Still Waiting...

Hi Friends,

We just returned from a wonderful week away visiting friends and spending three days at Disneyland. The kids were beside themselves waking each day to explore the parks. I'll let Gabriela fill you in on the specifics. It was great to see the kids laugh and play after having to deal with so much this year.

On Monday I will have an MRI of the head and a CT scan of the chest to determined where the fungus is (or prayfully isn't). My hope is that it is gone in the brainlining and we can hopefully stop the medication. I believe the Doctor wants me to continue the fungal meds for a while, but the dosage should drop. I am still not feeling any real illness from the fungus. I have soreness from the medication, but that is doable. I am expecting the fungus to be gone.

Having a week away on vacation sounds relaxing, but it really is not a time to reflect or pray much - not with 4 kids at Disneyland. Gabriela and I both feel a bit dry spiritually. We need a vacation now that we have been on the "kid's vacation." As our week returns to normal I'm sure we will fall back into our disciplined times of devotion and prayer. I do hope to hear from the Lord regarding the next step. I would like to know something either way, but if the Lord is silent, I will continue as the Doctors say. I can't chance the cancer getting an advantage and placing me in a worst state. My family needs me and unless the Lord tells me differently, I will continue the treatment.

I am so thankful for those that follow this blog and pray for us. I wish I had more to share and could be more specific with how to pray and what, but the facts are, we are still waiting...

I would ask you to pray with us about:
1. Gabriela and I have been asked to speak at a Marriage Dessert on Feb. 14 in So. Cal on the topic of Trusting God in marriage. We need wisdom, creativity, and an outline.

2. Time to refresh our hearts with the Lord amist the busyness of life.

3. Guidance with training up our kids...consistency, character, and transformation.

Thank you and His blessings,

Kelly

Life is never boring!

Hello All,
Stanford is the Nordstroms of Cancer treatment centers! Wow! Although the wait and drive were long, we were thankful to get even greater clarification about T-Cell, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. And thankful for a new friend that we met there who shared with us that she is a witch. She gave us her e-mail address and I look forward coresponding with her.

Kelly was a bit discouraged in that there really are not many conventional methods of treating this disease. Same drugs, different combinations and/or sequences. Although his bone marrow biopsy was clear and he is considered to be in remission, according to protocol, he is far from cured and it is far from even being something to rejoice over.

Don't get me wrong, the doctors all concur that it is "good" that Kelly is in remission in light of the fungus (if he were not, he would be dead). But the doctors believe that Kelly is far from being done with treatment (about 2 more years of chemo).

At this point our biggest request is that prayers are lifted up asking our Father to give clear direction at to what He wants us to do. Personally, I cant' explain why I have such a confidence in what Violet Huckelbarry and Claudia Eller said, (see previous blog entries.) I believe that some time in or after March Kelly will again baffle the doctors with the miraculous recovery they witness and they will not be able to say that Kelly is a poster child for any medications or procedures but that his recovery is nothing but a clear sign that God is alive, involved and desires to show Himself strong on our behalf and sometimes He heals our physical diseases!

My heart longs to have the Lord speak directly to Kelly. He has been through so much this last year and for those of you that know him, you know that he is a work horse and lives, very much in the present. I believe that his heart needs an extended time of solitude in order to process what he has gone through and "feel" it. Then I believe that he will hear from the Lord. Now I know that the Lord can speak whenever and however He desires but I also know that scripture gives us this pattern of the discipline of solitude as we seek His voice.

I have shared this with Kelly and he thinks that a time away would be nice but that there is not time for it. I told him that we just need to ask Jesus if that is what He wants and if it is... He will make the way.

Thank you for your continued love and support through this journey we are on. Praise be to God who is faithful beyond belief, gracious and merciful and is able exceedingly, abundantly beyond what we ask for or even think!! We serve and awesome God.


P.s. Another praise!!! We had a huge scare last night. Anneliese was coming down with, what seemed to be, a cold and was restless through the night. I brought her to our room at about 1 in the morning and at about 2 o-clock I felt her jerk her little body and then stop breathing. Kelly turned on the light and our precious little Anneliese was staring up at the ceiling, pupils dilated, not blinking, stiff body and not breathing. We called 911 and as her lips turned blue, I breathed some breaths for her and then prayed life over her and that if there was any demonic activity that they would be sent to the feet of Jesus for their judgment. She slow began to breath again then the ambulance took her to Children's Hospital (just so happens to be the very next exit from our house. Amazing!) The doctors told us that she had a Febrile Seizure. Her temperature was at 105 and had spiked too quickly that her little body didn't know what to do, consequently, the seizure. We learned that this is not so uncommon for young children, (5 and younger 1 in 200 chance) but that now she will have a 1 in 25 chance of seizuring again. Scary at first then the Lord reminded me, through my dear friend, Tammy Delisle, that God is still on His throne and in control and I refuse to bow to fear. I will only bow to Jesus!! Thank you Lord!

Oh dear friends and family,
We are so sorry to not have updated our blog recently. Right now we are about to leave to speak with a Leukemia specialist at Stanford. We don't have any updates with the fungus or the cancer. Things have actually been busy with "normal life" kind on stuff. Birthday for Andrew, kick off or community groups new session, homework, play dates for our kids... oh how sweet life can be. We love all of you and appreciate your prayers. We will let everyone know what the specialists say.
OH!!! Side note... A family from our church has given us a 3 day trip to Disneyland!! We hope to go the week on Jan. 20th. Pray for Kelly, (stamina, endurance) Lots of Love, Gabriela