Merry Christmas

Hello Dear Family and Friends

We apologize for not updating our blog regularly. The good news is that there isn't much on the health end of things to give an update on! We praise God that the results of the bone marrow biopsy came back Leukemia Free! (Thank you God!) There is still presence of scar tissue in Kelly's bone marrow and Kelly will have a scan of his liver and kidneys at the end of Dec. to check to see if they are enlarged. Our Oncologist believes that this might indicate Mylophybrosis (sp?) This is a bone marrow disorder that has a poor prognosis. The good news is that the blood counts did not show an increase in scar tissue. We are also sending our results to several other Doctors, via our Naturalpathic Doc., who also know oncology and they will give us their opinions. We are waiting to hear from them and then we will pray and ask the Lord what to do next.

We have strange feelings about this new development. We believe that Kelly is healed and he is feeling 100% physically! We continue to ask God for direction and confirmation. Our biggest requests have been that the Lord would heal Kelly of the ringing in his ears (a constant, loud, frustration) and that the Lord would deliver him from depression. He is functioning well but feels a regular heaviness and lack of freedom in his spirit.

He is such an amazing man and I respect him so much. He has been through so much and he continues to love, serve and long for more of Jesus. He is an incredible husband and father and a terrific pastor. I feel confident that God is at work in him in these areas and the all of this will pass in time. Please join us in praying for these things. Thank you so much!

The kids and I are doing well and counting down the days until winter break from school! Homeschooling is going well, (a lot more work then I anticipated) but well worth it. I love seeing the kids get time to just be kids and play with one another and be good friends. They are loving their labs on our school campus,(piano, science, language and art). And finally we are so blessed to be in our new home this Christmas! We love it!!!

Thank you to those of you who read this and pray for us. You are greatly loved and appreciated. Lastly, I want to share with you that the Lord blessed my with a very vivid dream recently. In this dream I was in our old house, upstairs. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying something. I looked out the window into our neighbors back yard and I saw Him standing in a cloud, surrounded by angels. In an instant every part of my wanted to run, so as to not be exposed and simultaneously all of me wanted to run into His arms! Both of these feelings hit me at once and I was paralyzed with great fear. I finally think I understand what it means to fear the Lord. I wasn't afraid of Him or for myself. It was definitely a feeling of awe. This dream has blessed me and motivated me to remember that He is coming back soon! Oh blessed day!!!! Merry Christmas to you all and I hope you are blessed at the remembrance that our Savior lives and is coming again!
Sincerely, Gabriela

More to the Journey?

Hello dear family and friends,
Kelly is having a bone marrow biopsy this morning. Our oncologist had agreed to continue monitoring him even though we have not continued with treatments. Recently Kelly's blood results have been questionable. The doctor has detected some scar tissue and Kelly's white blood cells are elevated. As I am sure you can imagine, this is a bit concerning. We are praying that we can keep our thoughts captive and fears before the Lord. I continue to sense that the Lord is asking me if I will trust Him. He is also gently reminding me daily of how He has spoken life over Kelly. Bottom line is that we don't know what is ahead in our journey and the task before us is to trust. We covet your prayers for just that and of course complete healing. One friend recently prayed that Kelly's results would baffle intelligent minds, I love that. I am encouraged that God knows what is ahead and I will wait on Him. Thank you dear ones.
Sincerely, Gabriela

Where has the time gone? We have had such a wonderful summer! The kids and I enjoyed regular summer activities, no hospitals or doctor app. this summer. Much fewer sitters needed and a lot of good times. We were able to go to Southern Ca. to see my sisters and have the kids play with cousins,(we hadn't had a chance to go down to visit since Kelly got sick). Some family members surprised us with a cash gift and told us to do something fun with the kids...so we did! We took them to The Wild Animal Park and to Lego Land! We spent the rest of our time around my sister's pool relaxing. Then we headed off to Forest Home Christian Conference Center for our week of Family Camp. This has been our tradition for the last number of years and it was wonderful reconnecting with old friends that share that week with us as well as inviting some dear friends, the Delises, to join us. What can I say except, it was a taste of heaven! We thank God for the time away and for the wonderful blessings. Do you ever feel that you just can't take anymore blessing? God is so lavishing! On our way home from camp, we found out that the short sale house we were trying to buy went through! We move in Aug. 14!! We are all really excited and very busy with packing, getting ready to home school, and a full plate of ministry. How good it is to have so many wonderful people and opportunities fill our lives. Kelly continues to feel well and we daily thank God for the miracle of his health. Thank you for your interest in our lives and for your prayers. If you read this blog, please send us a note as to how we can be praying for you, we would consider it an honor to due so. Sincerely, Gabriela
p.s.our new address
1068 N. Citadel
Clovis, Ca. 93611
same home # 559-434-7731

Hi dear ones. Kelly had some blood work done on Monday and our Oncologist was not happy with the numbers. He wanted to do a more in depth analysis to see if there was any cancer coming back. He is concerned about Kelly's white cells being elevated and his hemoglobin not going up.

