10/30/2017 Update

Julie was able to drink a small amount of water, a small amount of apple juice diluted in water, and a small amount of chicken broth today and tolerated it well. She could have probably had more, but she was strongly encouraged by the doctor to take it very slow.

Julie also walked today without the walker (I walked with her as a safety net) and is gaining in strength (ability to get up unassisted, etc.).

Overall, I would say this is probably the best day we have had since before surgery.

Ben

10/29/2017 Update

The labs continue to come back as expected.  Also, today is the last day for antibiotics for the UTI -- all of the labs and the symptoms indicate that it is gone.  We did get get moved into a regular room yesterday afternoon just in time to watch the GA/FL game.  We are thankful for being able to get more rest as it is quieter up here.  The Heparin IV was removed as scheduled as she is now getting a shot twice a day of a medicine that we can and will administer at home to prevent new clots.

Julie has been continuing to improve in strength and general well-being.  She was up walking 3 times today and walking 2 full laps on each time out.  She is now starting to actually want visitors (but if you come visit please make sure you are not sick or been around people that are sick), watch TV, check Facebook, talk on the phone, etc.

The clamping of the NG tube did not work out so well -- she was having problems with nausea even before they clamped it and eventually vomited -- forcing them to turn it back on.  Friday afternoon the doctor decided to keep her on it throughout the weekend and try clamping again on Monday.  However, tonight the tube came out by itself so they are going to try leaving it out.  Pray specifically that her bowels start up fully and that she not experience nausea or vomit -- if she vomits they will have to put a new tube down her.

We still expect to be in the hospital for a number of days as they are keeping her on the TPA (feeding tube) until she is able to slowly progress through the various diet stages to slowly introduce food back into her intestines and is able to eat enough calories without the TPA to continue to heal appropriately.

Julie is experiencing no pains and is not receiving any pain medicine (not even the Tylenol).

Ben

PRAISE GOD!

[Hab 3:17-18 ESV] 17 Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

This verse was our devotion from yesterday.  I read it before they took Julie down for the procedure yesterday, but in the activity that was going on never was able to read it to Julie.

Before I share an update with you I want to say that God is worthy of Praise because of who he is and not because of what he does for us.  Habakkuk witnessed the collapse of most of what mattered to him, but he said, "yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation."  So we praise God for who he is.

AND

Today we also praise God for what he has done.  Several people have shared that they were praying and others fasting and praying.  I saw where God had several in our church up all night the night before praying for Julie as well as another member of our church who was in ICU in another hospital.  Julie's blood clot is dissolved and gone and blood flow has been restored to her colon with no indications that the colon was damaged and with none of the very serious risks that she faced with the aggressive treatment.  There is no explanation for this other than God heard the many prayers of his saints and performed several miracles.  He also heard the prayers of his saints and performed a miracle in Bo (the other church member) in that he is now responsive.

So please join us in giving God praise and glory not just for who he is but for what he has done!

In His Name and To His Glory!

Ben

10/23/2017 Update

First, the good news -- Julie reported this morning that she was more comfortable last night than any night since surgery.  This was encouraging to us and made us feel like we are making real progress on this clot.

Around 2:45pm this afternoon, she had a Ventricular Tachycardia heart rhythm event and hear heart raced up to 180 bpm while she was sitting in a chair.  Thankfully the nurse was able to give her some instructions, which she followed and ended the event without having to be shocked.  It was a scary 15 to 30 minutes for us while her heart was irregular and they were running emergency EKGs, etc. to find out what the cause was.  The end result was that they found that the picc line they put in yesterday to feed her into the veins was too close to the heart and interfering with the electrical signals of the heart.  They moved it out by 3cm and seems to have solved the problem.  We though we were going to go to a regular room today, but obviously that is not going to happen now.

Early this evening, the doctors came back to us and after they all reviewed all of her records and discussed they were in agreement that she needs to have a procedure done tomorrow to remove the clot.  This is not full-blown surgery because they are not cutting her open, but it is not without risks.  As we understand it they will be going into through the liver and the vein into the clot to break up and remove the clot.  We do not yet know the time of the surgery as they are working her into the schedule.  As soon as I know the time I will make that information available here.

Ben

Even If...

