Additionally, I can't tell you how many times I, and in particular Donna has been able to share with others about our experience, and has referred them to my "sermon" that has been posted on youtube.  I have also had pastor's, and bible study leaders from other churches tell me that they have used that sermon to inspire, motivate, and ultimately use for His glory, and the growth of His Children.  A very humbling experience, but such an amazing way to see how God uses even the worst things in your life for His good.
     I was also given an opportunity to speak to our church's youth group this past spring.  It was there that God gave me the words to speak to the young people in attendance that evening.  That night, God moved 7 young people to make commitments to follow Christ.  Again, what an unbelieveably humbling experience to be used by God to move people towards Christ!!
     God also opened the door for me to speak to the staff of a christian organization in Atlanta, National Christian Foundation, where my mother-in-law happens to work.  I was given 20 minutes to share my story, which I preceded to do.  Fifty minutes later I completed my speech :).  For those of you that know me, you won't be shocked that I went over my time limit.  I am not sure I have ever stayed within the parameters of speaking time.  I guess add it to the laundry list of things I need to improve upon?
     During the basketball season, a good friend who happens to be the head women's basketball coach at University of Auburn at Montgomery, asked me to speak to his team prior to playing one of their regular season games.  I was honored that he would ask, as his team had supported our family through our cancer fight, sending us team t-shirts that had been signed by each team member and coach.  To be able to close the loop, and give back, motivating them in the game of basketball as well as life was a tremendous honor!
     Finally, about a month ago, I was given one of the most difficult tasks to give a eulogy for a colleague who had lost her fight with cancer.  My good friend Joy had been diagnosed just months before I was diagnosed.  We traveled very similar paths together, and shared and encouraged one another throughout our processes.  I truly believe that God used me that afternoon to honor her life, and the life of her family.  I was having a discussion with a fellow colleague at work recently.  She began to tell me that she had attended Joy's funeral where I spoke.  She said that she felt like I was totally speaking to her throughout the service.  God has moved her heart to recommit to attending church and because of that her family is now going to church on a consistent basis.
     I tell you all of this, not to puff myself up, or pat myself on the back.  Instead, I want to encourage you to persevere through whatever battle or struggle it is that you are currently, or have gone through in the past.  God will honor your commitment to Him, and He will use the way you handle that struggle for His glory.  You may never know the importance of the seeds that you are planting in people's lives, but you can trust that if you heart is open to being used, that God will indeed honor that and use you to the fullest extent.  Again, thank you for you prayers, love and support.  I will try not to let the gap in between posts be so wide.  God bless!

Jon
   

WOW...It's been WAAAY too long

I'm so sorry!  I cannot believe it has been 3 months since I updated.  At least there hasn't been any "say it isn't so" situations.  I'm going to highlight what has been going on in our lives and will start updating more often.  God is good!

**Jon's dad, John, had double knee replacements.  His new knees are awesome!

**Sara, Jon's sister, got married in May to Paul!  The kids were in the wedding.  What a precious time with family and celebrating this happy time for Sara and Paul!

Oh my gosh, I just have to tell one funny story from this trip.  So I decided to take the kids to Dallas for the wedding a day earlier than Jon was going.  It was the first time I had ever flown by myself with just the kids.  So I mapped it all out and got seats in the back row right by the restroom.  Kids did GREAT!  No problems.  So on the way back I had Jon with me.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy.  We are boarding the plane.  The babies are in front of me.  Luke is behind me and Jon is behind Luke.  I stop and briefly tell the flight attendant about Luke's severe nut allergy (By the way they don't serve nuts on any of our flights for Luke).  I look up to head back to our Row 5 seat.  I do not see the babies.  I yell "BABIES".  Nothing!  I think to myself, were they in front of me or behind me.  I quickly look behind me and only Luke stands there, I couldn't even find Jon at the point, he was no where in sight.  So I look forward and yell louder "BABIES"  Nothing.  But some of the passengers that had already seated, pointed in the back, but I still don't see my children!  So I yell at the top of my lungs,  "BABIES!"  And 2 little 3 year olds pop up from the very back seat of the plane and say in their squeaky voice, "Yes."  And come running down the isle toward me.  I had to explain to them we do not own this plane and we cannot just sit wherever we like.  LOL.  Can you imagine what those people on the plane were thinking when I was yelling BABIES, and then out comes these grown up children?  Haha or they were thinking WOW, this lady has lost her BABIES.  Oh Goodness!  Everyone on the plane was snickering!

