Viewing life as filtered through the hands of God: The story of a miracle!

Its already way past my bedtime but there is no way I could sleep without telling you all the story of today. I am so excited to share how God worked in our lives today to show us his greatness and his love. I have titled this story "Viewing life as filtered through the hands of God" becuase I think that if we can gain that perspecitve each "trial" we endure will take on a whole new purpose. If we can begin to see the difficulties as a sign that God is working and that he is going to do something in us or through us maybe we can embrace the opportunity rather than running the opposite direction (or grumbling our way through it!)

Part of the miracle you already know. Jon's tumor is shrinking. According to the radiologist the tumor is smaller by about a milimeter on all dimensions. I acutally got to see the scans and the difference is quite noticible. Not only is it smaller, it is also less solid. It doesn't enhance the way it did three months ago. It is hoped that the tumor will continue to die and shrink away. Its funny... when Jon was in his very first surgery a dear friend was praying. She felt God had impressed upon her that this tumor was going to shrink until it just went away. That night the dr came in and said that indeed it was a tumor that would shrink away. Of course, over the next few days we found out that it was a faster growing type of a tumor that would grow not shrink....
Fast forward to this week... Just over the past few weeks in study at church and in my own time I have been reminded that when God makes promises he always fulfills them. But it is in his own time and his own way. I don't have some word from the Lord saying Jonathan will be healed... but I do have the words the Lord spoke to me the day he asked me to give him my child. Perhaps my broken child is being healed through the hope of a shrinking tumor. Perhaps my heart is being healed for this time being when God knew I needed a little glimmer of hope and direction. We will continue to pray and trust no matter the outcome.

A little more info on Jon....the dr confirmed my suspicion that the scary behavior and lethargy/ speech etc that we were seeing a few weeks ago was caused by infection not tumor growth. On Friday, Jon's white count had gone up again to 10,000 from 6,000 (which is low but is what he is running on this chemo regimen.) THis increase made me think he was getting sick again... sure enough the MRI shows a pretty yucky sinus infection. The dr is putting him on 6 weeks of antibiotics... I am hopeful this will help keep the other symptoms under control. Also, the neurologist thinks Jon is having breakthrough seizures. He has staring episodes several times a day. So we increased his seizure meds. Other than that everything is good!

Now to the other exciting miracles of the day....

First, we left the drs office this afternoon ready to head home. It was early in the afternoon...plenty of time to beat traffic and make it home in time for Shawn to go to NAshville. Sure of our plans we all climbed into the van preparing to hit the road. What is that verse about how man plans his ways but God determines his steps???? Well, after one then two then 5o or so tries we came to the realization that our van was not going to get us out of the parking garage and on towards Knoxville. OUr van was broken down and we were stranded.

I will spare you all the chaotic details of trying to figure out how to get from point A to point B with 7 people when there is not a car rental place in town with a minivan available. There was so much that could have and was going wrong. But here is the good... immediately we started talking with the kids about how sometimes God allows things to delay us so that he can protect us. I got them all together and we prayed for God to fix the van but also to protect us and to provide for what we needed. It was short and sweet but oh so life changing! A peace descended upon my normally wild children. For several hours we sat outside the drs office and they were so good. Now came the blessings:

1. A person who Shawn works with who owns a transport company and also has a child with a brain tumor (who also goes to the dr we do in Atlanta) arranged to bring a tow truck to meet us and tow the van to Carmax in Atlanta. She was not willing to take any money. So Shawn and a man from the parking lot pushed the van all the way out of the garage.

2. While we were all sitting on the sidewalk eating lunch, a sweet lady came by and stopped and said we had well behaved children. I was thinking " you just caught them at a good moment". A few minutes later she came back through the parking lot to where we were and called me over to her car. She had no idea that we were stranded there. She said I want to give you something since your children are so well behaved. Of course I was like no, you don't need to do that. She said she knew she didn't have to but wanted to. In her hands was a piece of money folded up. I couldn't see how much it was and didn't look. She handed it to me and I thanked her telling her how God was using her to bless us. I shared the situation with Jonathan and the car. She left and I looked down at my hand. In it was a $100 bill!!!!!! Ok, friends, perfect strangers just don't go up and give someone $100!!!! But this lady was used by God. Oh, what fun I had in sharing how God worked with my children. I was so excited to tell them how God does provide. How God is so happy when we are willing to go through bad times so that he is able to show himself so big. IT was so awesome... the opportunity for them to see how God answered their prayers made the 3 hours of "trial" worth it completely!!!!

3. Ok, so now you are really going to laugh. After all this we finally figured out a plan. I would stay with the kids at the hospital where they would be cool and could watch disney. Shawn went back to stand near the van. He was going to catch a ride with the tow truck when they came to take the van to Carmax. When he got over to the van, he thought he would just try one more time to start the van and.... you know how it goes....it started right up!!!! So we jumped in the car and started the long ride home!

And guess what we made it home in God's timing and his way. Along the way we saw his providence, his love, his plan, and his protection. And even better I don't have to spend the evening alone... my sweet husband who did incredibly well at holding it together during this stressful day gets to skip Nashville!!!!! Yay!!!!

I am sure there will be more to share as the week goes on... I better go to sleep now... I have to work tomorrow.... not so sure lack of sleep and needles mix too well!!!!!