PRAISING GOD AND DOING THE HAPPY DANCE

Dear friends, forgive me for abandoning you for the past several days. Life was unbearably hard and I just didn't have the energy. We have rode the roller coaster of chemo, sick, feel better, chemo, sick etc... John has lost all of his hair, he looks like Daddy Warbucks..he's ADORABLE. I'm not kidding he looks so cute. I still like him better with a beard, but the bald head is kinda sexy :). He says that people are looking at him now, he does look like a guys who is sick.

(This is going to be one of my mini-novel posts...sorry)T

oday is one of those sick after chemo days. Yesterday was so bad he couldn't really even move much. At least he has his comfy recliner to sit in. So, he's really sick and I've titled this one praising God and doing the happy dance.. I'm not a thoughtless shrew that takes pleasure in her hubby's pain..we have real reason to celebrate....

John is thru with all of his chemo PRAISE GOD!!! I've said it before, but until you walk thru this with someone, you just can't even imagine how hard it is on them. It's so hard on your body that even your finger nails stop growing... GEEZ, but that's still not why we're doing the happy dance.

John had his post-chemo endoscopy today to see what type of progress we are making in this fight. We went to the same place where he was 1st diagnosed...were in the exact same pre-op room (that was weird - there's like 15 rooms...) and the same Dr. did this procedure did the 1st one. When John was all done, the Dr came out to the waiting room to get me...that scared the beejeebers out of me. I thought that Dr's only delivered the bad news...well I was wrong! His 1st words to me were "If I didn't know where I was looking I would have thought his esophagus was non-remarkable - Yea, the tumor... GONE!!! Like Gone, gone. They did a biopsy to check the surrounding tissue because the tumor had gone into the tissue right at the sight of the tumor but hadn't spread very far, so there may be some microscopic cells running around, but the tumor is gone. THAT'S WHY WE'RE PRAISING GOD AND DOING THE HAPPY DANCE. The nurse in the recovery room even did the happy dance with me - I'm not even kidding :)

He is by no means done with his treatment. We still have the 25 rounds of radiation and the surgery to remove his entire esophagus to go, but I know that God is working one of his miracles in the throat of my sweet husband!!!

God is hearing and answering your prayers exactly the way we hoped...by healing him from his cancer, but please, don't stop praying!!

Up to today, this has been an awful week. Beside John being really sick from this round of chemo, one of Sara's friends named Mercedes, and the younger sister of one of Sam's very best friends, died unexpectedly - she was 11, (which is another story that I'll share some other time). I also knew her and her brother and older sister I couldn't understand this at all...like Sam & Sara don't already have enough to deal with and these then this. In addition to watching Sam and Sara grieve over their friends.. These 3 kids are very dear to me as well... They are such GREAT kids and, 11 year-olds aren't sposta die. Because of this, I fell into a slimy pit. God once again showed how mighty he is by lifting me right out of that pit. (see Psalm 40)

I am doing a Beth Moore bible study called "Believing God" (http://www.lifeway.com/believinggod/ -that's the web site, don't know how to do links...) She breaks the Believing God component into 5 Truths that you can use your hand to recite and remember them..ya know, just something cute & fun to remember. Here's what they are, starting with your thumb:

GOD IS WHO HE SAYS HE IS
GOD CAN DO WHAT HE SAYS HE CAN DO
I AM WHO GOD SAYS I AM
I CAN DO ALL THINGS THRU CHRIST
GOD'S WORD IS ALIVE AND ACTIVE IN ME... Then you use that hand and point to your self, say I"M, point to your brain and say BELIEVING and you point up and say GOD. It's just silly fun to help us remember so very serious truth OK now on to why that matters...,

Last night I asked the women in this study to pray for me.. But because of this and of course the ongoing burden of seeing John so sick and knowing there is absolutely NOTHING I can do to fix it, I was a mess.I'm not good at asking for prayer cuz I'm the PRAY-ER not the PRAY-EEEE which is a huge pride issue that God keeps knocking me over the head with... anyway, I asked for prayer and what happened in that room last night was amazing. God showed up big time. I sent the women an e-mail today thanking them for their sincere prayers. Stick with me...God is who He says He is and He can do what He says He can do. Here's part of the e-mail I sent (told you this would be a mini novel..or does this qualify for a full blown novel now):

This morning I woke up and felt lighter, really lighter. I still mourn for Mercedes family, and will be reaching out to Lexi tomorrow (you can pray for that :) ) but I just didn't feel the heavy weight on my head. THAT IS GOD!!!
GOD CAN DO WHAT HE SAYS HE CAN DO!!!

As if that wasn't enough of a hug from God, he also decided that he would show me a little more of His glory today. John had a post-chemo (praise God we're thru that part) endoscopy today to check the progress of the chemo. Well, the tumor - GONE!! The Dr. said that if he didn't know where he was looking for the tumor (same doctor who did the original procedure) he would think that John had a normal esophagus. Did I mention....
GOD CAN DO WHAT HE SAYS HE CAN DO!!!

God is still out and about, here on this earth using his people to work all things for good. Romans 8:28 -And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,[a] who[b] have been called according to his purpose

PRAISE YOU GOD!!! GOD'S WORD IS ALIVE AND ACTIVE IN ME!!!

Now I get to go sit in the rain and watch my son play football. Oh Joy!

Sorry this is so long, hope that Blogger doesn't kick me out :).