A God thing

We drove to Atlanta last night. Got in at 1030. Got to bed at midnight. Got up at 5AM to head to Emory. They took Jon back and before long they called me back there. Because Jon has been sick with a cold, congestion and evidently a fever they wanted him evaluated by the anesthesiologist. When the doctor came in he said they couldn't do the surgery because of the sickness and fever. All I could think was OK! Obviously God does not want this surgery to happen. THE END! Jon will be potentially having a couple more procedures next week. We will meet with the pulmonologist to move forward with the lung biopsy. They will re-schedule the surgery.

Lots of new news

First of all I want to say Happy Birthday to my precious baby boy Luke!!! He is 4 today!! He is a boy that truly loves life!! And he is a boy that loves God with all his heart! We are truly grateful for him. I am not deserving of the blessings God has given me! I am thankful for a merciful God. There is a lot of new information to share. I will try to shorten this as much as possible but still write it so you will know what's going on. We had a 2nd opinion yesterday with an oncologist. We walked away feeling very good about the meeting. He clearly answered some big questions we were having. First of all they are going to do a biopsy of the places on the lungs. This will happen at the end of this week or beginning of next. The doctor feels that he cannot say 100% that this is the original testicular cancer that has spread although he is 95% sure. He does not feel good about giving chemo unless we 100% know for sure what kind of cancer it is. We completely agree!! The only risk is a dropped lung so pray that will not happen. Secondly he talked to us about 2 chemo regimens that can be used assuming we find out this is the seminoma cancer he had before. The first one uses bleomycin which CAN cause lung problems (1-2% chance). They can also do it without that drug it would just have to be done an extra round (3 weeks-12weeks total). both are very effective and because Jon's livelihood depends on his lungs, the doctor is fine with which ever one we decide. So pray for especially Jon as he will have to ultimately make that decision. The best part is the cure rate is 95%. The doctor believes the chemo will knock this out and he will never deal with testicular cancer again. Pray for Jon Friday as he will have a minor outpatient surgery. Also his latest brain MRI was completely clear. PTL. We also found out that his chemo will most likely start January 28th. He needs a couple of weeks to heal from this surgery. The only other thing is that Jon has to decide whether to get a port. Again pray for him with this decision because there is positive and negative to both. Jon has already been able to use this as a platform to talk about his faith in Jesus Christ. He is a very bold, courageous man!! And all he is worried about is that this will inconvenience people:). He is also very discouraged and sad he can no longer referee basketball for now. He is only going to focus on his job (teaching PE) and dealing with the chemo and getting better. We know this is the right decision. He has also put his Masters on hold. Thanks for your prayers. We will update when we find out new information!

Hanging in the balance

Unfortunately we do not have very much news to report.  Because of the weekend and holiday it has just taken longer to get things going than we thought.  The only thing new is that Jon will have a brain MRI to rule out the possibility it has gone into his brain which is where testicular cancer can travel.  We anticipate the MRI will be all clear.  We also have a 2nd opinion set up with the oncologist this week.  We do not yet have a start date for his chemo.  It will most likely be either the 14th, or the 21st.  We will let you know as we find out more information.  Thanks for your continued prayer.  We are exhausted but must move on because we have 3 precious small children to care for:o).  Jon is changing all the diapers right now in case he is unable to during his treatments:o)

New News

I know it has been forever since I've updated but I thought this would be a great way to get new information out and I will TRY and keep up a little better than I have in the last 2 1/2 years since the twins have been born.  When I told Jon that I was going to update everyone through this page he started laughing saying, "well, I hope you update it more than you do now, otherwise no one will have a clue what's going on."  :o)

As most of you know, Jon was diagnosed with testicular cancer in August 2006.  He had surgery to remove the testicle.  After several meetings with doctors, we all decided that surveillance was the best route since we did not have children.  God blessed us with Luke 3 years later in 2009, and then with twins in 2010.  Jon has been going back for his check ups very regularly and after 5 years in 2011 the doctors felt very good about his scans being all clear. But when he went this past week his chest x-ray showed about 15 spots on his lungs.  They have confirmed it is the testicular cancer that has metastasized into his lungs.  He will be getting a port this week so that his chemo can be administered easily.  He will start his chemo on the 7th or 14th (leaning toward the 14th).  He will have 3 cycles of it that are 3 weeks each.  We will be in Atlanta for a week and then home for 2 weeks, then the cycle will repeat itself 2 additional times.   He will be working when he is home.  We have no idea what to expect but the doctor has assured us that people work while doing this chemo.  We are scared, fearful, hopeful, and resting in God's promises.  We believe God can heal him through this medicine.

