Saturday, June 13, 2009

Lot's To Be Thankful For, Lot's To Pray For Too




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We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true- even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. I John 5:20


I wish I knew how to better relate to you what my heart feels at times. I am so full of excitement and new appreciation for many things and at the same time crushed and heartbroken. Yesterday was one roller coaster day of events around the hossy.
Each one of you who comes here to this site, really should plan a trip to Memphis at some point and schedule a tour of St Jude. I will be more than happy to help you set up a tour, just let me know. Oh Gee, I just had a great idea... why don't you all register to come for the St Jude Marathon in December and become of part of Team Believe???? All you have to do is click on the link at the top of the page that says "Register for St Jude Marathon" Easy enough, huh?

I got side tracked there for a second... back to yesterday.

Christian and her family left to go back home. Make a Wish was putting in a pool for her yesterday so hopefully she will be swimming very soon. I am not sure how long it was going to take to have it done and ready to swim in but I know they are so excited and anxious to start using it. Thanks to Make A Wish for all they do. Please read her update if you have not had a chance to. The new treatment they were trying is not working. Please pray for Christian and her family. She is such an amazing young lady, with a very strong family. Pray for their continued strength and for God's love and mercy to be with them.

Reagan also went home yesterday. The treatment she was on has not worked either. Complete update explaining her situation is now on her link. I don't think she will be coming back here for any further follow up. The doctors recommended for her to go closer to home and not wear her out with the long trip back here. Shawn met with hospice before their trip here this week, and he was pleased and feels peace with the hospice team. Please pray for Reagan and for the entire family. The top picture is Reagan with her Pink Bridal Unicorn she made at Build A Bear, and the next picture is Reagan with her grandparents. It just goes to show that you are never to old to sit and color at the activity tables at St Jude. Have I ever told you all how much I hate cancer? All I know to do is to keep praying and keep trying to be an encouragement to the families. I know how my heart hurts and breaks, I can only imagine what these families are going through. If tears could heal cancer, there would be NO CANCER in this world!!!!

The next picture down is Gavin from his last visit here about a week ago. Sorry it took me so long to get those pictures downloaded. He is growing up so fast, definitely not a baby anymore. He is doing so well. Prayers of praise for his healing.

I talked with LaDonna last night, she said Salena was having some issues with her heart. She sent me a message this morning asking for our prayers, her heart rate is very low and they now are moving her to a different floor in the hospital so they can monitor her more closely, She did not say ICU so I am assuming maybe a floor that specializes in heart monitoring. This is one of the reason's they sent her to Chicago, in case she needed this type of special care. Please pray that they will be able to figure out what is causing this and fix it. LaDonna did say last night that they thought it could be med related. Hopefully that is what it is and they can change the med and get it corrected.

I got some good news from Morgan last night. She said that she was in clinic yesterday, had good labs, and will go home until later in the week next week. If all still looks good next week, she will most likely be moving home for good!!! Bye Bye Target House, Hello home!!! She would be coming back weekly for labs since she is closer to St Jude than any other affiliate. Should just be a quick trip up, check labs, and back home again. She will be missed around the joint! But she said St Jude was her second home, she would definitely be back for visits. I think there is a certain young man that she might be coming back to see too :) I am very happy for Morgan and her family. Pray a prayer of praise and give God the glory.

Lot's of excitement around the hossy yesterday. Keith Urban came to pay a visit to the kids. Marlo Thomas was there to. In the group shot picture up top, Marlo is standing next to Keith in the middle. She is such a beautiful and gracious lady. People were so excited when he came into the hospital, and Marlo just commented to a small group... "just another day around St Jude" There is always excitement and awesome things going on at St Jude! It is just another day.

Now, I will most definitely be heading out when I finish this post up to purchase every Keith Urban CD I can find. I can not begin to tell you how impressed I was along with each family that had the opportunity to visit with him personally. He was amazing and CUTE too!!! He came to visit Trevor, Elizabeth and Ryan and the other kid's on the transplant floor. He just sat with each family and visited like he had no where else to be.... this was at 2:30 and after and he had a concert last night!!!! His "people" came into Trevor's room several times to tell him it was time to move on, he just looked at them and kept talking to Trevor. He was on his own time schedule, and he did not rush his visits. You could tell he was truly interested in the kids and wanted to hear their stories. He asked Trevor many questions, but you could tell they were questions he really wanted to know the answer to, not just random questions pulled from a hat. I have not seen a smile on Trevor's face like that since the prom.
This visit did all of the kids and families so much good. I'll share a cute story about his visit with Elizabeth. I went to the nurse's station to get a "puke" bucket so we could put some left over craft supplies in it to send back to Child Life Specialist so others could use them. That was at Trevor's insistence. This was the leftovers from his all night craft night making birthday surprises for his mom. Anyway, the nurse gave me two buckets. Just as I was getting them, Keith Urban was coming into the door of the transplant unit. On my way back to Trevor's room, I popped my head into Elizabeth's room to let them know that he was on the floor and on his way to see them.... Michelle said they were trying to come up with some paper or something for him to autograph when he came to their room. I told her I didn't have any paper, but I had an extra puke bucket!!!! So guess what.... Keith Urban autographed a puke bucket for Elizabeth!!! Elizabeth looked so cute yesterday, she had on the cutest rainbow dress and headband. He wrote something about "to his favorite rainbow" on her bucket. TOOO CUTE!!!!
Oh yea, I forgot to tell you that Trevor gave Keith Urban one of his Team Trevor bracelet's and Keith told him he would wear it for luck in his concert last night.... he did exactly that! Two of my girl friends were at the concert and took some really good pictures and you can see Trevor's bracelet on his arm. How cool is that!!! If you are on my friend list on facebook you can see all of these pictures from the hospital visit and the concert.

I talked with Kimberly, Ryan's mom, for just a minute yesterday afternoon, she said Ryan had not had such a good day. Just not feeling well. Pray for him to be better today. His family has come in to visit for the weekend. I hope they can enjoy a good visit together.

So much going on, so many in need. Keep the prayers going up for all of these kids and their families.

BELIEVE- PRAYER WORKS!

ps - I don't know what I did to one of the pictures when I was posting them but if you click on the link at the bottom of the empty picture box up top it will show you a large view of the picture of what Keith wrote on Trevor's window.

4 comments:

  1. Lots to pray for and lots to be thankful for!!!!!!!! Thanks for the update Mardecia --- sounds like you had a busy day!!!!

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  2. Don't know how your heart holds it all. You are an angel. Love you. Jon

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  3. Mardecia,
    I can sense in your words how torn your heart is. However, the one thing I am certain of is that your heart is full of so much love for these children and their families. Each pain is from this love and each joy is from this same love. I praise God daily for you, you are showing HIS love to them through your heart. You may never know on this earth just how many people you have touched for Him.

    Praying always for these children and for their families through the joyful days and the painful days.

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  4. Thank you for your very sweet and encouraging comments. I appreciate each of you and the love, prayers and support you give to these children.

    Mardecia

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