Jesus Take Care of Joey

Dear, sweet Joey has gone home to be with Jesus. Here is what his dad said on his CaringBridge page:

Joey finally met in person (face to face) the person he's loved, trusted, admired, talked to, talked about, and worshipped for years, Jesus, tonight, at 9:35p. Buddy, you loved that song, I'll fly away....you beat me there. Which is not the way it's supposed to be. I will be there soon. I never knew I could love someone like I loved you, son. My heart will be broken until I see you again. You are awesome. I told you often how much I loved you and thought of you. I can only hope to run a race as strong, and focused, and effective as you. In spiritual terms, I look up to you. I love you and am a fractured, torn up person without you. I'll never be right. But I will see you soon. One more time, "Dad thinks you are awesome! You make me happy! I am so proud of you." I'm coming buddy. Pray for me.

Please be in prayer for the family during this very sad time. Thanks!

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 NIV
Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Blessings,
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Cancer Stinks!

Proverbs 4:20-22 NIV

My son, pay attention to what I say;

    turn your ear to my words.

Do not let them out of your sight,

    keep them within your heart;

for they are life to those who find them

    and health to one’s whole body.

Joey Needs a ton of prayer right now as he has taken a turn for the worse. Taken from CaringBridge site.

...things have gotten progressively worse over the last two weeks. What a nightmare. We wanted to again ask for your prayers. Joey can barely communicate w/us, is very tired (from having to breath so fast) and is having trouble breathing (labored). We need God to intervene and stop what otherwise will be a horrific next few days. There are some signs that it might be hours not days. ...

Jordan is in hospice house and is losing the feeling in his legs. Below is taken directly from his blog.

...The reason we came to Canuck Place was to explore two options for pain management until Jordan's healing. Both are harsh but one has become dangerous due to the seemingly rapid progression of numbness throughout his body.  So in many ways we are backed into a corner....

...And what we had thought would be a few days, (I packed for 5 to be on the safe side) suddenly has no end in sight...that all by itself was a tough one....

...In a text I received this morning, Reece asked me if I was scared.  And I was surprised, after checking, that I was more mad/frustrated than scared.  For crying out loud, he just wants to sit up or lie on his side.  And late last night and this morning, eating became increasingly difficult, stealing some of the joy from one of his few pleasures.  This is wrong on soo many levels....

Lucy has been pretty sick and so her scans were canceled  I am not sure when they are going to do them as there has been no information put up yet. 

Scarlett will be having surgery to remove this unknown mass from her brain after the American Thanksgiving. Click on her name to go to her blog and check out the scans. Please pray this is nothing to be of concern. 

Joy had a set back. The following is taken directly from her Facebook page...

Joy is back on the ventilator. She was working very hard to breathe and her sats were getting low. While we are disappointed at this step back, we are not discouraged. We know who holds her future and He will never leave us alone. 

We are blessed.

Please keep these children in your prayers. God is listening and we just need to keep on pressing in with faith. Thanks!!

On another note please keep Israel and her leaders in your prayers as there is now a chance of a 7 weeks war to happen. Check out the post from Joel Rosenberg. Below is taken from the post.

...Israel's Home Front Command has been ordered to tell the nation to prepare for 7 weeks of war.

75,000 IDF reserve soldiers are definitely being called up for action -- up from 30,000 on Thursday, and 16,000 on Wednesday. ...

God Bless,

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Urgent Prayer

URGENT PRAYER NEEDED FOR JOEY AND JOY.

Please see the prayer page for details. Thank you! 

Psalm 68:20 NASB 

God is to us a God of deliverances;

And to GOD the Lord belong escapes from death.

Praying and praying!

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In Need Tonight! UPDATED Joey & Ian

Ian is in need of prayer tonight as he just had some important scans done. Please pray with me that this cancer is gone!! If you feel led, head over to his mom's blog, An Ordinary Mom, and give her some encouragement as she is trying not to be worried.

