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
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
| 7:13 PM
1 Comments:
This is Mike and Kathy Phillips. We just wanted you to know that we regularly pray for Kyler and will continue to do so even as all the reports continue to be positive. We feel that God wants us to be part of the covering for him.
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