The Journey Continues

Tuesday, July 20 2010 was a day that we will remember forever. It started out as a wonderful day. I cleaned the house while the kids played and relaxed, Andy got home early from work, sold our flat bed trailer, and then we cleaned the garage. A completely clean house is proof of an excellent day for me. In the afternoon I headed to the gym to take a swim. When I got out of the pool I saw that Andy had called a bunch of times. I called and he said to just come home. When I got home he was very upset. He told me that Dr. Muizelaar had just called and had told him that Andrew’s tumor came back as malignant and it is cancer. This was a complete shock, since they thought the tumor was 99% benign. I tried to stay calm and I got on the phone to get the details. CANCER…I think I was in denial and couldn’t believe this was happening to our family. We told our families and then we headed out with the kids to a local street fair to meet up with my family. It was a very emotional time seeing my parents and sister. Andrew was also not feeling well on this day, so that seemed to make the news even more difficult. We tried to keep it together that night. We simply told Andrew that they had found something in his knee, but daddy and mommy would be working on things with the doctors. Well, the next few days were filled with more phone calls to doctors, tears, frustration, and prayers. We immediately sent out emails, texts, and facebook messages asking people to simply pray. We were, and still are overwhelmed by the responses and prayers we would receive. They are truly what helped us get through the next couple days. I would try and stay busy with the kids, but when I was alone I would breakdown. Andy would also find himself on his knees in our room everyday praying for healing for our son. So much frustration came when I’d call to make an appointment with the oncologist and there would be some type of hold-up with insurance. We got a lot of advice and referrals from friends and family over that week. Finally we were given an appointment for Friday, July 30. Waiting was the hardest part. Through the pathology report we learned it was called synovial sarcoma. Everything I read about it was exactly what Andrew had been going through. Thankfully the Lord blessed me with a sense of peace. I could have been frustrated and upset with doctors from the past who led us astray and completely mis-diagnosed Andrew’s knee, but those thoughts didn’t really cross my mind. I felt like I needed to deal with the challenge ahead of me and not look back. It wasn’t easy, but I knew it was the better thing to do. On Sunday we went to church for the first time since learning about our new challenge. We cried just about the whole worship set and it was difficult, yet encouraging to see some many friends after the service. After many hugs and explanations we left feeling so blessed. As we got to lunch I told Andy that we are so blessed to have such an amazing network of people around us, who truly care about our situation and even cry with us and for us. Monday was a special evening. Our life group all got together to pray for Andrew and our family. All 18 members of our group were there. They shared verses with us and we prayed for over an hour. It was so touching to be in a room filled with people who were truly lifting us up in prayer. I don’t think I will forget the sobbing I heard the whole time from the dads in the room who were pleading with God to heal OUR son. This group has been a huge support along with our own families throughout our journey. Two families in our life group have had cancer in their immediate family and they can truly relate to us at this time.

Our families have been more than supportive. Between watching our kids during appointments, joining us at appointments, and blessing us with grocer store trips, and food, they have been amazing. My hope is to journal throughout this process and one day hopefully put it all together on my blog. Each day I try to look for the blessings that come our way instead of the trials. Because of the awesome network of people we are surrounded with, I don’t think a day goes by that we aren’t blessed by a phone call, prayer, an email, a card in the mail, a care package for Andrew, a meal, bags of groceries, or even a buddy stopping to see Andrew. We have been BLESSED!!