Several people have asked me how I am doing?  The honest answer to that can pretty much be anything.  There are times where I am energized and motivated and there are times where I am exhausted.  There are times where my faith is strong and times where I am frankly mad at God.  There are times where I know God is present and with us and times where I wonder why he has left us.  There are times where I am strong and times where I am an emotional wreck.  God is growing me and slowly pruning out those bad branches, but sometimes I don't want to be pruned.  I am by nature a "fixer" -- you bring me a problem and I go into the mode of fixing it, but God is showing me that I cannot fix everything and I frankly don't like not being able to fix it.  It breaks my heart to watch the love of my life experience pain that I can do nothing about or to have emotions that I can't comfort.  I am learning that I am not supposed to be her rock -- only Jesus can fill that role.  I have been collecting my thoughts throughout this process and feel like now is the right time to share them.......

When we first got back to the US, Randy and Kim Hendrix were very gracious and loaned us a vehicle for as long as we needed it.  It had a 6 CD changer in it and one of the CDs that Kim had in the mix was Mercy Me.  For the first 6 weeks or so of Chemo as we arrived at Mayo the song "Even If" was playing.  After we completed Chemo and I drove around to pick up Julie and get her in the car, their song, "We Win" was playing.  These two songs have come to speak so much to us.

I want you to pause right now and click on the link below and listen to Even If and read their lyrics as you listen. then come back here and read the rest of this blog.

Mercy Me -- Even If

This song so describes where I am at with my faith as we go through this awful thing called cancer.  You see, the things I KNOW about God don't match my feelings sometimes.  Sometimes I think, "God we gave up everything to move to Honduras to serve you -- why did we have to leave that work to come back to fight such a cruel disease?"  God has been amazingly faithful to be right here with us to comfort us and to provide for us.  Each week, we were encouraged as Julie went through Chemo with very little side-effects compared to what it could have been.  Then we get to the surgery, and praise God for the news that the surgeon was able to get all of the cancer visible to the naked eye, but it was overwhelming everything they had to do to accomplish that.  Then she progressed after surgery so well that we were so ready to get back to chemo and finish this fight, BUT she got a Urinary Tract Infection and had a pretty bad reaction to the medicine.  From that point to now, we have had some pretty bad ups and downs (more downs than ups) where we pretty much took one step forward and three steps backwards.  She is doing better today than yesterday, but still has a long way to go to get rid of the blood clot and to get strong enough to start chemo.  We think we may be in the hospital a couple of weeks at this point, but will likely get back to a regular room tomorrow.  So as Mercy Me sings, it feels like "right now I'm losing bad".  But I do know that God is able and I do know that he can remove all of this by just speaking.  But, for now, it looks as if God has chosen to leave mountains unmoved, but He is continuing to give me the strength to say "it is well with my soul".  You see, like Mercy Me sings, even if God don't move the mountains, My hope is still in Him alone.  As Julie mentioned in her blog, one of the ways God is giving us this strength is through you.  We know so many are praying for us.  I want you all to know that though I am sure we don't see every single comment on Facebook (when our posts are shared we sometimes don't see the comments unless we are tagged in the post), we see most of them and they are very encouraging.  There are so many that it is not possible for us to acknowledge them as I would be doing nothing but commenting or liking posts on Facebook, but we read them and it blesses our soul so please don't stop the encouragement just because we don't acknowledge each one individually.  We both at times read comments and break down into tears at the amazing grace of God in how he speaks just the right thing into our hearts at just the right time through you.

The other song (We Win) that spoken to us, was more the chorus and the bridge that spoke to us as the song is really about something other than the type of thing we are going through.  But God spoke to me through the chorus that He is not done with us and He is continuing to use us and will continue to do so.  You see, God didn't ask us to give up all of our earthly possessions to go and serve Him and that is not what He asks of you either -- He asked us to give up EVERYTHING and to turn it all over to him.  So like Paul, whether we live or die, we want to be used by God for his glory.  It don't mean that we don't struggle with how He is choosing to use us, but our lives are his vessels to pour out in whatever way best accomplishes his will and glory.  The following lyrics of this song is what has spoken to me so much.

