Prayer Requests

My Mom starts radiation tomorrow. Please pray for her. She will be treated on her neck and jaw area, on one side of her face, which is the worst area to receive radiation because it hurts on the inside of your mouth as well. It may make her sick, and will make her tired as the treatments go on. She will receive radiation for 5 days a week for 5-6 weeks.

Christmas will be a bummer, but hopefully we are all able to enjoy celebrating Thanksgiving together.

Right now the main things she needs prayer for are for healing (of course), and that she can make it through the 20 minute treatments. She will have to wear a mask that is clamped down to the table she is laying on - which is very claustrophobic for her.

My sister also needs prayer. She is in the hospital again. Her anorexia is really bad right now. A few days ago she went into the ER and was given an IV. This weekend her arms swelled up really huge and she went back to the ER to discover she had a staph infection from the previous IVs. She had surgery on one arm and has a drain tube. The other arm isn't quite as bad. She will likely be in the hospital for another day or two.

I have lots of reasons to be stressed right now.

Good News for Mom

We got good news finally. Cancerous cells were only found in the one swollen lymph node of all the nodes removed more than a week ago. Praise the Lord! That means that they likely removed all the cancer, and she will start radiation on time - in a couple of weeks. Thanks for your prayers.

Getting Out

We were in need of a break from the stress, and the Lord provided enough sunshine for Mom, Koen and I to head to the pumpkin patch. Koen enjoyed a wagon ride behind a tractor at the farm, as well as hay maze, perfect for his age.

Koen and Grammi (my Mom)

Please pray for my mom's surgery. It's early tomorrow morning. They will remove the lymph nodes in her neck, as well as the surrounding tissue. She will lose the sensory nerves in that area, and have a large incision. It's a much more major surgery that I thought, but the recovery shouldn't take as long as the last surgery. She will then need radiation for 5-6 weeks, starting about a month after this surgery. We are hoping she can be done and feeling better by Christmas, but we will be cutting it close. Pray for faith, and healing. Thanks so much.

The Longings of a Mother

Today is one of those days where I just long for Liv. I woke up thinking of her, and haven't been able to forget.

There have been many times lately where I wonder if we will always be a family of 3. I have started to picture Koen as an only child. Not that this would be bad, but it is not what I desire or have imagined for my family. My heart wants to mother more children - especially those who have been abandoned by their birth family.

Why are there so many orphans in the world longing for a mommy, while a mommy sits in her cozy little home in WA state longing to love them? Why is it so hard to get to them? I am tired of learning whatever God has for me to learn during this wait.

I believe my desire is from the Lord, so we continue to wait for our adoption to be completed. We pray daily for Vietnam to reopen. We pray that God will guide us to our children, wherever they are.

Would the Lord give me this desire and then have it go unmet?

I need to feel like we are making progress, yet no news comes.

Just talked with my Mom, and the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes in her neck. She will have surgery again next week and then start radiation soon after. I thought we were through the worst of this, but apparently not.

Lord, we need good news. Please bring it quickly.

*CLOSED

We have been dreading this day for a long time, but inevitably, it has arrived. The MOU expired today, meaning that adoptions between the US and Vietnam have ceased. We pray this is a short closure, but have no idea what to expect. Our agency seems more optimistic than others I have heard from. Do we move on? Today also marks 11 months since we were DTV. 11 months, and now our dossier is coming back to the US to sit here.

I think I'm mostly in denial, but now and then some self-pity sneaks in. I'm ready for my child to come home, but God must know better. I have to trust He has a better plan.

I have been praying for a referral by Christmas. That is highly unlikely now, but still possible. I'm not sure if I should keep praying and hoping for that or not. It would be too good to be true.

To add to the bad news, we found out my mom has a spot of cancer on her gums. She has had to wait a whole week since finding out before meeting with the surgeon, and in that time it has grown quite a bit. Please pray for healing, and peace.

My sister also hasn't been doing well. She has severe anorexia and has gone downhill in the last month. She's currently in the hospital, but should be released soon. Please pray for victory in her battle, and healing for her body.

Sorry to be such a downer. I hope you are having a better Labor day than we are.