**Jon got hearing aids!  Yes!  He gave me permission to write this!  Everyone that sees him is curious and some people ask why he wears them.  So if you see him you will know why!  The carboplatin he took for his high dose chemo unfortunately damaged his hearing.  He has moderate to severe hearing loss.  The hearing aids have helped a TON.  It has improved our marriage 10 fold:o)  Also I like using them if we are out at a restaurant and I want to hear what the surrounding tables are talking about!  Great for eaves dropping!  So be careful if you are near me in a restaurant.  LOL

**June -- Indy 2 month appointment--Jon's bloodwork and x-ray was ALL CLEAR.  PRAISE GOD.  Here are the kids waiting for Dr. Einhorn to come in and meet with us.  They were marvelous during the appointment, THANK GOODNESS!

**Vaca road trip to Indy, kids got to go and do all the fun things they loved while living there--great fam time! On the way back stopped in Dollywood!

Here we are on a boat on the canal.  The kids begged everyday we walked to canal to ride these paddle boats and we always told them NO because they were too expensive! 

Ryan saying GOOD-BYE to the mini-monorail at the hospital.

Here we are at the Butler field!  So cool to run around.  We stayed right beside it.

This mural has been painted on the canal right below our old apartment since we left.  The boys can't even stand up straight in the picture because they are laughing so hard!  It reminded them of the "old ladies" that lived below us and gave us such a hard time!

Little rain storm at Dollywood!

Gymboree memories.  The kids had a blast!

The kids first night in INDY.  On the canal being GODSTRONG!

**Pool and beach everyday--great family time.  This summer we have savored hanging out with each other and especially Jon!

**Jon went to Liberty for a week to do a class

**Jon's paternal grandmother, GG Roma passed away.  She was 95.  She is now with Jesus.  Such a Godly lady and so glad our kids got to know her.  Our kids were able to go out there a couple of times and spend quality time with her.  We will miss her so much but know that she is in a much happier place!!

**The babies turned 4!!  Yes, they are still my BABIES!  And yes I'm sad they are 4.  But they are not sad so we must embrace this!

**Luke starts Kindergarten in a few weeks!  I will be homeschooling him.  I look forward to my year and will savor every second I have with all 3!  Lord willing, Luke will go to 1st grade at Jon's school next year, Riverview Charter School.

Next week we will head to Indy again for another check up.  Please pray for us as fear begins seeping in the closer it gets.  We still have a hard time not being fearful everytime we go.  We know, we KNOW God is in control.  And we do TRUST Him!  But our human nature takes over sometimes and we just have to pray and ask God to take away the fear!  It's a battle!  The following weekend we will head to Phoenix, AZ for the funeral of Jon's sweet grandmother.

We continue to be GODSTRONG!  And praise God for all He has done in our lives!

Say it isn't so…

Yes, more Strebe drama:

 First of all let me say, I know I told you Jon would be writing a blog post, and he IS going to. I have asked him on several occasions, but in his defense, he was finishing up one of his masters classes (yes, he is already back taking classes for his masters in administration). Isn't he amazing? Most of you remember that when he was diagnosed in December 2012, he was literally in the middle of his masters program. On top of that, he is working at least 4 nights a week (on top of teaching all day) so literally he has been staying up until 1 and 2 am and then getting up and doing it all over again. He will soon write his blog post:o)

 A week ago Ryan came down with a cough that quickly turned into croup. He had croup for the first time in Indy back in the fall. I remember getting up with him and he was gasping for breath. It was SO scary but it did not last long at all. He just kept having the barking cough. Well, this time he had croup AND stridor (he literally was gasping for breath and it was so scary). After we tried all the things we knew to do, we called the nurse and she called the doctor and they said to take him to the ER. So at 11:30pm, we made a 911 call to Jon's parents to come over and sit with the other kids. We left for Savannah with the air cranked as high as it would go. It was FREEZING in the car but thankfully my friend told me to take a blanket for Ryan! So we made the 35 minute ride which by the way seemed like FOREVER! As I'm sitting in the back with Ryan, he literally cannot talk because of his swollen voice box and then he would cough the barking cough and start the stridor. It was just scary! Once we got to the ER they took him fairly quickly and took him back for a chest x-ray and also gave him a steroid shot. By the time we left, 3 hours later, he was a different child! Here is the before and after pictures.

