In Christ Alone our Hope is Found

After the news of Micah's clear scan settled, I called the Pediatric Surgery man, our Dr Merritt, whose hands God guided to take the cancer out of Micah's lungs, to let them know that we are finally settled, got a clear scan and are ready to take Micah's port out. That was a big sentence! (o; So we set a date. Nov 2 at 11:30 am, Micah should be in the OR. The first moments after I got off the phone, Ken and I were struck by the enormity of this.  Even though the cancer could come back and this is not over for us, it is a closing of this chapter. Ken often reads my blog posts before I post them. He read what I had wrote and he commented that I didn't tell you all specifically what God did. Ken is not a shouter from the mountain tops! It is not his personality at all. But this time he is encouraging me to SHOUT! I love it when he does that! (o: So here is my shouting.......(o: What God did was beyond amazing!! Micah was first diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in N...

I have had many people ask me lately how we are doing living way over here in MI. So I thought I would just do a little mass 'how we are'. (o: We are adjusting super duperty well to our house. God provided more than we could imagine. Not only do we have a warm, cozy and roomy house, but we have things that are so fun! I am growing very fond of our 3rd story, garbage disposal, laundry shoooooot, sprinkler system and delightfully roomy rooms! (o: It makes my day to day life much easier having space. Siah and Grace are quite close. They are 4 years apart, but they work well together. She loves watching Siah play the computer. I didn't get a good one before she saw me. She had the same expression as Siah and was leaning close to him with her hands wrapped  tighter around him. Seriously lovie!  Please excuse her after supper looking shirt and Siah's half ready for bed appearance. It was the end of one of those days! (o: I finally understand all the highways. I can g...

We have been waiting and waiting and this morning I got a call from our family Doc. I missed the call and I assumed it was to tell me that I got an appointment for myself. I didn't have a chance to listen to the message. I just listened to it now and she told me that she got Micah's scan results. She said everything is clear. I needed to hear the details, so I just called her and asked her to read it to me. I just needed to hear the exact words. Beautiful words. I thought because it was taking so long that they were bothered about something and were looking into it, but the report must have been in for awhile if my family doc has it. As frustrating as that thought sounds to me, everything is in God's perfect time. Maybe He was reminding me to lean more fully on Him.. On the report they said that the spot in his abdomen appears to be normal bowel. That is just an amazing blessing! We are more thankful than I could possibly put into words. I have no more words, just te...

Today is the day that I am hoping to find out scan results. Fifteen days is plenty to wait. The most likely thing that has occurred is that there are just a lot of scans to read. Another possibility is that more than one person is looking at it. That is what happened last time. Today I am struggling with peace as I wait and check my email.... over and over. Lately I have found that praying through some of the names of God is helpful to me. Elohim - Creator Jehovah-Shammah - the Lord is there Adonai - my Master El Elyon - the God most high Jehovah-Rohi - my Shepherd El Roi - The God who sees El Shaddai - the all sufficient One Jehovah-Jireh - Provider for all Jehovah-Rapha - the Lord who heals Jehovah Shalom - the Lord is peace Jehovah Sabaoth - the Lord of Hosts El Olam - the everlasting/eternal God Immaunel - God with us/ IAM God is all these things and more. Beautiful. What a comfort. A few of my faves, from the last week or so.... These two miss each other no...

This is one of the most comforting pieces I have read in a very long time. It brings such deep joy and thankfulness to my heart that it makes me cry. God is such a tender Shepherd. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me."PSALM 23:4 As a child of God you are never alone! Your Shepherd is with you at all times. You never have to call Him in to your situation. You never have to wonder where He is. You never have to fear that if things become too d ifficult, He will never abandon you. He goes before you; He walks beside you; He comes behind you. He protects you securely. Just as He sees every sparrow and knows every hair that is on your head, so His gaze is constantly upon you (Luke 12:6-7). Even when you cannot see Him, He always keeps His eyes upon you. He comforts you with His strong presence in times of sorrow and grief. He leads you through the valley of the s...

Here are some pictures from the last little bit..... Natalie and Josiah all ready for church this past Sunday. I can't believe how old Natalie looks! Grace loves bagels with cream cheese. If I remember correctly, this was the left overs from Nads breakfast. Grace will lay on the comfy carpet for a long time threading the end of the skipping rope from end to end! We don't normally eat fruit loops for breakfast. We often get them from the pantry and the kids get them for a snack. She got them out of the cupboard and tried to pour herself a bowl. She was fine with the outcome! Four or five times we went downtown for something called Art Prize. It was an art competition with over five hundred thousand dollars in prizes. The winner got 200.000. There was a prize for the one the art critics liked the best. But I am pretty sure it was the popular vote (anyone could vote) that got the 200 thousand. There are thousands of entries displayed throughout the...

I have been feeling rather reflective this past week. I have been thinking a lot about what Christ has done for me and it has humbled me. I have also been thinking about the affects of sin on the world...... babies born not thriving, a toddler struggling to communicate or sit up, a young girl having surgery to remove cancer, people sitting under preaching for years and not knowing the Savior, empty materialism, death from cancer, a little 11 month old baby dying from a heart problem, all of us seeking our own idols of the heart.....Knowing this is not our home, soothes the ache, but sometimes it just hurts. When thinking about the fact that earth is not our home, I often think about the Sunday after Micah relapsed. Pastor John preached a sermon of comfort for us and the congregation. He ended it by giving us hope and reminding us what awaits by reading Revelation 21:1-4 (ESV). "1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed aw...

This past weekend, we went back to St Thomas for 3 reasons: Micah's scan, to visit family and because we needed to go over the border for our travel insurance. The driving went well and the border was a delight both ways. On the way I expected it to be busy and we were giddy as we drove over the bridge and saw 4 cars at each booth. I seriously laughed with delight! It makes such a difference when there is not an hour wait! The kids were thrilled to be back.  By 3pm on Saturday afternoon, we had left all the kids except Grace at various friend's houses. It was great for them to do some catching up. Something that keeps coming to mind is how Siah smiled at Kim at church. It was so wide and his eyes were shining. Sweetness. Grace was shy to everyone and everything. She had a hard weekend. Everything was strange and we went a lot of places. She didn't sleep at night and was so over tired and unsettled. Poor little love. The only thing that was same for her was watching Tr...