We had a family meeting the other night and we put a bandaid on Jon's chest and told the kids that he has a big booboo, and that he will have to take medicine to make him better.  But that the medicine will make him very sick.  We told them we are praying the God will use the medicine to heal his body.  They totally get it because they have just been sick and on medicine.  So we all layed hands on him and prayed.  Emma Kate was very mature and "got it."She kept asking if he was all better.  While I rocked her that night she said "Jesus is going to take daddy's booboo and throw it in the trash can."  The next morning my little Luke (who has to process stuff for a LONG time) comes bounding out of his room.  The first person he saw was Jon and he said, "Daddy, are you all better?  Because I have been in my bed praying for you!"  Precious.  Of course, we started crying again.

Prayer request:

**Strength for Jon as he works and gets chemo treatments.

**That we will stay positive and not dwell on doubt and fear of the unknown.
** That I will have time to update the blog:o)
**That I can keep up with everything because Jon does ALOT around our house!

Ok so it's been FOREVER but I see nothing has changed

Ryan chasing the turtle at the petting zoo!

GG Roma stealing a hug from Ryan.

GG Roma and Emma Kate spending time together.

All the cousins and GG Roma!

The kids at Uncle Rick and Aunt Sherry's farm. Luke got to ride a HUGE john deer

Petting zoo.

Of course we took Clifford with us!



Well, the last time I did a post like 8 months ago, Luke was potty training. HAHAHAHA...he is STILL potty training...Oh my, we haven't come real far.

Here are some pictures of our trip to Phoenix that we took over Spring Break to see Jon's grandmother. Yes, the plane ride was interesting at times, the time change was fun with 3 3 and under, but the memories and the special times made it ALL worth it! GG Roma loved seeing Luke again and meeting the twins. We loved spending lots of special time with all of Jon's family, aunt, uncle, cousins. We also got to spend time with my family who HAPPEN to be going out there at the same time. We stayed in Sedona with them for 2 days, and my mom actually flew with us out there. So that was neat that it all worked out. They went on to do hiking and stay at a ranch. Sorry it has been so long. I'm not sure anyone even looks at this anymore.

Almost 1!!

Luke on the Potty while daddy is reading to him. Trust me, he will be 5 before he is potty trained:o)
Luke and daddy shaving together!
And of course, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

This is Cow Appreciation Day, it was the best we could do!

Happy July 4th, best picture I could get!

EK, can you get any closer?

Fun finger painting!
Oh, Luke goes from shaving to putting on makeup:o)
Luke LOVES to talk on the phone to anyone that will listen!!

Thought I would post a few things before the big birthday in 2 weeks! I can't believe it has been a year. Doesn't seem possible. It has been BUSY and FUN!! They are so much fun right now! The are pulling up on everything and crawling EVERYWHERE, and anytime i accidentally leave the laundry door open, they are up the stairs in a flash. I have truly hardly had time to take pictures and I"m sad to say I will not have very many of them from 8-12 months. It is so hard to even grab my camera and when I do they do NOT cooperate. But, I mangaed to take some pictures of July 4th, Cow appreciation day (as you can see, Luke was NOT having this) and just cute random ones. Enjoy!

OK, So it has been a LOOONG time

Babes are crawling and Jon works all the time, need I say more!! Here are some updated pictures. The last one is of Jon's car. He was in a wreck. Sitting at a red light and got hit from behind, someone going about 55mph. He is FINE...not even sore, Praise God! So, we are down a car:o(