This is Ryan soon after we got to the ER, waiting on his chest x-ray.

Here is Ryan getting his chest x-ray.  Jon figured it was no big deal to be in the "line of fire" since he gets these ALL the time!

 And here is our baby boy at 3am about to leave the hospital with steroids in his system.  He was a MUCH happier boy!

So poor Jon, got 3 hours of sleep that night and then had to work days/nights for the next 3 days.  Now you really know why you haven't heard from him!  I have NO idea why our kids end up in the ER!  I sometimes think maybe I freak out too much, ha.  Well, I think I do but to confirm that I wasn't over reacting I confirmed with the doctor we made the right decision to come into the ER…WE DID!  The last time we drug our feet on going to the ER with Luke, he ended up having an all out asthma attack, throwing up and would not talk at all.  SUPER SCARY!  But like Jon said, we are thankful our kids are not dealing with something more serious.  ER visits for croup and asthma, we can handle!
BTW, Luke now has bronchitis and is on steroids and antibiotic and breathing treatments.  His asthma is just getting so bad so if he gets a cough it goes straight to bronchitis or pnemonia.

Some more fun things:

I crashed my car into Jon's car the other day (NO, NOT HIS SPORTS CAR, HA).  I mean, really??  It's bad enough to have your car wrecked, but to run your car into your own car!  UHHH.  At the time though Jon and I were just thankful no one was hurt and that I ran into a car and not a person!  Keeping life in perspective!

LOVED my Mother's Day.  I have 3 miracle children and being a mom to them is the biggest blessing EVER!  Jon did SUCH a great job of making me feel SOO special and so did the kids.  They all went over the top!  Such a blessing to be married to Jon and have these 3 beautiful children in my life.

Last thing, there are 3 people I would like for you to pray for!  They are cancer patients and have been on my heart lately!  One is Mike, just went through a bone marrow tranplant.  Please pray for his body to recover and God to heal him of this cancer.  Jaron, testicular cancer patient that went through same treatment as Jon at IU at the same time.  He is now doing a clinical trial.  Please pray that God will work in his body through the medicine that he is on.  He is such a strong man, and loves God.  Pray for his wife and 2 little girls!  And the last is Mark.  He is also a testicular cancer patient and also went through same treatment as Jon right after Jon at IU.  He is having some abnormal test results.  Please pray for the doctors as they move forward.  Pray for peace for Mark and his family!

God continues to work on me with my fear issues, especially with my children and Jon.  He definitely keeps giving me MANY opportunities to trust him and give my fears to HIM!  He is so good like that!  Here is a verse He gave me the other day:

When I said, "My foot is slipping," your unfailing love, Lord, supported me.  When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.

Thanks and we continue to be 

GODSTRONG!!

Ya'll, I promise, you can't make this stuff up!!…

I'm getting sick of writing this title as much as you are getting sick of reading it.  But there is no better title!

This is the weekend we are in Indy for Jon's check up on Monday.  We flew out of Atlanta so that we could drop the babes off at my mom's house and Luke came with us.  We came on Saturday so that we could enjoy the city with Luke and the fun memories we made while here.  We arrive at the airport Saturday morning and start toward the security checkpoint.  When Jon shows his license, they tell him it's expired and he needs to step aside.  TSA comes over and ask him for another form of identification. Jon opens his wallet and shows them all he has is credit cards and a Riverview badge.  They look at everything and surprisingly were fine with it.  So we were a little flustured but happy it turned out and went on our merry way.

We arrived in Indy and decided I needed to go rent the car since Jon's license was expired and they proabably wouldn't let him.  I walk up to the counter, give my license and the lady took it, started entering information and had a funny look on her face.  My license was expired too!!  We could not rent a car.  Quickly, I'm trying to figure out Plan B, and…

Luke says, "I HAVE TO GO POO…QUICK!!"  Jon gets him and takes him to the bathroom and he has a ZOO BOO POO.  If you remember from my post during our Indy time a Zoo Boo Poo is when you poo in your pants because in Indy the month of October at the zoo is Zoo Boo and when Luke decided to poo in his pants everytime we went there, we started saying it is a ZOO BOO POO.  I guess a funny inside joke in our family.  Even still if the kids have poo in their underwear they run around the house saying ZOO BOO POO.  I know this is personal BUT if you have kids, have had kids, or have nieces, nephews, babysit, etc, you can totally relate to what I'm saying!!  You have experienced something similar to the ZOO BOO POO.