Just another opportunity to learn to trust Jesus more. Every time something comes up, (and "somethings" are always coming up) my heart jumps and emotionally I take a ready stance like...a football player ready for a play. I am always tempted to be scared of the unknown then my gracious Jesus calms me down and reminds me of what He has already spoken over Kelly. "Kelly lives!" He also reveals to me how very much I need to grow in the area of trusting Him. I am seeing how I cognitively get that He is totally trustworthy but there are places in my heart that don't get it yet and I know He is healing those places. I am beginning to see that without trusting Him, I can't receive His love for me very well and without His love, my life has little power to walk victoriously and in freedom. It's His love that frees me! Does any of that make sense?

I almost forgot to share that the blood test results came back today and there was no sign of Leukemia! Thank you Jesus! We are coming up on two years without any cancer and only 4 months of a 2 year treatment plan! I have to declare the miracle of God's hand of healing!!! We look forward to sharing the test results with our Naturalpathic Doc. and see what he think about the elevated white blood cell count. We will keep you posted.

Anyway... our camping trip never happened. I got sick and the weather didn't cooperate. So plan B was to set the tent up in the backyard! The kids loved it! We even had a campfire and ate smores. We all went to sleep in the tent until I realized, at around 1 a.m. that Kelly had jumped ship and gone inside to sleep in our comfortable bed! Actually I was glad for the excused to move us all inside for a better nights rest.

We are now the proud parents of a preschooler, 1st grader, 4th grader and 5th grader. School is out for the summer and I am looking forward to a great summer, especially since the last two summers have been so taxing.

Well, thanks for reading the blog and for your prayer. We love and appreciate you all.
Sincerely, Gabriela

Good News on the Meds

Hi Friends,

If you read my last blog I shared about my concern taking depression meds and their possible spiritual effects on me. I am experiencing a numbness emotionally due to the meds and really desire to get off of them. The good news is I feel at peace about taking the drugs and don't believe there is a spiritual stronghold in taking them. My holistic Doc. has treated over 70 patients with depression and has been successful in 80% of them being able to come off the meds within a 3 to 6 month period. This was very encouraging. I may get free from this numbness yet.

We are heading to the Sequoia's tomorrow as a family to check out camping sites for a future trip or trips. Hope all is well with you and your family.

His blesses,

Kelly

A Rest in the Journey

Hi Friends-

We haven't updated the blog due to busyness and not knowing what to say. We are still in remission. My last bone marrow biopsy was clear of Leukemia. The chromosome abnormality from our last bone marrow biopsy was not detected. They did find scar tissue in the bone marrow which is a first. The Dr. said this could be Mylowfybrosis which is similar to Leukemia except its not cellular like Leukemia. They don't know why this happens and the Dr. said there isn't a cure except to enhance the bone marrow production. The scar tissue crowds out the bone marrow like leukemia.

We are not concerned and will continue to monitor it. We have the confidence that the Lord has healed me and promised me long life. We want to give Him praise and glory for this and not live in the fear of "what if." It's a faith journey for sure. We are continuing with diet and supplemental support for my body and I feel as normal as before being sick.

We are going through a spiritual journey of faith and deliverance with Dr. Espana. I am realizing the effects of the spiritual warfare and brokenness of the world that has been affecting me. I don't understand a lot of it, but in faith am walking with God in uncharted waters. I see God at work around me and even through me, but my heart has barriers that I,at present, am not able to break through. Dr. Espana has been taking us through some deliverance through prayer, confession and repentance. Areas and things I haven't consciously been aware of that are hindering my spiritual freedom. My reality of God doesn't fully line up with the truth of scripture. I struggle with this and I want more of God, but the more I want to experience His resurrection power, the less I "feel" Him. I know God is faithful and I will continue to seek Him. I need to be willing to wait on the Lord and not try to figure out why and fix it. This is hard for me.

Gabriela and I are praying about the depression meds that I have been on for 6 years. We are wondering if these meds are emotionally closing me down. I tried to go over one of them earlier this year and it was emotionally revealing. I began to spiral into a depressive state and just couldn't endure it. As soon as I started back on the med I sensed a dumbing of my emotions. I'm doing well, but we are wondering if the meds might have a spiritual ramification. Mind altering drugs could allow spiritual strongholds. We know this is the case with illegal drugs, but we have begun to question if this might apply to other legal drugs. There is a verse in the O.T. that implies that witchcraft and drug use are from the same word "pharmakia" (spelling off)where we get the word pharmacy. I don't know if this applies to us. Be praying with us and if you have insight on this, I would be open to listen.

Kids are doing well. We still are waiting on the possible home purchase. The bank hasn't come to a decision to accept our offer. It's been two months, so hopefully within the next month we will know. Gabriela and I are also praying about home schooling the kids next year. Having Sarah and Andrew in public school has been good in many ways, but at the same time we haven't liked many of the things they have been exposed to and bring home. We have seen the system actually harm our kid's self-image and place demands on them that we question are appropriate for their age and development. We have a good charter school option and church co-ops in the area we are considering.

