Getting Close to Christmas

We are all getting excited for Christmas. For some of you this will be your first time visiting this blog since you may have gotten the information about it in a Christmas card.

I’ll give a brief rundown of the year. I apologize if this is old news for you. There will be some new information toward the end.

About this time last year we were having our first few preview gatherings for The Foundry. It was a crazy time with me working at Fed Ex a lot of hours and trying to church plant. We had a great group of people who we ministered with and tried to serve our community as well as we knew how. It was an amazing time of spiritual growth for us. The community welcomed us and we made many connections.

At the end of April we took Kyler to the emergency room because he was complaining of his head and eyes hurting and he was seeing double. We were told he had a tumor a little larger than a golf ball at the base of his brain and he needed immediate surgery to have it removed. Our world was turned upside down in a moment. The tumor turned out to be cancerous and not a very good kind at that. The type of tumor is called medullablastoma, and the type of cell is called large cell anaplastic variant. This type of cancer cell is not nearly as responsive to radiation and chemotherapy as your average medullablastoma tumor cancer cell.

A month after the surgery, which went very well, he started six weeks of radiation. After radiation was done we were granted a Make-A-Wish trip to Florida to visit the Magic Kingdom, Universal Studios, and Sea World. One month after his last radiation treatment he started chemotherapy. His last chemotherapy treatment will be in August of 2007.

We determined, with input from wise counselors, that continuing church planting was not going to be possible for us and we chose to lay down the church plant.
Since then, I have been continuing to work part-time at Fed Ex while looking for the next opportunity God would have for me.

In the midst of all the craziness of 2006 we are thankful for the ways God has provided, protected, and made Himself known to us.
2007 is going to be full of changes I think. I’m glad He is with us at each turn.

We had a party to celebrate Kyler’s birthday last Saturday. His real birthday is not until the 22nd, but his immune system will be depleted during that time so if we were going to have friends over for a party we had to do it early. Santa showed up with gifts for the kids and a little something special for mom and dad.




This last Friday Kyler had to get platelets at the hospital. While he was there he had a videoconference with Santa. No kidding! Kyler sat in front of the computer and talked with Santa from the North Pole and he knew what Kyler wanted for Christmas.

Thanks for praying for Kendrick during this time as well. He published his first comic book (very limited number of copies available) and was very proud. It was fun watching and helping him with his project (mostly). He will start basketball after the holidays. You wouldn’t believe how much he has grown. He eats like a teenager already and will soon be taller than his Grandma Ewart (4’ 11”). He has gotten very good at tut-tut language. It’s kind of hard to explain. You’ll have to hear it some day.

So many of you have been so generous with us this holiday season to make sure we weren’t struggling financially so we could make Christmas for the boys a lot of fun. We are grateful beyond our ability to express.

Kyler’s next chemo treatment is January 16th. He will have another MRI and hearing test before then. Thank you for your prayers.

Blessings,

Darrell

Chemo #4

Well, Kyler made it through round 4. He was actually excited to go in because he had a big basket of little toys, candy canes, and crayons to pass out to the other kids on the floor. He went room to room with his elf hat on and played Santa’s helper. Everyone loved it.



His roommates name was Dominic and he and Kyler shared the same birth date and year!
Which means they are both turning six in a few weeks (Dec 22nd).

Because of when we are expecting Kyler’s immune system to be most vulnerable, we are having his party this Saturday. There will be a special visitor from the North Pole to surprise the kids.

Sandie talked with the doctor this week and they are going to start testing Kyler’s hearing before each round of chemo because he has showed ‘moderate to severe’ hearing loss in the upper ranges of frequency. The doctor said, “He’ll never be an opera singer or rock star” with a casual attitude. Ultimately, the doctor is right. It will be much better to have Kyler around than to worry about whether or not he can use his ears professionally. Still, it’s sad. Kyler has told us a few times he’d like to be a singer. He has such good pitch already. But doctors have been known to be wrong and God has been known to restore that which has been destroyed.

Thank you for praying for our needs as a family. God prompted a friend to cover the next three months mortgage payments for us. That was amazing. I sat down and cried. God is good and continues to take care of us.

I’ve lead worship and spoken at a few churches in the area. We have been encouraged by each of them during this time. However, nothing has opened up yet in the way of ministry positions for me. I’m not sure what’s ahead. I’m asking for wisdom with how to proceed and know what I can take on right now.





Continue to pray for protection for Kyler, especially as Christmas draws near. That’s when he will be weakest. Please pray that we would be able to resist living in fear at those times when we are having to be vigilant in monitoring his temperature and looking for symptoms.

Slick is sleeping well right now (that’s his new nickname since he has lost all his hair again). His third round had different drugs that cleared his dome pretty well. That’s our little Kojack!

Blessings,

Darrell