Welcome to Indianapolis!!  Wahoo!  The Strebe's are back!

So plan B was take a taxi!  We kinda feel like we are in NYC.  Everytime we need to go somewhere we call our taxi.  O my, you just have to laugh at this point.

We took Luke to the Children's Museum here and he had such a great time!  Even though the reason we lived in Indy was not the highlight of our life, the kids had a great time and made such great memories and it is fun to re-live those with them.  So much so that this summer we are planning a road trip up here when Jon gets his next check-up and letting the kids do all the fun things they did while here.  They talk about their memories here all the time!  Luke was just disappointed that we weren't staying in our apartment!  LOL

Please pray for us this weekend as Jon prepares to have his check-up on Monday which includes a chest x-ray, blood work and exam.  We will fly back to Atlanta on Monday and drive back to HHI that night so that Jon can be at work on Tuesday.

Please also pray for Jon's dad.  He just had double knee replacement in Dallas, TX.  They live 5 minutes from us but since Sara is an orthapedic surgeon she could get him connected with an excellent doctor and he will stay in Dallas for a few weeks doing rehab.  He is out of the hospital and has moved to the rehab facility.  Pray he will continue to heal and his knees will get strong and be pain free.

Blessings and through all this the Strebe's are 

GODSTRONG!

I'm embarrassed to admit but I never submitted this post.  So 2 weeks later…

Jon's scan was ALL CLEAR!!  Hallelujah!  We feel so blessed!  Thank you all for your prayers for us during these difficult times.  God is good!

Jon is at the Master's today.  One year ago today he had just finished his last round and was struggling throught the weekend.  He feels so grateful to be there and was super excited this morning!  Again, God is good!

We will remain,

GODSTRONG!

You can look forward to the next post that will be written by Jon and he will tell about his recent speaking engagements that he has been priviledged to do.

You can't make this stuff up...

Seriously, it's crazy!

A week and a half ago on Sunday night, Emma Kate was up all night throwing up.  She felt fine the next day so we were like OK, weird.

Tuesday afternoon I take the kids to the library.  We all go to the restroom and Emma Kate gets her finger slammed in the door compliments of my sweet little boy blue--AKA Ryan.  It looked terrible.  The librarians really thought I needed to take her to the doctor so I did.  We weren't sure if it was fractured or what.  The doc said it was probably ok, and they cleaned it and sent us on our way.

That  night, we ate at Moe's.  We all ate the same thing except Jon and the kids got chicken, I did not.  They all got sick at the same time about 6 hours after they ate the meal.  Kids were mostly throwing up, Jon felt super nauseated, and terrible.  They were sick all day Wednesday.  I mean seriously, I cleaned up more throw up that day than I have the whole 5 years.  Everyone had their own personal puke bucket.  I assumed it was food poisoining.  Made sense to me.

Friday, I wake up in wee hours of the morning, SOOO sick.  It was awful.  I got dehydrated and weak very quickly.  At 6:00AM Jon says he is going to get a sub.  I say NO, you can't stay home from school AGAIN!  I told Jon I would figure it out.  By 7AM I could not even get out of bed except to go do my "business."  I am not being dramatic, it was so awful.  Jon had to stay home.  I was as sick about that as I was sick!

So now I"m thinking ok, maybe the kids had a stomach virus and I caught it.  NOPE!!  The kids got sick again with a stomach thing Sunday/Monday.  This time it was the other end if you know what I mean.  No throw up buckets but wow…ok, I won't go into detail.

