One Week Down....

Stacey sent out an email update last night and gave me permission to share it with you, my sweet family and friends, my prayer warriors.


From Stace, written Sunday night

**********

There's No Place Like Home!!!

Yes, we're back home in our own beds. The Dr. decided to let us come home on Saturday night instead of Monday afternoon since Josh was doing so well with the chemo treatments. We still have to go back for another Spinal Tap on Monday, but we were sure glad for an early release.

The nurses and Doctors at Children's Hospital have been phenomenal. We couldn't ask for a better team of people to be caring for Josh.

Josh slept a whopping 12 straight hours last night and he's feeling great this afternoon. Again, we owe it to all of the prayers and the goodness of God.

Several people have asked how this will effect us financially. We wanted to let all of you know that we have awesome coverage from Blue Cross. In fact, they are covering nearly 100% of the treatment!!!! This has just been another blessing from the Lord for which we are so thankful.

Again, we want to thank everyone for the meals, visits, phone calls, emails, books, articles, Starbucks and PRAYER. There were also some very busy little bee's taking care of our home, dogs, lawn, shopping, taking Jessica to functions, baking granola, running errands, and a million other things. What a blessing you have all been to us.

We are watching over Joshua very closely now that we're home, waiting for any signs of infection or mouth sores. We have been instructed to head straight back to the hospital if anything develops over 101.5 degrees. This seems to be quite a common occurrence, so we hope that he can beat those statistics! In the meantime, he's happy to be back with his dogs, favorite blankets, books and nobody trying to take his blood pressure :)

With many thanks,

Mike, Stacey, Jessica and Joshua

***********

And here is the young man himself. Looking mighty fine, don't you think?

Be Strong and Courageous!

I bought 250 custom silicone bracelets to sell as a fund raiser for Josh. Aren't they cool?! It says "JOSHUA" on one side and on the opposite side it says "Duet. 31:6". Duet. 31:6 is 'be strong and courageous..'.

We are selling them for $5.00 each and all the proceeds will go directly to our friends to help them along the way. My children and I are so excited about these bracelets. We call them prayer bracelets. It's our reminder to pray 24/7 for Josh.

warning soap box:

Sure, we could have worn the very popular yellow Livestrong bracelets but I don't feel like supporting Lance Armstrong. He believes that he beat cancer all on his own, with his own power and strength. We're different here. We recognize all things are from the hand of God, good and bad, and we will praise our Savior for whatever the outcome. We will give all glory to God who is so deserving. We will never forget His goodness to Josh and I know that Josh will proclaim God's goodness, grace and mercy all the days of his life. So blue it is!

off soap box

Be strong and courageous Josh. We love you and pray for you 24/7 buddy!
Mrs. W.

Conquering Cancer

A very creative and thoughtful friend of our family and Josh's family decided that Josh needed to go back to Phoenix Children's in style. This is what showed up in front of his house to give him a ride.



Can you make that out? It's a monster truck limo! He is standing at the top with the orange shirt on and those are his friends who escorted him to the hospital. They all piled inside; Josh, his friends, his parents and our friend who organized the whole thing. On the way down to the hospital they played games. One game involved a spoon, a pingpong and a cup and the other was similar to "Fear Factor" where if a child got a question wrong they had to eat from a cup of vegetable goolash. (Josh's family has begun juicing vegetables and that's where that game came from, see, I told you he was creative!)

Josh has had two good days down at the hospital. Today could be tough and the family would covet your prayers for him.

Please pray that his body handles the chemo well and that it is effective. Please pray for the doctors and nurses that care for Josh. Please thank God for the many blessings our friends are receiving! Pray for his parents, that they would be able to handle the next several months with the abundent grace of God.

Thank you!

One Hot Mama

Yup, that's me!

It has been blazing hot these last few days. Yesterday the high in Glendale was 115 degrees and our low for the night was a record high low, if you know what I mean, 93 degrees. Our air conditioner does not turn off during the afternoon heat, it just runs and runs and runs. Yesterday I actually turned the temperature up so the unit could have a rest.

