18 days to Christmas

jordan continues to heal! We know that God is doing a
powerful work in his little body. Presently he is
sound asleep. The tumor is still pressing on the
colon, and thus the bm's are still a significant pain
to him. Our concern and prayer is that the size would
rapidly diminish to take the pressure off that
discomforting area. We had a fun time today playing
chase, and of course his favorite "beekaboo". His most
enjoyed dinner item was his ever favorite- the
avacado. He has introduced me to a newly enjoyed
choice of food. I love'em now too. I used to just
take them has guacamole, but he has brought it to a
whole new taste bud. Well i guess i spoke too soon as
i hear his cries- Becky is off to hug and comfort him
this moment. Mostly, this troubling colon problem
wakes him (aside from the tumor itself). It has been
the drill and routine during night hours; usually one
to two hours and then he wakes. Prayer is the key.
We know we have many praying for us and it such an
assurance to know that we are not alone in this. Just
heard of another elderly couple that have put us on
their church prayer chain. I didn't even know these
people, another unknown family sent us their family
christmas picture/card and reminded us that they too
have us in their prayers. It has been a great
reminder to me to pray for those who are in need
regardless if they are a stranger or a most familar
person. That is what i have for an update today. bye
for now and Merry Christmas!

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Try it now.

18 days to Christmas

jordan continues to heal! We know that God is doing a
powerful work in his little body. Presently he is
sound asleep. The tumor is still pressing on the
colon, and thus the bm's are still a significant pain
to him. Our concern and prayer is that the size would
rapidly diminish to take the pressure off that
discomforting area. We had a fun time today playing
chase, and of course his favorite "beekaboo". His most
enjoyed dinner item was his ever favorite- the
avacado. He has introduced me to a newly enjoyed
choice of food. I love'em now too. I used to just
take them has guacamole, but he has brought it to a
whole new taste bud. Well i guess i spoke too soon as
i hear his cries- Becky is off to hug and comfort him
this moment. Mostly, this troubling colon problem
wakes him (aside from the tumor itself). It has been
the drill and routine during night hours; usually one
to two hours and then he wakes. Prayer is the key.
We know we have many praying for us and it such an
assurance to know that we are not alone in this. Just
heard of another elderly couple that have put us on
their church prayer chain. I didn't even know these
people, another unknown family sent us their family
christmas picture/card and reminded us that they too
have us in their prayers. It has been a great
reminder to me to pray for those who are in need
regardless if they are a stranger or a most familar
person. That is what i have for an update today. bye
for now and Merry Christmas!

____________________________________________________________________________________
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Not much new here. Jordan is doing well during the
day. He is enjoying pulling the ornaments off the
tree. Sleeping at night is variable. Some nights we
sleep and some we don't. We're hoping once the tumor
starts shrinking, he'll be more comfortable at night.
No more appointments till Friday as long as
\
jj-0l0jhj hh8mn;';pkiiklll'llk [lk=k,.k[.polk, k,
(Jordan's contribution to the blog)

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Another Trip to Children's

Well we spent the morning at the hospital for
appointments. We went to urology and they tried to
take out the catheter and see if he could go enough on
his own. It wasn't successful so they put it back in.
Darn! We are all a little sick of that bag. It
seemed a little early though. The oncologists say
that as the tumor cells are dying they actually swell
first, so you wouldn't expect a lot of pressure off
the bladder yet. Maybe next week. They also drew
blood from his port, which was surprisingly not a big
deal to Jordan. The Childlife specialist came with a
bear that had a port and all the medical stuff the
nurse had for Jordan to administer to the bear. In my
mind I'm thinking...he's only 13 months, he's just
going to throw it or stick it in his mouth, but he
actually pulled off the tape and swabbed the bear
with the q-tip, and used the syringe. It was very
cute. And no crying, thank goodness!

The next appointment is Friday as long as he does ok
this week. Please pray for him as he has a cold (has
had it for last 3 weeks) and is going into this week
where his counts are supposed to drop.

We are doing ok. We are praying for courage to fight
this battle and believing in the Lord to give it to
us.