To add to the confusion, on Saturday I smelt a horrible smell in our house.  I discovered that our gas line to our grill (that is not hooked up) had been turned on.  Gas was pouring out of it.  So I turned that off and the smell went away.  Well Sunday night when I went to bake a coffee cake for the garbage men, there was no more gas for my oven.  OK, I started freaking out!!  Like panic attacke mode.  At this point, Jon and I are questioning how long the gas would have had to leak out to empty our tank that wasn't even due for a fill up for 8 more months!  My big question was, how long have my children been inhaling gas fumes?  Of course when I look up on line inhaling gas, symptoms include flu-like and gastrointestinal issues.  We have been sick since January 24th!  I decided to call the local fire department.  At 11PM, 4 fireman come out in their brand new huge fire truck to check out our house.  There was no detection of gases in our house and they did confirm that the gas valve being opened could have emptied the tank within hours.  That definitely made me sleep easier.

So basically, Jon and I have concluded that he and the kids did have food poisoning.  Then I picked up a stomach virus, and the kids picked that up from me.  All but a day or two here or there, the Strebe's have been sick since January 24th.  We have now gone 2 whole days this week well!!  Please continue to pray for us to stay well!!  We are staying outside all day everyday we can!  We even got to go to the beach this week.

We anticipate our trip to Indy at the end of March for Jon's 2 month check up.

Thanks for praying for the Strebe's to continue to be…

GODSTRONG!

Get your tissues out…A message from Luke

   



    So this is Jon finally writing a post.  I know, I know, you probably thought I have fallen off of the face of the planet, but I am still here.  I wanted to share a story with you about something that happened with our 5 year old son Luke this week.  It was one of those moments that you will remember for the rest of your life.
     I have been putting him down at night, as I am in between basketball and soccer officiating seasons.  It has really been a sweet time for me to be able to spend this kind of quality time with him at night.  For the past few nights, he and I had been talking about salvation, and what it meant for Christ to die on the cross for us, to wipe away our sins.  Equally important we have been talking about how important the resurrection was in the whole process.
     Thursday night, we were reading a Bible story, that happened to be the resurrection story, and of how Jesus died on the cross.  After reading the story, I rocked him for a song, and then was sitting in his bed for a song, when we continued to talk about "believing in Jesus".  We talked about going to heaven, and how when we ask Jesus to come into our hearts, that we would then some day join Jesus in heaven.  We talked about the importance of believing in Jesus, that he came down on this earth to die on the cross for our sins, only to rise three days later.  I asked Luke if he believed everything that we had talked about, and he answered yes.  I then said, Luke do you want to ask Jesus into your heart, and he said yes I want to ask Jesus to come into my heart.
     Well, I knew where this was headed, so I went and got Donna to come into Luke's room.  All three of us were in the bottom bunk bed, and I reviewed with Donna everything that we had been talking about.  I told Luke that I, momma, grammy and gramps, Nanny, and Aunt Sara had all asked Jesus to come into our hearts, and that we all had made the decision to commit our lives to living a Christ like life.  I then asked him if he wanted to pray that prayer.  He said yes, he would like to ask Jesus to come into his heart.  He then told me, why don't you pray, and then I'll repeat what you say.  How he knew to say that, I will never know.  He is a very insightful young man.  So we all bowed our heads, and prayed.  Luke ended up asking Jesus to come into his heart.  One of the proudest, and happiest moments of our lives.  To be there when our son commited his life to follow Christ, is a moment we will never ever forget!  I am confident that everything that we have been through this past year played a part in our son giving his life to Jesus.  God has been at work in his heart for a long time, and this was the culmination of that hard work.  Since then, we have had Luke call many of his family members and tell them of his exciting news.  He has such a heart for God, and is so spiritually deep, that I am certianly not adequate to cultivate that spiritual deepness.  I am confident that God is going to use his life for His glory and am very excited to see what exactly that looks like!  Pray for him.  I am certain that Satan is working overtime to discourage and deceive him since he made the decision.  Pray that his heart will continue to love God more everyday.  Pray that God will prepare him to be used for His Glory in the future!  Cannot wait to see what God has in store for our little Luke.  He is so very special.

Luke is:

GODSTRONG!

Jon's scan clear and I remembered the other childhood teaching moment!

Jon is already feeling much better and his scan was clear.  Also his bloodwork was great.  PTL!

