We're back on 6E

Dear Prayer Warriors, Here we are, back on 6E in room 608. Checked in and waiting to see what time they will take Erin to get her central line. Seeing lots of familiar faces here, which is comforting. Thanking God for our blogger friends!! Your words encourage us and lift our eyes to the Lord! Knowing God is in perfect control and resting in that knowledge. I know the English teachers are all coming unglued at my string of incomplete sentences but that is how my brain is working right now...incompletely. We are all still quite stunned at this turn of events. Last week Erin was water skiing and enjoying her summer and suddenly we are back in this mess. How can that be? I still pray that it is all a nightmare and I will wake up. I prayed for a miracle at the altar on Sunday. You may have seen me, I was the one doing the Big Ugly cry at the altar. So I am patiently waiting for the first lab results to come back totally normal so they can tell us it was all a big mistake. I will climb on the roof and praise God at the top of my lungs!! Hey, don't call the psyche consult yet, I am just a Mom with a mustard seed of faith. And I happen to serve a God of Miracles!! Thanks for checking in, hugs, janet

playing

Erin spent the day playing with all her friends. She spent the whole day at the mall, enjoying her freedom and then we went to the movies again - same movie! I spent the day stressing. We go to Emory at 11 tomorrow to check in and they will put in her central line so they can start chemo right away. I talked to one of the nurses today and she said the soonest she would have the transplant would be 4 weeks, if they find one in the country. If they have to go international it will take longer. That is of course assuming they can get her back into remission quickly. They had a couple of meetings today to plot her course of treatment. Please pray God gives them wisdom to choose the right medicines and the perfect donor. Please also pray for the donor. It is a huge sacrifice to be a donor. We are so thankful in advance for their gift. It is humbling to think of accepting such a gift of love. I think they have rules about when or if you can get your donor's name. I think you have to wait a year. More on that later. Thanks for the prayers. We look forward to your words of encouragement.

"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart" Ps 37:4

I know the Lord knows the desires of my heart - to heal Erin!!
Praising Him for His promise! Janet

Perplexed

Well, the sermon today was on being angry with God. Surprisingly, we are not angry with God but we are baffled by this new turn of events. I thought we got our miracle 14 1/2 months ago and I can't understand why we have to face this again. Erin is taking it all much better than I am. She is an amazing creation of God. Thankfully she does not feel bad yet. Her counts are low but her spirits are high. She planned a busy weekend of events to keep our minds off of the coming treatment. Yesterday we went to the movies and the bookstore. Then we went out to lunch and then her teacher friends came over to talk shop. Today we went to church and absorbed the love of our church family. We couldn't do this without you all. We already feel the power of your prayers holding us up and it gives us the strength to face this horror again.

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed." 2 Cor: 7-9

Please call all your prayers circles. We need God to hear from us loud and clear!!

Again

Dear Friends and Family, Unfortunately, we are asking for prayer again in a BIG way. The "stinky" leukemia is back. We went for her every 2 month check up on Tues and her numbers were low. So we went back on Fri and they were slightly lower. They rushed a bone marrow biopsy and it was positive for leukemia. They have scheduled her to be readmitted on Tues to start chemo again. The goal is to get her into remission and then do a bone marrow transplant. They will have to find an outside donor because her sisters are not a match. This will be a heavier chemo and longer recovery so we are asking for lots and lots of prayer. We love God and trust Him completely even though we obviously don't understand what is going on. Please help us pray for our sweet girl. More later. janet

Sun 8/24

Blessings dear friends and family,
Praise God for his mercy and goodness. We are so blessed with Erin's healing and her successful return to work. She is so grateful to be back to normal activities. Looking back on everything she has been through this year, it's amazing (grace) that she is feeling so good. Everyone says her color is good and she looks so healthy. Who can look at this miracle and see anything other than a loving creator renewing her body and spirit?! My heart is so full, I can hardly bear it sometimes when I think back on all she has been through. God has worked daily miracles in all of us and taught us how to depend wholly on Him and Him alone. When the going is toughest, and we are at our lowest and weakest moment, that is when God's strength can be felt. Why do we wait to feel God's strength, listen to God, or turn to God? He has always been there waiting and wanting us to let Him be a part of our everyday life. How much easier it would be to walk with Him instead of trying to do it alone. There have been many lessons learned these past 8 months. I may spend a lifetime sorting it all out. One thing that is crystal clear is the love we have been shown by all of you. Thank you so much for your support along the way. Our cup runneth over! I think it is time to close this blog now. It is hard to let it go, but the time feels right. May God bless you all for your prayers and love. hugs, janet

"Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is make complete in us." 1 John 4:11-12

Sunday 8/17

Hello family and friends,
Thanks for all your love and prayers. Erin is doing very well. We just got back from Lake Burton. You see, one of Erin's goals while in the hospital was to get back to normal activities like swimming and skiing. Uncle Jim actually blew up a photo of Erin skiing into a big poster and hung it on her wall for the last chemo round. Well, God fulfilled her wish today. She was up on skis this morning with the biggest smile!! I was crying like a baby!! She loved it! The weather was perfect and the water was cold. What a victory over cancer!! She can't wait to tell her Dr. He always smiled a little hesitantly when she said that was her goal. I guess he has never been skiing on Lake Burton. It's a little piece of heaven!! So, celebrate with us, another dream realized!!
The first week of school with students went very well. Again, a big thank you to the teachers Erin works with. They are probably all shuddering at my ending a sentence with a preposition. Sorry! The kids were good or at least on their best behavior for now. Erin was exhausted, as you can imagine. However, she was very thankful to be back in the swing of things. God has answered every prayer. His timing has always been perfect! We are humbled by the series of "God sightings" we have experienced throughout this ordeal. The miracles we have seen in the details and the love and support we have seen in all of you. Thank you again and again.

"Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits - who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's." Psalm 103:1-5

This was my reading from Believing God by Beth Moore this morning. Again, God leads me to the exact scripture that fits my day. WOW!! love, janet

Wed 8/13

Hello family and friends,
Good news here!! Erin's bone marrow biopsy and echocardiogram were both clear!! Praise God!! We are so excited. Grandmommy also had good news. She had an angiogram that came back clear as well. So we are very blessed today!! We are kicking up our heals at God's Grace in our lives! And of course we want to share our good news with you. Thank you all for your faithfulness in prayer for Erin. I know I have said this many times, but we honestly couldn't have done this without you and your encouragement. We have been surrounded by angels with faces we know and love!! Thank you very much.
Erin's first week with kids is going well. She is tired but aren't all teachers on the first week of school? Her friends at school check on her frequently and send her home promptly at the end of the day! Gotta love those ladies!! Erin is doing well. She still gets shooting bone pain now and then, but not frequently. God is SO GOOD!! We just take it one day at a time and lean on the arms of our Savior! What a blessing to have such a tender and loving God to carry us through life!!

"See I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared....Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, and ...I will give you a full life span."
Exodus 23: 20,25-26

I get so excited when the Lord leads me to the Old Testament to find the verse He intends for me to see. There is some really cool stuff in the Old Testament. Don't ya love it? Thanks for rejoicing with us in the Lord's Victory over Cancer!!