Thank You!

Thank you all for your prayers, emails, comments, text messages, and phone calls. It means so much to us all! I am so glad to be home and to have received such wonderful news! To say that I feel relieved is an understatement. The final results were the same as the preliminary results so we are ecstatic. I am so grateful that God has continued to keep His healing hand on my baby. Please continue to pray for her!

I will post some pictures and more details from our trip soon.

No Tumor Growth!!

Morgan wanted me to let everyone know the preliminary results show the tumor has not grown. They will get the final results on Friday but they should be the same. She will post more once they know everything.
Thank you again for keeping up with Abby's progress and for your prayers for their family.

Not Snow Fun, Please Pray

OK, now I hate the snow! I couldn't believe that it actually snowed last night, throwing a wrench in our plans. I feel like the devil is really working hard this week on our family!

To update everyone-Jason left yesterday for Kentucky for work and he is flying to Memphis to meet up with us Tuesday night. Abby and I were supposed to leave tomorrow morning for our first day of appointments. The snow has changed all of that. I am afraid the road conditions will be worse in the morning so my stepdad is driving us to Memphis this afternoon. I am scrambling to keep the girls occupied and pack all of our bags. And now I will be in Memphis without a vehicle. But since it is snowing, I wouldn't be going anywhere.

My stress level is about as high as it can get and our family needs prayer. It is hard for Jason to be gone when all this craziness is going on here and it is hard for me to juggle everything. Plus, the anxiety of the MRI is weighing very heavy on me. I want everyone to pray for our family, that we will make it through this week.

I will have my sister in law update the blog when we know the results of the MRI.

Snow Fun!

I can't believe there is still snow on the ground! The girls have had a good time with all this snow. We have been able to go sledding, make snow angels, and build a few snowmen. We have also had some cabin fever too! I am glad we don't live where it is like this all winter! I am so tired of wet boots, clothes, mittens, hats, and coats!

I thought I would share some pictures of the girls enjoying the snow!

Please keep praying for us and the upcoming MRI. We will leave early Tuesday morning and be gone until Friday night. It is going to be a stressful week and we need all the divine intervention we can get.

Upcoming Appointments

Our next round of appointments at St. Jude are coming up soon. This time we will be there for 4 days. They begin on February 9th. The MRI is on the 10th. Please begin praying now that there will be no change on the MRI. Pray that God will keep His healing hands on Abby and that her body will fight off tumor growth. Pray that all the other appointments and blood work go well also. Pray for Jason and I, that we will lay our worries and fears at Jesus feet and not carry so much anxiety with us in the days leading up to that MRI. I can't begin to express how hard it is the last few weeks, and especially the last few days, leading up to the MRI. Pray that we will feel strengthened and at peace. Pray for Lyla as she will be away from us for several days. Pray that she enjoys herself and does not feel left out.

For all of you that still read this blog and keep up with Abby's progress, thank you! Thank you for continuing to pray for her. It means so much!

God's Word

Our journey began at Arkansas Children's Hospital. We were there for 8 days and during that time I realized that the only words that brought me or Jason comfort were the words of the Lord, the Bible. The most eloquent spokesman could speak words of comfort all day and it still doesn't have the same affect as reading a passage of scriptures in your Bible and knowing that God put them there for you.

Abby had 2 MRIs during our first stay at ACH. The first one was when we found our about the "lesion" (they didn't know what it was then) and the second one was to see if there had been any change and to do some different kinds of imaging to get a better look at the "lesion". I was anxious all that day, waiting for that MRI. We were praying that the anti-viral medicine they gave her had "fixed" her lesion and that there would be nothing on the MRI, but the doctors were less sure it was a viral infection and more sure it was a tumor. This MRI would tell us for sure (we thought). The morning of that MRI, Jason had a message on his phone from a fellow church member, listing some verses that we might find helpful. We looked them up, wrote them down, and read them over and over. I started searching for more verses to help me make sense of what was happening. I spent all day searching and writing. I had a notebook there with me and I filled pages and pages up with verses. During the MRI, I read them over and over and over.

Those verses that our brother in Christ left on our phone meant more to us and brought us more comfort than any words he could have spoken. For some reason, we (me included) want someone or something to help us with our problems but we overlook the best source to help us with all our needs, God's word.

I keep those verses in my Bible. I have many of them memorized now. When you go through trials and tribulations in your life, the Bible becomes even more alive, even more relevant. A verse you have read over and over suddenly has a deep and profound meaning. Those verses are real to me and I feel closer to the Lord when I read them. I know He had me in mind when He inspired them to be penned.

If you feel troubled today, grab your Bible. Pray that God would lead you to a passage that will help you. If someone you love is hurting, write down some of your favorite verses and share it with them.

Outside the Snow is Falling..

Abby was so excited that it snowed! She has had a blast sledding, making snow angels, and eating icicles! Lyla, on the other hand, would rather be somewhere warm. Thought I would share a few pictures of them enjoying the snow!

Starting soon, I plan to post about the very beginning of our journey in greater detail. I didn't start blogging until after we went to Houston which was about 3 weeks into it. I am mainly doing this for myself. I want to write about it now before I forget anything. I plan for this blog to be a record for Abby when she gets older so she can see what she went through and how far she has come. And I want to do this for all of you who read about Abby. Some of you may not know much about how this all started. I will write as often as I can until I am done telling the story.

Hope you all are staying warm!

Note added on Friday, January 6, 2010: I did post about the first few days of our journey but knew I wouldn't be able to finish it. I don't know why, but it didn't feel like the right thing to do. I removed the post and won't be telling that part of the story any time soon. I think it is too soon and too personal. So sorry.