I remembered what I was going to write about Emma Kate.  One night  I was putting the babes to bed.  The routine is I put both of them on my lap and rock and tell them a story.  When the story is finished, Emma Kate jumps off and gets in bed by herself and covers herself up.  I then rock Ryan to sleep.  They are usually asleep within 10 minutes.  This particular night, Emma Kate jumped in bed, covered herself up and said, "When is Jesus coming to get us and take us to heaven?"  So I told her it wasn't time yet.  She said, "but I really want to go.  How will we get there?"  I told her that it wasn't our bodies that go to heaven, but our spirits and that we would get new bodies.  Well, that got her attention.  That led into a discussion about whether we would have eyes, noses, ears, etc.  It was just such a sweet conversation.  Oh to have childlike faith.  My children say often they WANT to go to heaven.  Emma Kate just has 2 request, that she can take her Tianna dress and her water bottle in case she gets thirsty.  So precious!

Tonight Jon and I were putting Luke down and Jon mentioned to me that Luke does not play with his Monsters University thing anymore because he is missing a piece.  Luke said, "Oh, I just want to play with it one more time before I go to heaven--but Oh, I really want to go to heaven!  I really hope we have our eyes because I really want to see the streets of gold."

Oh My Gosh!  After these 2 conversations I just want to melt.  The HOPE that they have in Jesus at this young age is amazing!  They WANT to go to heaven and meet Jesus!  They make my faith and trust stronger!

One last thing.  I have mentioned before that Luke does a quiet time at night.  He is really trying to learn from the Bible and put it into practice.  He has been struggling with telling the truth lately.  So I told him today I was proud of him because he made the right choice in telling the truth.  He said "I'm trying really hard to be sweet and tell the truth, but sometimes it is really HARD."  What a great opportunity to talk about the fact that YES, it can be hard but if we keep in God's Word and ask Him to help us, we can do it.  But we will have moments of failure.  We have to pick back up, ask for forgiveness and keep going.  Love, Love these teachable moments.  I learn SO much from my kids!  LOVE THEM!

Strebe's are:

GODSTRONG!

This and That

2 funny stories I left out of the IOH trip:

1.  I lost my voice during the trip--completely lost my voice.  I could only whisper.  Ironically, that night IOH sends each couple on a date.  Normally I would be super excited about that, but in this instance not so much.  I'm getting ready thinking what the heck are we going to do tonight--Jon can't hear and I can only whisper.  This should be a lot of fun.  So we went off on our date and again, ironically, we were at a sports bar.  TV's were blaring above us (Jon really can't hear when there is background noise).  Needless to say we didn't talk much, Jon read lips a lot and we had a great time regardless!  Both of us love to eat and the whole meal was taken care of--we could literally order whatever we wanted.  The date was amazing!

2.  The last day we were there we were set to go to Sea World.  The plan was to head home straight from Sea World.  Because we had 2 cars in Orlando (read my previous post), we didn't quite know what to do because we are very frugal and did not want to pay for 2 cars to park at Sea World.  So Jon finds a Walgreens near the entrance and we park his car there.  At the end of the day, we head back to Walgreens.  His car is NOT there!  Initally I thought it got towed, but Jon went and ask the manager and he said they do not tow cars.  It hit us, the car had been STOLEN!!  We sat there and wondered what in the world we were going to do.  On a side note, I was worried about how we would recover this car that is probably worth $8k but not replaceable.  Jon was only worried about our clothes that were in there and my new Nike shoes!!  LOL.  As we sat there, Jon said something just isn't right.  Maybe we are at the WRONG Walgreens!  YEP!  We were!  We found the car at the Walgreens 1 mile down the road!  You can't make this stuff up!

Our last activity we looked forward to for months:

During high dose chemo in Indianapolis, we planned several things we would have to look forward to when it was all over. One was the IOH retreat.  Check.  One was the Duke game.  Check.  And the last was the Disney Live Tour featuring Sophia and Jake.  Something for every child to enjoy.  So this past Thursday we suprised the kids and took them to Charleston to watch the Disney Live on Stage Tour.  Check.  It was bitter sweet.  Now we can move on with our lives.

The family sickness:

We are all getting better.  Luke, Ryan and I are completely better.  Emma Kate still has a bad cough but is acting fine.  Jon on the other hand was getting worse last week.  He was running a low grade fever at night, migraine headaches everyday, extreme fatigue, cough, congestion, and on Thursday pushed the stroller from the collesium to the car and was so out of breath I couldn't believe it.  I put my foot down and made a doctor's appointment.  By the way, he worked during this time of feeling awful.  So we went on Friday afternoon and the doctor really believes that it is bronchitis.  He put him on an antibiotic, but because of his history sent him for a chest x-ray and did some bloodwork.  We have also been in touch with Jon's oncologist and he wasn't overly concerned but agreed additional testing needed to be done.  We know this is in God's hand but it is during these times, we start having fear creep up.   We feel confident that all it is is bronchitis because this antibiotic has kicked in and Jon is already starting to feel much better.   Praise God.  But we always get anxious finding out the results of the tests. Pray as we wait to get word of the results.