It's not over
Don't give up, don't throw in the towel
Just remember who you belong to
Let Me remind you how this ends
We win, woah, we win
We win, woah, we win
Hey, no stopping us
He's not done with us
We are more, more than conquerors

We walk by faith not by sight.  You see, if we walked by sight we would waver.  My feelings and my sight are sometimes weak, but my faith is strong and unwavering.  I have never doubted that God can remove this.  I have never doubted that he loves us and will do what is best.  The only "doubt" I have had is whether it is actually in his will to remove this or how or when.  Only time will provide that answer, but in the mean time he continues to grow and shape us into what he wants us to be.  He continues to grow compassion in us.  If I am totally honest I have to admit that sometimes I don't feel like reading his word or talking with him, but he gives it to me anyway through a song or a comment, or a person sent to pray with us or a phone call.  Oh, I don't know how anybody could experience this and not KNOW that God is real and that He loves us and is there with us every step of the way.  He reveals his presence in so many ways.

There is a saying that is popular with people that have fought the fight against cancer or have loved ones who have and it is "cancer sucks".  Yes, cancer sucks, but sin sucks even more.  Sin is even more deplorable to God than cancer is to us.  I think cancer gives me a glimpse of how much God hates sin -- he hates sin so much more than I hate cancer and I couldn't imagine how much that is right now.  God can love infinitely, but He can also hate infinitely.  As Pastor Mark said this morning, we will all live forever.  I hope you choose to live in the presence of the love, honor, glory, mercy, grace, and eternal worship of God, who is worthy of our praise and not in the presence of his absolute wrath for eternity.

To His Glory,
Ben

10/19/2017 Update

Just a quick update to catch all of our prayer partners up to date on what is going on......

Julie's pain continued to get worse and after several calls and visits with doctors, yesterday afternoon the decision was made to admit her back into the hospital to address the pain and dehydration and to do testing today.  She had a CT scan this morning to find out what may be causing the pain in her abdomen that was so much more intense when she tried to eat.  The results of the scan showed a blood clot on her bowel.  They have significantly increased the dose of blood thinner that she was on and said that should resolve the issue, but we are not yet sure how long that may take.  We will likely be in the hospital at least until Monday as we want them to do some follow-up scans before discharge to check the progress.

Please pray specifically for two things: (1) that the clot is dissolved quickly and she be able to eat and drink again and (2) that the clot not have been there long enough to completely cut off blood flow to the bowel which would cause death of tissue and cause a possible operation to address.

Thank you all for your prayers.  I know God is working through you because as some of you have told us when you have had prayer meetings, etc. it coincides with when something major was going on at the time that needed God's hand of protection and voice of wisdom.

Ben

Update 10/16/2017 -- A Little Longer Before Chemo

It has been a long 17 days since surgery.  We praise God that the surgeon was able to get everything and we praise God for the rapid healing that Julie experienced through the point of being discharged 10 days ago.  However, we have had some setbacks since getting home.  She developed a UTI and was proactively put on a very strong broad antibiotic, which caused major stomach issues, which is not good with some of the work she had done to her.  To make matters worse, the UTI she had turned out to be resistant to that particular antibiotic.  All of this led to her losing too much liquid and we ended up going to the ER a few days ago to get her checked out and re-hydrated.  She is now on a new antibiotic that seems to be working on the UTI and is much milder.  She is still having side-effects, but not as pronounced and bearable.  She began to progress in her healing again until Friday.

On Friday, we spent 9 hours at the hospital for post-surgery visits.  She had her follow-up with the surgeon's team, which removed the staples.  She then had to receive 2 units of blood because her hemoglobin was remaining low (it was low all along, so this was not a surprise).  She then had to get 4 immunizations because she no longer has a spleen.  We are not sure which of these (or most likely a combination of these), but it set her back again to more new pain in new areas.  The past 2 days have been pretty bad in the pain category for her.....  

Today, we had a "normal" chemo day scheduled with the Oncologist hoping to be able to start chemo.  They did blood work and then had the appointment with Dr. Colon (the Oncologist).  Her blood counts are all looking good and based on that alone she could have had chemo today.  However, Dr. Colon feels like (and we agree!) that she needs another week to continue to heal from surgery before starting chemo because healing will come much slower once chemo is started.  Based on all of this, unless there are any major setbacks, we will resume the last 9 weeks of chemo next Monday and repeat every Monday until done.  We did get a little concerned when we saw the blood-work because the CA-125 number was up, but Dr. Colon assures us that it is normal for it to do that when you have surgery.  He said people that don't have any cancer will have a higher CA-125 after a surgery and it wasn't anything to be concerned about.  He feels real good about where we are in the treatment process.