UPDATED: Ian's scans were stable! Now praying for the next step. Thank You GOD! :)

Joey is having more issues from this cancer. Below is taken from his CaringBridge site.

To boil this down, it seems like the evidence is pointing toward the cancer causing this. If its something else, they aren't telling us. Results of MRI (4p today) come in the morning I guess. Couldn't find a kidney stone but urine/bladder is filled w/amorphous debris. Microscopic (irregular shaped) crystals, as I understand it. Could cause problems and irritation, but not keep him from emptying his bladder. Preliminary results say he does not have bladder infection. Formal results in morning. So every, literally 5 minutes he grabs himself and asks us to get the urinal, and then either tiny bit drains out, or nothing. He is miserable. And I'm losing my mind. I can deal with almost anything in life, and have been through some stuff. What I cannot deal with is him suffering. Can NOT. Urology resident said they won't cath him again until 300 cc's. he's in torment at 75cc. We're doing another bladder scan now. Thx for prayers. Desperately needed.

UPDATED
My posts moving forward are probably going to be just medical facts and updates. For a bunch of reasons, but primarily bc this is heart wrenching, is the spiritual battle of my life, and extremely personal. The MRI showed "a lot" more cancer (in comparison to the one a month ago), all over his brain, and down his spine. She thought maybe his (still) high heart rate was from a new lesion or cluster on his brain stem. We are waiting to hear more, as far as medical options, if there are any. I will post more as I know more. 

THANK YOU for praying!! 

Psalm 27:3,5,13-14 NIV

Though an army besiege me,

    my heart will not fear;

though war break out against me,

    even then I will be confident.

For in the day of trouble

    he will keep me safe in his dwelling;

he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent

    and set me high upon a rock.

I remain confident of this:

    I will see the goodness of the Lord

    in the land of the living.

 Wait for the Lord;

    be strong and take heart

    and wait for the Lord.

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Praise to God

A prayer request and some praise reports

Psalm 68:19 NIV

Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior,

    who daily bears our burdens.

Information from: Chelle's email concerning Wayne, Joy's Facebook page, Joey's CaringBridge page.

PRAY

Wayne:  

He has been having radiation and will actually be done with it on the 8th. But for right now it is making him sick and unable to eat much. They are hitting the cancer hard and some of the lymph nodes are right beside the esophagus. Sometime in mid December they will do a pet scan to see how things are going. Wayne could really use some prayer today as he is having a hard time right now. 

Thank you Chelle for keeping us up to date.

PRAISE

Joy:

Thank you all so much for your love, support, prayers, and encouragement. We are humbled by the way our God is using our little girl. Your stories and words speak to our hearts everyday. We are blessed!

Joy is doing well enough for them to try to wean her off of the bypass (ECMO) machine. They have just started doing this now. Please continue to pray for our Joy, we can SEE GOD in this room!

Joey:

•he has had no more seizures!

• (consequently) sodium holding strong at high 130's with last reading at 140. Really good!

•we just moved back over out of PICU to HemOnc floor. Always the last stop before heading home

We still have concerns and he has benchmarks we need to hit before anybody feels comfortable taking him home, but we are certainly moving in the right direction. 

...Thank you TEAM JOEY for praying for us. 

Psalm 103:1-5 NIV

Praise the Lord, my soul;

    all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

Praise the Lord, 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.

Thank you for reading and joining in to pray for these sweet, precious people. 

If My People 2012

Click on the link above and join in with Joel Rosenberg for a 5 minute prayer for Israel. God tells us to pray for the peace of Israel and I found this a neat, quick way to join in with millions to pray for God's chosen people. 

Psalm 122:6-9 NIV

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:

    “May those who love you be secure.

May there be peace within your walls

    and security within your citadels.”

For the sake of my family and friends,

    I will say, “Peace be within you.”

For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,

    I will seek your prosperity.

Blessings,

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