Some great teaching moments:

1.  The kids got some candy for Valentine's Day.  I am not a big candy/sugar person.  We try to limit it. So when the kids get it, it's a treat.  They each got a bag with some hershey kisses in it.  They carried around their bags for days.  I never thought a thing about it.  One day I remember seeing Luke with something in his mouth but honestly things started happening and I forgot about it.  The next day I saw him open the pantry, grab something and run to the bonus room.  I decided to see how it would play out.  When he came back down I asked him to open his mouth.  He was thoroughly embarrassed that transitioned into bawling.  He was caught.  He not only had eaten all of the kisses from his bag but had moved to eating the kisses in the big leftover bag.  Luke is our rule follower so for this to happen was unusual.  But what a great teaching moment.  He is very sensitive to the Lord and to what is right so he obviously felt bad.  Jon had a good talk with him and all is good.  By the way, Luke does a quiet time every night and he said the other day, "Momma I have been learning in my quiet time how to be sweet so when I wake up I'm really trying to be sweet."  I'm telling you, God has some great plans for that boy.  I feel so humbled and inadequate to be his mother!  Just for fun, here is the evidence of the stolen candy.  This is looking straight in the bag.  See all the hershey kisses papers?  And he also had eaten a small bag of M&M's.  

2.  I can't remember the next teaching moment.  LOL.  It was something with Emma Kate.  It's 9pm and my brain shuts off.

One last Inheritance of Hope story:

On the retreat a 23 year old man attended with his girlfriend.  He has been battling testicular cancer, had high dose chemo at the same time as Jon at IU Cancer Center, but unfortunately not a favorable outcome.  They are trying a different chemo right now.   I read on his Facebook he recently accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior.  And he ran off that day and marriend Montana.  Congrats to this great couple.  And this is affirmation once again that IOH is such a superb organization.  I know for a fact that seeds were planted that week.  IOH--you are such a blessing to so many!!  Please continue to pray for Jaron and complete healing in his body!

The Strebe's remain:

GODSTRONG!

"You can't make this stuff up"

After I wrote the previous blog, Jon started getting pretty sick.  Luke followed soon after.  I knew that it was possible Luke still had an ear infection so I thought he was running a low grade fever from that.  Wasn't sure what to think of why Jon was sick, running fever, chills, aches, etc.  Well, 5 days into it, the babies started running 103/104 fevers.  They were very sick.  It all of a sudden clicked.  This WAS a separate sickness than what we had, and it could be the flu!  So I took the babes to the doc and sure enough--they tested positive for the flu!!!  So the following evening I came down with the dreaded flu symptoms!!  So I'm also on tamiflu, along with the babes.  Fun times.  We have now been sick for 17 days.  Luke has been fever free for 24 hours so pray that all of us will get well!

Also after I wrote my last entry, one of the ladies we were on the retreat with passed away.  She died 6 days after we left.  Although we were very sad to hear the news, we rejoice that she is in heaven.  Her and her husband are strong believers and although I only had one short coversation with her, I was able to be in a group with her husband and gain insight into their lives.  Great couple!  Please pray for Jim and his children.  I am even more grateful for Inheritance of Hope.  How great that they were able to give them one lasting memory together as a family, especially for the children.  And also that she was able to make a legacy video for her children.  What a wonderful organization!

I love the month of February!  What a great reason to celebrate LOVE.  Love for our family, friends and most of all Jesus Christ.  I love waking up every morning and giving each of our children a heart that has on it something we love about them. I love making everything in hearts and red/pink on Valentine's Day.  I know some of you do not like Valentine's Day.  Well, I like it so much we celebrate everyday of the month of February!  :o) (Maybe it's because I was born this month).  This is the verse that comes to mind.

I Corinthians 13

13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge,and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

The Strebe's stay

GODSTRONG