Some specific prayer points:

• For relief of some back pain Julie is having -- most likely where the epidural was given and because she is having to lay on her back so much.
• For relief of the new pains in her abdomen that we think is caused by new stretching since the staples were removed.
• For her appetite to be increased and for her to be able to retain liquids.
• For the overall healing of her body in preparation for the next half of chemo.
• For the chemo to finish doing what it needs to do.
• For Julie's emotional outlook.  She has had some pretty emotional times over everything that was done during surgery and some of the adjustments that are mostly temporary.  Of course, a lot of this is due to hormonal changes with the hormone producing parts being removed, but there are some other things that she is struggling with as well.
• For protection against infections -- her immune system will always be less now without a spleen and once she starts chemo, it will make it weaker again.
• For Sara's school -- her Hope Grant/Scholarship is at risk since we (not her) moved out of state.  Thankfully, we have a great State Representative in GA that is working on her behalf to get an exception due to the circumstances.
• For ministry decisions that have to be made -- it is complex and involves a number of people and situations -- for now just pray as several people have decisions to make and we all want a clear direction from God to stay in His will.  The ministry in Honduras will continue -- we are just trying to figure out exactly what that looks like going forward and it is impacted not just by our circumstances, but also changing circumstances in Honduras.
• For some unspoken requests for others close to us that I cannot disclose -- God will know who you are praying for :)

With Love,

Ben

We are Home

Julie continued to stay ahead of schedule on her recovery of the surgery so she was discharged this afternoon and we are home at her cousin's in Jacksonville.  She is scheduled to return next Friday (13th) to have the staples removed as well as to receive some immunizations required now that she doesn't have a spleen.  Dr. Robertson believes that as healthy as Julie is other than the cancer that she may be ready to begin the last 9 weeks of chemo on Friday, October 20th.  Dr Robertson attributed Julie's rapid recovery of such an extensive surgery as her young age, good health, and "the good Lord looking out for you."  We think it was more of the last than anything and God honoring the many prayers of his children all over that have been and continue to pray for us.

On a different note, I have a minor outpatient eye surgery as a glaucoma preventative on Friday, October 13th.  We have someone that is going to come stay with Julie while I am gone and get her to her follow up appointment to have the staples removed and the immunizations.  The eye surgeon tells me that since I am only having one eye done that I can drive myself and it won't be a problem, but Julie wants me to have someone go with me, so if any of you men have the day off on Friday, October 13th and feel like riding to Glennville and back with me that day please let me know.  I do not yet know the time -- just the day.

Update on Surgery

Throughout the day of surgery and the first couple of days afterwards I was posting updates on Facebook, but I realized today that the Facebook prioritization system caused many of you to miss some of the updates.  Therefore, so everybody is up to date I will provide a total summary here from the day of surgery through today.

When the hospital called on Thursday (9/28) to give us the surgery time, they told us to check in at the hospital at 10:00am and that we would be Dr. Robertson's 3rd and last surgery of the day (the other 2 were predictable out-patient surgeries).  We arrived on time on Friday and she was taken back and changed clothes and got all hooked up with IVs, etc.  Dr. Robertson came by around 11:30am and went over the surgery again and explained that he wanted Julie to be his last surgery so he could take whatever time he needed to make sure he got all of the cancer -- he was preparing us for a long surgery, but we didn't realize how long (neither did he).  Around noon, they took Julie back to the OR to begin to clean her and prepare her for surgery and to begin anesthesia.  At 1:55pm, we receive a call in the waiting room from the OR that actual surgery had just begun.  We didn't receive any more information until around 9:00pm when the receptionist was leaving for the day and called the OR and they confirmed that she was still in surgery and that Dr. Robertson would come talk to us as soon as he was finished.  Around 9:30pm, Dr. Robertson came out and briefed us on the surgery and said that his team was completing the installation of the J trap drains, and sewing her up and would be moving her to ICU and that we should go to the ICU waiting room and wait for them to let us know when she was in ICU and what the procedure would be for when we could see her, etc.  Based on what Dr. Robertson had said he had done in the surgery and the time of the day it was, we assumed we would not get to see her, but would just get information.  At around 11:30pm, the ICU nurse came out and said she was awake and asking for us.  It turns out she had arrived in the ICU not long after Dr. Robertson had talked with us, but they had spent 2 hours trying to stabilize her vital signs.  Mayo allowed Betty (a close friend and nurse) to spend the night with her in the ICU, which is absolutely unheard of in most hospitals.

