Hello from Houston!
No we have not dropped off the face of the earth– 🙂 . We are tucked in our little condo doing battle on the “enemy”!
I can relate to the playoff games that are currently being played. It takes preparation, conditioning, expectation, and no distractions to come out the winner with a formidable foe!! We too are in a battle and we have been preparing for many years as we drew closer to our heavenly Father– navigating the troubled waters over the years in different areas of our lives!!
We have practiced and been called upon to “believe in what we could not see”— we have learned to trust the Lord and step out in “obedience” by “praising Him” in all things. When I was a new Christian, I used ask Jim questions as I would read certain scriptures– like “praise Him in all things– count it all joy” etc — things like that. I’d say do you think He really means praise Him when Eric is headed off to surgery again, when the finances were reversing, when other obvious undesirables happened— were we asked to “fear not and let not our heart be troubled”– Yes we were. There is beauty in age and or enough time spent delving into God’s Word and trusting what He says– I came to realize there is so much we don’t know or understand but in no way does it invalidate the truth of what God says. When I would get my head around obedience and moving forward, I would then release God to do His work. We do our part and He does His part. I realized that He says all things for our benefit– we just don’t see the whole picture. The great news for those of us who usually control as much as possible– and who aren’t really controlling anything–is that we can relinquish control to Him and have peace. Of course, that does not mean you sit around and do nothing– do what you should do and leave the rest to God.
Jim is the model “patient”– he has made a complete change in his eating selections and feels so blessed to feel good and have energy! His weight has leveled off at 159– up a pound from 3 days ago. He is swallowing so much better and is able to eat much faster and more solid foods!! We have found a doctor that does nutritional counseling for many cancer patients and does lectures to other docs. He has Jim on an intensive program to build his immune system and detox his body from all the drugs. Wednesday we will go back and that doc will do rerun the tests to see what the liver numbers are and other indicators that tell you how the body is doing.
I’ve become adept at changing “lumen lines”caps and flushing his pic line with heparin– think how handy I will be in the future with these new skills!! 🙂 It has crossed my mind that I should have pursued a degree in nursing instead of speech therapy.
I have honed my skills in cleaning and cooking also. 🙂 Every morning I creep out while it is still dark and start Jim’s steel cut oatmeal– this takes 30 mins to cook. 🙂 Great health building takes time- of course, so does disease! Then I prepare his various goodies to build the immune and as he gets up and starts in on this, I make fresh juice in our Champion juicer. Usually we are off to some medical appointment so I pack our cooler to take his calorie laden protein shake and almonds, macadamia nuts, “sheep” yogurt-( I’m not kidding…sheep yogurt) etc. I would laugh myself silly at the look on Jim’s face when he saw the sheep on his yogurt!! We try to keep some levity as we go through the day.
We are thrilled to have been able to see the live video feed from the weekend in Palm Desert this weekend. It felt great to see what was happening– technology is so amazing!! Jim and I sat huddled on the couch watching the small screen and felt like we had been transported 🙂 That being said, I will say we are content where we are and know that we are exactly where we need to be. There is that gift of peace that comes from trusting the Lord.
Heather and Ashley-Kate are here visiting this weekend and right now we are going across the street to bowl with AK and Faith– someone I might beat!! By the way, Houston has the only Bowling Alley that requires men to wear collared shirts and no jeans– can we say “upscale”?? 🙂
Well, I will sign off and go play with the kiddos– we are officially finished with 3 weeks of chemo– 2 more Monday chemos to go and we have finished 17 proton radiation sessions out of 28. We finish here on Jan 31st and head back home.
I am sure that we are doing as well as we are because of 
the faithful, priceless friends and acquaintances that go before the throne of God on our behalf. Thank you from the bottom of our heart for your dedication to prayer for us and for others who are in their battle. I am dialoging with two people right now who are dealing with cancer. Joe Badinski– has just gone through Jim’s program for esophageal cancer this past year and needs prayer as he rebuilds his immune and puts on weight and Kathleen Brooks– a longtime friend and business partner- who is battling breast cancer. thank you for including these friends in your prayers!!!
You are important to us and you are loved! I cannot imagine the repercussions that will come from the prayers and the entries on the website. Long ago I heard “anyone can count the seeds in an apple, but only God can count the apples in a seed”!! Network 21 is so much more than a business!!
love, Nancy