Sun 4/27

Good Day Bloggers, Thanks for your prayers and concern. We are blessed to have you on the team. Erin is doing fine except for a nagging stomach ache and lingering itches. We go tomorrow morning for labs, so we will see what they say. I figure her numbers will be down and she might need blood products by her Thurs appt. if at all. Erin had a nice visit from her mentor teacher today and got all excited again about getting back to teaching in the fall. It is nice to have something to look forward to beyond all the chemo. Her PRHS friends have been so supportive! Our thanks to all of you as well as our to church family and friends for your love and prayers. They say it takes a village to raise a child. Well, it also takes a village to support a cancer victim and God has blessed us with an awesome village! To God be the glory!

In the book of Acts, Jesus tells Peter 3 times how to show his love for Christ. He says to "feed his lambs," "take care of his sheep," and "feed his sheep." I am not a Bible scholar, but it seems to me that when God says something 3 times, it must be pretty important! You all have gone above and beyond in helping us take care of this particular lamb and I know God is saying, "Well done, good and faithful servants!"

Love you all, janet

Sat 4/26

Happy Saturday, Erin is doing fine. Happy to have Laura home for a quick visit. Erin is still battling nausea but in general she is doing pretty good. She is blessed to be home. Both of our hives seem to have calmed down, although she is still begging for back scratches. Who doesn't? Now we just ask for patience to endure the rest of this time of seclusion before she can get out and about again before round 4. Thanks for your unending prayers!!

"For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way; bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light." Col 9-12

Love, janet

Fri 4/25

Good Friday everyone, All is status quo here in the world of recovery. Erin is feeling pretty blah but her hives are beginning to settle down. Maybe because they jumped to me! Erin is resting as much as possible. We still have her bed in the middle of the family room so she can stretch out 24/7. Bill is quite envious because he always stretches out on the floor to watch TV. He wishes I would let him have a mattress too. Now when the dogs come home after their 6 month sabbatical at my sister's house, they will also want mattresses to sleep on. You see, she has quite spoiled our dogs and they will require some remedial training! Thank you for your continued prayers! Erin is blessed so much by them. She is trying to be brave in the ongoing treatment and really needs the encouragement!

"May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."Romans 15:5-6

Love, janet

Thurs 4/24

Good afternoon prayer warriors, Erin is still itchy and uncomfortable. She had a 2 Benadryl night and is longingly looking at another little pink pill. How miserable to be sick and itchy all over. She doesn't have much of an appetite either. I am just trying to push the water to keep her flushing out all the chemicals. Oh, but being at home is wonderful. No one waking us up every few minutes for something, vitals, labs, chemo etc. That gets old fast! You gotta know that if I am over it, Erin is WAY over it. So this morning I woke up with hives on my arms. Yes, you who went thru the hive weeks with me last summer know the drill. I figure someone somewhere is getting married, or I have developed an allergy to raspberries, or I just have sympathetic itching for Erin. Go figure. You Moms out there know how we empathize with our kids in every situation. Well I truly have felt nauseous, tired, and achy with Erin all along. Wish I could do all of it for her! Well, God is certainly by her side carrying her through all these side effects and for that we are thankful. We are also grateful to you who daily lift our burdens to God!

"Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens." Ps 68:19

" Carry each others burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." Gal 6:2

Thanks for everything. love, janet

Wed at home

Hello Prayer warriors! God is good. Just got home an hour ago. Thank you Lord for that! Erin had another very itchy night. We love Benadryl! She pretty much itched the whole way home and I had to grab her hands to stop her. I threatened to put her in mittens or a straight jacket. Of course Benadryl works, but it also puts you to sleep, so you don't get to eat or walk, so we are trying to use it in moderation. So far Erin's numbers are good but they should go down over the next few days. So we will not be out and about for awhile. We go back on Mondays and Thursdays for labs. We met a couple of young people her age today that are in various stages of the same disease. It puts into perspective how far we have come and how good Erin will look in a few months. Please add Brie, Adriano, Andrew and Megan to your prayers. So much cancer!! But our God is bigger than all of it and His mercies are unfailing. Thanks for your faithfulness in prayers for Erin and our whole family. We are humbled by your love. Blessings, janet

Tues 4/22

Good morning! Wish I could say all is well, but frankly, Erin had a hard night. She broke out in hives last night from who knows what. So add itching to the nausea to the overall not so good feeling. Yikes. So they gave her Benadryl and that helped the itching, then they gave her ativan to help the overall yucky feeling, so she did sleep a little between interuptions. One more night and then we can go home. Please pray for the hives to go away, the nausea to go away and the overall terrible feeling to go away. Also please pray that she can eat today. Yesterday she only ate a little cup of peaches. She slept so much she only walked 4 laps and that was by force. She is so over all this and I don't blame her. On the bright side, because you know God always provides a bright side, we only have 3 more chemo doses to go this round and then we go home. Come quickly summer, we want to be done. Thanks for all the prayers, we depend on them.


"Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up." James 5:13-15

We are thankful for a God of miracles! And we can testify to the many He has already provided. We know His plans for Erin are mighty and we trust that someday this will all be a distant memory that fuels her testimony. Love, janet

Halfway Home

Good morning friends -

Well we are half-way through round #3. Erin had her spinal tap yesterday afternoon. She had a bout of nausea in the middle of it and felt the affects for a while afterwards but for the most part did pretty well. She was able to eat some dinner and even walked her mile plus 4 bonus laps after doing 2 miles on Saturday (always the overachiever)!! The past two nights Erin has been able to get about six hours of undisturbed sleep which has been a real praise. The nurse has been giving her a small dose of Ativan along with the night chemo which keeps the nausea at bay and lets her sleep. Besides the nausea which is being controlled pretty well, the only other side affect so far has been hiccups. They started up while we were walking last night and they were pretty loud...sort of echoed down the hallway. The nurse saw me jump out at Erin from around a corner to scare her and I was pretty sure she was going to have me taken away...but then she jumped out at Erin around the next corner! It was pretty funny and we had a good laugh...and it seems that Erin's hiccups went away at that point. Erin pointed out to me that they have video cameras covering every hallway and that I might want to keep that in mind next time I decide to demonstrate my "speedwalking technique"....the secret is in the hips you know!

Today's word is miracle and we thank God and praise Him for the miracles that He is doing in and through Erin as she weathers this storm and for the promise of miracles to come!

"Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced"
- 1 Chronicles 16:12
"He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted."
- Job 5:9 & 9:10

Blessings - Bill