Challenging days and choosing life!!

Bob's blood work following the stent surgery hasn't shown any improvement in his kidney function, however after three days he's been feeling some better.

Yesterday morning I drove Barbie to the airport at 7:00 am and when I got home around 8:30, Bob was in the bathroom getting ready for church!!!!

Pastor Brian's been preaching a sermon series on the Psalms and he gave an excellent sermon on Psalm 121 entitled "TRUE SECURITY: Serving Notice on Fear". It was expecially encouraging as we've been frustrated at the seeming inability to move Bob towards dialysis, which we understand is suffering a shortage of availability right now in the Vancouver area.

Not only was Bob able to go to church, but we met some friends at a restaurant in the evening--and Bob even drove!!! I've done almost all of the driving for the past six months.

Then this morning we were talking about what we sense to already be places of healing in Bob's body. It's amazing that he has NO pain--just terrible fatigue because of his kidney dysfunction!! We're convinced that God has touched him in part and we need to do all we can to cooperate with what the Lord, diet, and treatments are already doing. He's decided to "push" himself to be more active (whether he feels like it or not!!) I think that today he's had a bit of an epiphany that goes something like this--"Well, since I'm alive, I'd better get on with living!!"

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I want to share something regarding my brother Jim. It's hard to believe, but five days after he returned home after his week with us, he himself got a diagnosis of cancer!!!! Before I go into more detail I'll let you know that his prognosis is pretty good, but the tumour is malignant!!

He'd been having some difficulty eating (even though he ate two dozen butter tarts when he was here!!), feeling that the food was having trouble going down before it got to his stomach. He was having a few tests but wasn't overly concerned about it. He also had lost about 20 pounds in the past few months. He thought it was because he was watching what he was eating and also bicycling about four times a week for 20 miles or more.

He had a CT scan and endoscopy two days after he returned to California, and last Monday got the diagnosis of "gastro-esophogeal cancer". Many more tests were done last week and he saw an oncologist on Friday who gave him some comforting news that it hasn't spread anywhere else in his body. The plan is to do surgery and chemo, however the chemo may come first in this case.

Jim's on a strict diet right now--eating mostly "soft" food--for obvious reasons. And when he was with us he learned a lot about fighting cancer nutritionally so is attempting to eat only food that will strengthen his own immune system to fight the cancer.

One of the hardest things for Jim was telling Dad and Mom, especially since they carry such a deep concern for us and have their own health needs at ages 88 and 89. But by Saturday, when he drove out to Palm Springs to visit them, he was able to tell them that his cancer is treatable.

Dad and Mom phone us every evening and pray with us before they go to bed and we've decided we need to have a family "conference call" every night to include us all. What a WONDERFUL way to end each day--safe in our Father's loving hands!!

Thanks so much for your love and prayers for us and I know Jim would appreciate your prayers too.