Dr. Robertson had previously had Julie sign the consent of treatment, which had a fairly long list of possible things he could have to do in surgery (even though he didn't expect to do them all), and then a catch-all of "and anything else I have to do to get all of the cancer and to keep you alive."  Without going into all of the details of what was done during the surgery, I will just say that I think there was only one thing on his fairly-exhaustive list that he didn't have to do and he did have to do one that was in the "whatever is necessary......." catch-all clause.  During the 7 1/2 hour surgery, Julie lost 3 liters of blood and was given 8 units plus platelets, and blood volume builder (I don't know the technical name of it).  The most important thing about the surgery though is that Dr. Robertson was able to achieve the R0 resection, which is a technical way of saying that he was able to find and remove all of the cancer that was large enough to be seen with the naked eye.  There are no more tumors or cancer deposits, but there are still cancer cells, which is why she has to have 9 more weeks of  chemo before they scan to see if she is in remission.

Julie stayed in ICU about 21 hours.  About 16 hours after arriving in the ICU, they had her standing up and moving her to a recliner chair, but it was a very difficult move and it was all Julie could do to stand for the few minutes it took them to move the bed and put the chair behind her.  After getting in a regular room late Saturday afternoon, they worked further to get her up and walking.  On Sunday, she walked down the hall three times and on Monday she walked the full "block" around our part of the floor of the hospital and then walked 2 more times with a regular walker instead of the platform walker.  As of tonight (10/2/2017), she has had most of the tubes, etc. removed.  This afternoon was the first she was able to eat or drink anything other than a very limited number of ice chips.  All of her digestive system finally started working again today, which made today the most difficult day because suddenly gases and digestive juices are flowing through a very raw digestive system that has been cut on, pulled on, poked on sewed on, etc.  The doctors are very happy with her progress, but she has a long way to go.

I think my Facebook posts have confused a few people a little as I have chosen to emphasize the positive more than the negative.  The positive is that it was a successful surgery in that they were able to remove the cancer.  It is also positive that each time I have reported something it was a normal step in recovery that occurred either on a normal schedule or ahead of schedule.  This means when I say she is doing "great" it means she is on a normal recovery schedule or better.  However, my positive comments do not mean she is without pain or that there is anything about this that was easy or will be easy.  Recovery was originally anticipated to be 4 to 6 weeks, but now just one part of it is typically 8 to 10 weeks without the delay in healing caused by chemo, which has to be restarted at some point.  My positive comments does not mean she isn't on an emotional roller-coaster of having to learn to deal with the realities of some of the things she will now have to deal with as a result of some of the things that had to be done in surgery and of having to take longer to recover.  When I am positive in my comments, I am giving God the praise He is due for the work He has done and continues to do to her body and I am not dwelling on the things that we will have to deal with or the difficulties and adjustments she and I both have to make.

We don't know yet how long we will be in the hospital.  Dr. Robertson had told us Friday night after the surgery to expect at least 10 days.  After we leave the hospital we should have a home health nurse come to the house every 3 to 5 days for some length of time.  As of right now, I really cannot leave the room for more than a couple of minutes unless somebody else is here with her.  This means that I am coordinating with close friends and family that are wanting to visit to have them come on different days so they won't overwhelm her with too much at once and also so that they can stay with her long enough for me to go get a shower and grab a bite to eat each afternoon or evening.  We also do not yet know when chemo will begin again -- it was originally scheduled for 10/16, but that was "iffy" anyway as it was originally based on a 9/25 surgery date and Dr. Colon had already said it was possible we would have to push it back a week.  However, pushing it back one week was not assuming such a difficult surgery to heal from so we will have to wait and see.

We thank you for your prayers and messages of encouragement.  Julie is not quite in the frame of mind to be on Facebook yet, so please give her grace if you are messaging her there.

Ben

Why?