Becky and Brent

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Hanging our at Home

Well we've been home for a couple of days now. Jordan
is much happier, but is still having some difficulty
at night sleeping. He has been tearing up the house.
I think he is so happy that he's not hooked up
anymore. He's getting close to walking. I've been
working with him hoping it will happen soon, so he'll
be up off the floor. He's eating pretty good and
loved the cookies Beth brought by the other night for
dessert as you can see in the new picture!

We're hanging in there. Life doesn't stop and
Christmas is coming. Brent and the boys are putting
up our gigantic nativity scene in the front yard and
we're getting a tree tonight too.

Tomorrow Jordan has a urology appointment and they
draw blood to check his counts. It is difficult for
Jordan to wait around for a few hours at the
appointments. He's not a sit around kind of kid. I
am nervous as this week is when they expect his white
blood cell count to drop. Please continue to pray for
protection for him.

Love to you all. Jordan blows you a kiss and gives
you a hail wave (if you've never seen him do it, it's
very cute, I'll try to post another picture.

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Lots of love and prayers coming our way! Just a bit
ago, was answering calls from family, then friends
stopped by just to hang out and let us know they want
to help in any way; as soon as they left (2 minutes
later) other friends stopped by to bring a meal;
immediately after their drop-off, a church friend
called to say that i was on his mind and he wanted to
give me some encouragement. To me, that is a clear
picture of the body of Christ in action. Honestly,
these most recent examples of support have pretty much
been a common place over the last 2 weeks. I don't
ever want my words to be trivialized concerning how
much Becky and i have been blessed by our friends and
family. It is exactly what we need at this time,
people reassuring us that God is good even in the
midst of this huge change and ordeal in our life. i'm
being challenged to "raise the bar" in God's call to
be kind (Galatians 5:22). Irritability and impatience
have snuck in too often. Jordan had another restless
night's sleep and the guantlet of medical procedures
(temp. check, catheder emptied and cleaned, ointment
applied, daily shot, medicine rituals, etc.) have
caused me to put some of my thoughts in the complaint
bucket. I can't imagine what i'ld be like without the
prayers and support- a scary thought. Aside from his
usual feistiness, Jordan is obviously glad to be out
of the hospital; tearing around the house, happy to be
unhooked from all those medical machines and cords. He
loves playing peeka boo, listening to music and when
he finally decides to settle down he likes watching
elmo. A good thing that the catheter doesn't seem to
agravate him too much. Pray that it doesn't become
infected and cause more urinary track problems.
Additionally, he is still experiencing pain and
discomfort during a bm. Thanks to all for checking in
on us and for the "comments". All our love, brent & becky

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We're Home

Sorry it took us a day to get organized. Coming home,
to say the least, was very stressful. I started
crying yesterday as the nurse went over the 11
different medicines we were bringing home. Some of
them are just as needed, but it was unbelivably
overwhelming to try and sort out when he was to be
given what, how much, which drug was which as they all
have 2-3 different names. Anyways, we've got it
figured out now. He didn't have the greatest of
nights. A lot of tossing and turning until about 5 am
when he finally conked out.

We went into a clinic appt. today and have another
appointment on Monday with oncology and urology. I
always thought the urology guys at the hospital must
be strange. Who would choose that anyways? I have to
say they are my favorites now after Dr. Hawkins our
main oncologist, and Kristin my friend, the nurse
practitioner.

He's got a catheter to drain his urine since the tumor
is blocking up his urethra. We are hoping that it
shrinks enough in the next few weeks that he will no
longer need it. If he does, they will do another
surgical procedure for an indwelling catheter that
doesn't provide so much risk for infection. We are
hopin got avoid that.

Please pray for the tumor to shrink quickly, our
family's adjustment as I know it is hard on the other
kids as well, good sleep and no pain for Jordan, and
protection as his white blood cell counts may drop
next week. Thank you.

Many more thanks for all of the support. We came home
to a sparkling house thanks to my Mom and Dad, Liz,
Wendy, and Jay, and the kids have been well taken care
of by so many. God has used so many of you to sustain
and encourage us during this very difficult time.
Thank you for your faithfulness to Him and us.

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