Thank you Lord for Family

"The love of a family is life's greatest blessing.”

We had such a good weekend. Our youngest son, Mark, and his two children, Alexis and Gavin, flew in for a visit. There was lots of laughter and fun. Then there were tears when they had to leave. That's always the hard part. I wish we could have all of our family around all the time.



Neal, Jerry, and Mark




Kyla, Gavin, Alexis, and Hayden







Mark, Gavin, Kyla, Alexis, Amy, Hayden, and Neal
























Jerry started his second round of chemo today here in Greenville. He'll have to go for 5 days. Please be praying that it won't make him sick and that the chemo will keep the leukemia blasts from coming back.  Today his platelet count and white blood count was low. He will probably have to have a transfusion next Monday. He is very susceptible to germs now and of bleeding easily.

We are so very hopeful that the chemo is going to work.  We have so many people praying and we have a good God who loves us.

We love you!

Victory Through Prayer

We are so thankful. We've had a great day of rejoicing and praising the Lord. We are so thankful for the good news yesterday.

Every appointment with Dr. Diehl, he would always start out saying "The bad news is....".  Yesterday when he opened the door for the appointment, his first words were - "I have good news for you."

They were such wonderful words.  Jerry will probably resume his chemo this coming Monday at the hospital here in Greenville.

We know we have a ways to go yet, but we feel like we had a victory yesterday. We know that this victory was through prayer.

We love you and please KEEP ON PRAYING!

Answered Prayer

Psalm 40:1
I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.

Praise the Lord!! We had a good doctor's report! The leukemia has not progressed and Jerry  can continue with the chemotherapy. The doctor said two or three more rounds of the chemo and if Jerry continues to progress at the rate he is now, he should be on course for the transplant.

We are so thankful. We believe in our hearts that it was the prayers of God's people.
Right now there are tears of joy and happiness.

We love you!

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Thursday evening, we noticed some blisters on Jerry's stomach. I took him to the doctor Friday morning and he has shingles. They gave him a prescription, so hopefully they'll start clearing up in 5 or 7 days.

It is probably because of his immune system being down and sometimes stress can cause them.

Please be praying for them to clear up quickly. The worst part about having the shingles is that he can't be around his grand children. 

Also please continue praying for the doctor's appointment on Tuesday. We know we have a wonderful Savior who loves us and Who is already in our tomorrow.

Patience

Psalm 27:14

Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

When we were raising our four sons, one of the things we tried to teach them was patience. One of our sons had a real problem with patience.  He was like most kids. He wanted everything right now. He had things to do, life to live. He didn't have time to wait. We would ask him, "Aaron, what is patience?" He would always reply - IT'S WAITING! This was our son, Aaron. He is raising four children of his own right now and I'm sure he has a lot of fun teaching his kids PATIENCE.

I think this week I'll need a lesson on patience. We will not know the outcome of the biopsy until next Tuesday when we will go back to Duke for an appointment. The doctor said there could be two outcomes to the biopsy.  The first is that the leukemia has progressed strongly. The second is because of myelodysplastic which will cause the blood cells to be abnormal.  If the leukemia has progressed strongly, the doctor said he will be very discouraged, but if it's myelodysplastic, they will be able to continue the chemo treatments. If they are able to continue with the chemo, it will take about 5 or 6 more chemo treatments, but hopefully it will get the leukemia knocked down enough the Jerry can be considered for a transplant.

Please be praying for a good biopsy report and also that we will have lots of PATIENCE!

We love you!!  And again we could never express how grateful we are for all the love, prayers, and support.

Continuing In Prayer

Romans 12:12

Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;

Please be praying for Jerry's doctor's appointment tomorrow at Duke. They will be doing a bone marrow biopsy to see how the leukemia has progressed. The results will tell them how to continue with the treatment. We probably will not know the results until next Tuesday when Jerry has another appointment.
This will be an anxious time for us and an exercise of our faith.
Prayer is our greatest weapon right now in this battle and we have a lot of friends and family all over this world praying.

We love you.

A Day of Blessings!!

What a wonderful and special day we had yesterday.
Jerry got to preach in the High School Chapel at Greenville Christian Academy.
He loves preaching so much.
And Greenville Christian Academy has a bunch of great students and teachers.  We love you all so much and appreciate all the love, prayers, and the wonderful gift we received.
God is so good!!!