One of the hardest things I have ever faced in life is watching those that I love the most suffer.  It is human nature to try to understand it, but it is so often not understandable.  Sometimes we may get a glimpse of some of the reasons in the future, but often we never know.  I have had several conversations with people or seen posts recently where people are asking the question of why would a loving God allow tragedy or serious illness to attack someone who seems to be doing exactly what God wants him or her to do?  What happened to Romans 8:28, where God says that He causes all things to work together for the good of those that love Him?  If I am being totally transparent, this don’t feel “good” sometimes.  What about when God said he would never leave us nor forsake us?  Doesn’t this sometimes feel like we have been abandoned?  I remember a gunman coming into our church (Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas) and killing several very dedicated young men and women, some of which were training to go to the foreign mission field.  How can a loving God who has all authority allow such a thing to happen to such a committed person?  If God is all powerful, how can He allow His own plans to be interrupted by calamity or disease?  People that are close to me have had false accusations made against them and it has turned their lives upside down.  Where is the justice in that?  Cancer and other major illnesses have invaded the lives of several people that are close to me that seem so innocent.  In some cases God chose to heal them here on earth and in other cases God chose to heal them by taking the home.  In some cases there continues a long, hard fought battle against this awful disease.  God has taught me that it is okay to ask questions.  Sometimes the healing of our emotions requires us to ask the why questions, but we can’t get stuck there.  You see, God already knows your thoughts so you might as well have the conversation with Him and voice them so He can work in your lives to heal them.

Have I asked why Julie has cancer when we were right in the middle of doing His will?  You better believe I have.  I have asked God that question several times.  Every time I do, instead than getting an answer I get a peace that cannot be explained.  You see, God wants us to have faith in HIM, not in His ability to heal us or what He does for us.  I do believe that God will heal Julie here on this earth and we will be back on the mission field in Honduras, but if He doesn’t choose to heal her that way, God is still good and worthy of worship and praise simply because of who He is.

God is not the cause of bad things or of evil – those things exists in the world because Adam and Even brought sin into the world, but God does not always intervene to prevent bad things from happening to people.

Now back to Romans 8:28…… “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28, NASB)”.  The problem with our understanding of this verse is that we tend to define anything that doesn’t go the way we think it should as “bad” or “evil” and anything that goes the way we think it should as “good”.  Our definition of good and bad is all centered around us personally and those that we know and love.  But John 3:16 says that “For God so loved the world……”.  We should think of Romans 8:28 more like this….. “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to ALL those who love God, to ALL those who are called according to His purpose…..”  The Bible reminds us everywhere that the earth is no longer our home – our home and our citizenship is in heaven.  No matter how many years we live here, it is but a blink of the eye compared to eternity.  God knows everything about everybody and He is always at work to bring people to himself or to draw his children back to fellowship with him.  He will do or allow whatever He has to (including the crucifixion of his own Son) to make things work together for good  of those who love Him, as He defines good, not as we define it.  We don’t know and often never know how the “bad” things that happen to us bring about good somewhere else, but God does.  I cannot answer why God couldn’t or wouldn’t just bring about that same good without allowing the bad, but I still choose to worship and adore Him.  We don’t get to define good and evil – anything of God is good and anything in opposition to Him is bad and it is that simple.

So while I feel the pain of watching my bride of 25+ years suffer through surgery, chemo and hair loss and whatever else she will go through as we endure this, I can honestly say as the writer of a wonderful hymn penned, “It is well with my soul”.  Why?  Because I KNOW that God is love and loves me, Julie, and our entire family (the whole world actually…) with all his heart.  I KNOW that God knows everything and therefore He knows what is best in every circumstance.  I KNOW that God is all powerful – He is still on the throne and nothing can happen without him authorizing it.  I can think of no better place to be than under the protective wing of an all-loving, all-knowing, all-powerful God who I can have confidence will do the absolute best for us.

To His Glory!