Today will be more of the same. I think I'll go out early and grab a few movies for the kids. Can you believe our pool is uncomfortably warm and the kids won't swim right now? Terrible. I have an idea and I'll let you know if I do it....I want to grab several bags of ice from the store and dump them in the pool. Don't you think it would be fun to swim with ice. I think it would be refreshing.

Thank you Lord for AC and a roof over my head.

The Peoria Pyros!

You probably already know how much I like the Pyromaniacs site. It is a daily stop for me and if the comments are flowing I return many times to check-in. The four Pyros are great. They are theological deep, witty, charming (?), intelligent and oh so funny! I have been known to laugh out loud on many occasions. One thing I don't know about Phil Johnson and his gang is if they can cook!?

Let me tell you about some real life pyromaniacs that are cooking up a storm. They are the Peoria, Arizona Fire Department pyromaniacs! (Josh's dad has been with the department for 20 years). Ever since my friends returned home from the hospital with their 12 year old son, Joshua (recently diagnosed with cancer) the Peoria Pyros have been cooking for them. So far they have provided chili, beef brisket/roast and last night my friends enjoyed chicken enchiladas. They have set up a schedule and several different stations are providing the dinners. Firemen know food! And apparently they know GOOD food.

Firemen also appear to have very big and generous hearts. My friends are overwhelmed by this gesture of kindness. The Peoria Pyros send Josh's dad an email and let him know whose bringing what and when. They won't take no for an answer. Wives of firemen are showing up with groceries and the department has made arrangements at the hospital so my friends don't have to pay for food at the cafeteria. Now that's what I call community and selfless love.

It is wonderful to sit back and watch this community pull together for Josh and his family.

These Peoria Pyros are my new heroes, sorry Phil. :)

Joshua

I have permission to fill you in on the details so here goes.....

Josh has Burkitt's lymphoma, a non-Hodkins lymphoma

Monday night he was taken to Phoenix Children's Hospital

After many consultations and second opinions, surgery was performed on Tuesday and the doctors found a 2 inch tumor in, on, or around his intestines. They removed a few inches of his intestines and the whole tumor. It was determined while he was in surgery that the tumor was malignant and the cancer had affected his lymphnodes in the abdomen.

You can read all about Burkitt's here, but I will tell you that it is a very aggressive cancer and must be treated aggressively and quickly.

Now the good news!!

The cancer has NOT SPREAD to any other part of his body. Praise the Lord!! This poor boy has had every test known to man and no cancer has been found except in the local area it originally affected. The doctor said that this only occurs in 25% of the cases. In other words, the doctors were expecting to find it in the bone marrow or spinal fluid. No way, Doc, not when you have a gazillion people praying for this precious boy.

Josh had a central line surgically placed on Thursday. (for chemo treatments)

Saturday he received a mild chemo treatment and began taking his medicines.

Today, Sunday, Josh is resting peacefully at home. He gets to stay home until a week from Monday. It is then that Josh will be admitted back in to Children's for a week of intense chemotherapy. He will be treated for about 4 months.

Because his immune system is not yet compromised we are all going to to see 'Pirates' tomorrow. Stacey will keep him down all day and then we'll go to the movies in the afternoon. He is looking forward to getting out a little bit.

We have so much to be thankful for!! God's mercy and grace abounds. The cancer was caught very early (doc thinks the tumor was about 2 weeks old).

Josh has a long road ahead so please pray for him diligently. Please pray that this cancer will go in to remission and also pray for us to minister to him just as he needs.

We sincerely believe that God could heal Josh in an instant and we pray towards that end. But we don't know what the will of God is, do we? We will pray and wait on the Lord, always trusting His perfect and awesome ways.

Joshua's older (and gorgeous :)) sister and I are going to create a new blog to keep everyone updated.


I love you Joshua M.!!!
You are da man.
We're gonna get you through this buddy :-)
From Mrs. W.

Blog Break comments

Dearest Blog friends,

Your kindness overwhelms me and I want to say thank you. Your prayers mean so much to our friends and to our family. Please continue to pray. There is a long road ahead. If my friend gives me permission I will share some details so you can pray specifically for Josh.

Thank you.

Love in Christ,
Janet

Blog Break

TTFN.

Janet.