That gives you an idea of what we are dealing with and I appreciate your continued interest and prayers. I would love to know how you are doing and how I can remember you in prayer. Our email is kngplus4@sbcglobal.net if that is an easier way to communicate with us.

I hope you know God's smile today and are walking in the fullness of His love for you. It's His love that transforms us.

His blessings,

Kelly and family

Praise God with us!

Hello dear family and friends,

We saw Kelly's Oncologist today and got the bone-marrow results back and they were cancer FREE! This July will make it 2 years in remission! There was a new abnormality and an old one not present. The chromosome 13 abnormality did not show up this time and the new news is that there was scare tissue in the bone-marrow. Doctor said that they do not know why and want to do a scan of Kelly's spleen and liver to check for enlargement which might indicate Mylophibrosia (sp?) Don't know much about that yet.

Anyway....We are looking forward to several days at the coast over Spring Break. Our dear friends, the Shamshioan's are lending us their beach house again. (Boy, do I feel spoiled!)

I praise God for how He is bringing conviction in both of our lives and we feel a call to purify ourselves, (a painful process and oh so sweet as well).

If the Lord lays us on your hearts to pray, we would love prayer regarding our awareness of the Enemies attacks on our hearts and minds.
On a side note, please pray that the Lord would open the door to our buying a home that we have made an offer on but ONLY if He wants us there. (I love this house!) The owners have accepted our offer but it is a short sale and we are waiting for the Lender to approve our offer. This might take months to find out.

Thank you loved ones and may you know God's passionate love for you and His delight over you.
love, Gabriela

Hello dear family and friends,

Kelly is feeling well and is working hard. He had a bone-marrow biopsy March 6th and just yesterday heard from the doctor's office. He was told that there were some abnormalities found in his results, but nothing that needed immediate attention and that the doctor wanted to go over the results with him. So he will be seeing the doctor soon to get the scoop.

We also went yesterday and spoke with our Naturalpathic Doctor. We are continuing the "soul healing" process and are now asking God to prepare us for what He will be doing in our hearts. Kelly is feeling somewhat overwhelmed in this process but regardless, we keep calling out to our heavenly Father asking Him to lead, guide and heal us from the inside-out.

Our family is doing very well. The kids are especially excited about their Papa's birthday today and joyously celebrating his life. This weekend was special as we were so proud to see Andrew earn his yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do. The girls are also busy with Wi Fit, ballet and gymnastic classes. It is a joy to see our kids enjoying life and each other. We thank God for the scholarships to do all of this and for the constant joy that our kids bring to us.

God is continuing to do His good work in me and teaching me to trust Him more and to understand His love for me more and more. I keep thinking of the song,
I want more of Jesus, more and more and more...
This is my hearts cry! I am excited and confident about the work that He is doing in us.

Please pray that we would not be ignorant of the enemies schemes, that we would be strengthened for the journey and that God would sustain us with willing spirits.

thank you dear loved ones! Gabriela

Hello Dear Family and Friends,

Since our last blog Kelly has told our oncologist that he will not be continuing chemo. Our doctor agreed to monitor Kelly on a monthly basis. We are very grateful for this. We continue to work with our Naturalpathic doc. here in Fresno. He is also a pastor and has been talking to us about pursuing the healing of our souls.

He explained that we are all born body and soul and our spirit comes alive when we become Christ followers. These three part of a person effect the other parts. Every emotion causes a chemical reaction in the body and every experience is stored in the soul weather memories are explicit or implicit.

In my soul I have memories, both good and bad, and likes, dislikes, preferences etc.. Some of this stored information is good and some of it is not. For example, why do I want to eat a piece of chocolate when I feel stressed out rather than turning to God for help. I know that there is a physical reaction to chocolate, serotonin levels and all that but... I cognitively know that the better help in times of stress is God.

The work of the Holy Spirit in us and show us the beliefs that do not line up with what our spirit might already know. Have you ever had the thought, "I know that God loves me and will always do what is best but some how it doesn't reach my heart? And I still worry." This is what I am talking about.

The Holy Spirit goes into the soul and helps us "work out our salvation" or simply the process of sanctification. As Beth Moore said in a recent study I took, "I want my theology to match my reality."

I feel like I am rambling a bit, sorry. Anyway, I am just starting to grasp this whole thing and so is Kelly but we both feel a confidence that God is leading us and preparing us for a work that He has prepared for us and we are both excited about it.

We are still prayerful as to the direction we are taking with regards to treatment and remain open if the Lord leads to chemo but for now, we believe that He has us here and is giving us an opportunity to take an inward look and work on living in the freedom that He has already provided us.

We covet your prays during this process because we are not ignorant of the enemy and his desire to steal, kill, and destroy the work and image of God in and through us.
Thanks, Gabriela