Ben

7/18/2017 Update (PET Scan and Port Placement)

This morning is when we were scheduled to have the PET scan and I know many of you are waiting on a report of the results.  Late yesterday afternoon, after discussion with the Oncologist, we decided to postpone the PET scan from today to August 8th and postpone the port placement from 7/25 to 8/3.  The PET scan was originally critical due to the thought that we didn't know the primary source, but now that we know it is Ovarian cancer, the PET scan don't become as important until after the initial treatment of the primary.  The Port is needed because she cannot get so many treatments through IV over the long haul.  However, postponing it will only cause one additional treatment through IV.  Dr. Kasi assured us that neither of these things would in any way decrease his effectiveness on treating her so we made the decision to postpone them until we have insurance in August.  These decisions saved over $26,000.  There is no monetary value of Julie's life and we would never make a decision to save money that would limit in any way her ability to be treated, but the Dr. assured us it was not a problem and we felt like to be good stewards of the very generous gifts we have received to help with our medical expenses we needed to postpone these two items.

All this really means is that we have to wait until after August 8th to know for sure whether cancer is in other parts of her body, but knowing it at this time wouldn't help us in any way anyway, so we will be patient and wait.

With Much Love,
Ben

A quick note from Julie ...

Well I have made it past the 1st treatment.  I am thrilled to report that this time the only side effect I had was extreme fatigue.  I did not have any nausea.  Today I felt the best I have felt since surgery 4 weeks ago.  Ben and I even walked around the duck pond in our neighborhood 2 times.  So while I'm not planning a 5K anytime soon, it did feel great to get outside and walk around.

All of our kids came by yesterday for a visit, and brought me the sweetest gift.  A family photobook. Each child took the time to add their favorite pics, scripture verse and a sweet note to me.  How sweet and special they have all been.  I also got some extra goodies that will help pass the chemo time away.

And you folks out there--how precious you are to me.  I know of three t-shirt fundraisers, and the gofundme that are helping to help with our finances.  Yall--God does make a way!  And a big thanks for all the gifts that have been given to us through a variety of places.  We are so blessed to be loved by many.

Thanks for the words of encouragement, prayers, cards and belief!

We are believing for a miracle,

Julie

7/15/2017 Update

Julie had her first treatment of Chemotherapy Friday morning as scheduled.  Her body has responded well to it so far -- we have no way of knowing yet how the cancer itself is responding yet.  She has not experienced any major side effects yet,  but Sunday is supposed to be the worse day.  As of right now she is scheduled to have the treatment every Friday for 2 to 3 months followed by a likely surgery to remove the tumors from the pelvic area.  Once we get the results of the PET scan that will be done on Tuesday, July 18th, there is a possibility of adjusting the drugs and schedule, but for now it will be a weekly treatment.  The doctor is giving a lower dose every week instead of a higher dose every 3 weeks.  She is not expected to experience the worse side effects until around the 3rd week as many of the side effects are cumulative in their effects.

The doctor's office also called yesterday to let us know that they have decided to postpone the genetic sequencing blood test until after our insurance becomes effective on August 1st because the cost of that one test was around $4,000.  He said waiting a few weeks on that would not matter because it was more important for decisions in the treatment of the tumors that are not in the pelvic area -- right now he is focusing on the ovarian cancer as that is apparently the primary.  Our doctor is being great about helping us manage costs when a slight delay in something has no impact on treatment, but he is also working with us to be aggressive on the things where time is critical.

Praise -- we also go the J-P Drain removed today.  Our family doctor in Honduras talked with the surgeon in Honduras and told us what we needed to do to get it out.

We are overwhelmed by the messages and notes of encouragement and prayer as well as the fundraisers and donations that people are doing to help us with the financial side of this.  We have received verbal estimates of most of the procedures that we have had or will have before insurance becomes effective, but will share the details once we getting more firm written numbers.  Because so many people have and continue to give sacrificially to help meet these financial needs we want to be completely transparent in how the money is being (or will be) spent.  Based on the information we have now, we believe the total that we will be responsible for will be somewhere in the $50,000 range.

Ben

Hannah and Sara Homecoming

After 18 hours on airplanes over a 26 hour period, we were all very glad to arrive in Jacksonville International Airport Last night at 9:17pm.  Me, Julie, Zach, and Leighanne were ready to be home and sleep in our own beds, drink pure water, eat familiar foods, and see Austin and Jordan for the first time in over 3 weeks.  Sara and Hannah were excited to meet their other two older brothers for the first time.

So, when we walked out of the security gate at JAX, we knew it would be emotional with Nana, Papa, Austin, and Jordan waiting to greet us.  What we didn't expect was so many of our friends and church family from Victory Baptist Church also being their to greet us.  We also learned that some that couldn't be there physically were "stalking" our flights watching every moment on Facebook waiting on others to post pictures and video of our first moments back home.  We were also surprised that our friend Bailin was also there to greet us and bring us cookies (something you cannot get in China easily).  Bailin and his wife Yan is the wonderful couple that we met a couple of months ago that is from China originally and have generously volunteered to help with translation, etc. to get the girls transitioned into their new family.  We were overjoyed by such an outpouring of people who were there during the week with work and school the next day.  We were also overjoyed by those who followed us and wanted to be there but couldn't.  Words truly cannot describe the emotions and feelings that accompany having such a group of people at the airport to greet you when you are bringing a new member into the family.

Here is a video that Mrs. Sheila made of the first moments as well as some pictures that Bailin took for us.  Thanks to both of you for capturing these moments for us and sharing them with us.

WE ARE HOME!

Praise the Lord we are home with our two new American Citizens!

Ben

Our Flight into Jacksonville

We are sitting at our gate in Hong Kong waiting to board our flight to Detroit any minute.  For anyone who is interested.... our final leg of the flight is Delta Flight 735 from Atlanta to Jacksonville arriving in Jacksonville at 8:44pm.

Ben

We are in Hong Kong

We arrived in Hong Kong this afternoon.  We will eat an early breakfast in the morning, check out, and head across the parking lot to the airport for a 9:45am flight to Detroit.  In just 12 hours we will be sitting on an airplane waiting for it to take off for our first of 3 flights to get home.

Sara has already had a small dose of what it is going to be like when she gets home.  When we checked in at the hotel here in Hong Kong she tried to talk to the lady checking us in using Chinese and the lady kept saying, "I am sorry but I do not speak Chinese."

BTW, Sara has now decided that she is ready to be called Sara instead of Song Yan.

I look forward with great anticipation for the next post that we can post that says, "we have arrived home"!

Ben

Consulate Appointment Completed

We completed our consulate appointment this morning around 9:30am.  They consulate told us that the visas should be ready tomorrow morning around 10:30am.  We are currently scheduled on the 4:56pm train out of Guangzhou to Hong Kong, but our guide is currently trying to get it changed to an earlier departure so we won't get to Hong Kong so late.  AMENDMENT:  We are departing on the 12:12pm train to Hong Kong.

Since we were up o early this morning we came back to the hotel for a late breakfast buffet then went up to the room and crashed for a while.  I ventured out to a very local restaurant this afternoon to buy a bunch of dumplings for 12 RMB (about $2 USD) for an early supper.

We also learned late this morning that Julie's cousin in Jacksonville passed away on Saturday with liver cancer.  Please pray for the Bonn family with their loss.  It is times like this that you really miss being at home so you can be there to be with the family.

Ben

TB Tests were Negative

Woo hoo -- both TB tests were negative so no chest x-rays required!  We have a meeting with our guide tonight to get all of the paperwork ready for tomorrow morning's Consulate Appointment.

Ben

Only 4 shots required

Praise the Lord!  I don't like that we had to give even 4 shots, but Praise the Lord only 4 were required for Sara so it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.  They excluded a series of shots because her blood-work showed that she had the antibodies which indicated that she had had the immunizations in the past.

Tomorrow we will go to a Christian Church on Shaman Island and then do some shopping for a few hours.

On Monday we will go back to have the TB Skin test read.  Please pray that it is negative so we won't have to deal with the chest x-rays and the stress that would go with that.

Tuesday we have our Consulate Appointment.

Wednesday afternoon we should get out visas for the girls and be on our way to Hong Kong by Train.

I can see the light in the end of the tunnel now!

Although we have had our moments, this has been a great experience that I wouldn't trade for anything.

I know we still owe you a blog entry for 2 days ago.  It probably won't happen tonight (but it might),  but I will give you a hint...... We had the awesome privilege of going to visit a Foster Home near Fuzhou that is for extreme special needs children and run by a couple from Florida.  This blog may take a little while for us to write because we obviously have to figure out what we can and cannot tell you about the visit, but it would be an under-statement to say that God is at work here.

Ben

Sara's Paperwork has been corrected

We just got word from our guide that Sara's paperwork has been corrected and she has it.  We are still waiting on the passport, but we didn't expect to get it until tomorrow anyway so we are back on track.  Thank you for your prayers.

Ben