Jedidiah is their #1 fan! Don't you just love his "Justin Beiber" hair!!!

Remember that my two sisters and I were pregnant at the same time? Look at the "triplets" cheering on Reagon!

On Wednesday, Jedidiah had another appt at ACH for his check up. He doesn't cry now as we enter the hospital, even though he knows his port is going to be flushed. He is such a big boy.





We were happy to get to spend some time with Christopher. Over the Christmas holiday, Christopher was life flighted to ACH and spent the entire week in ICU. He is better now and we are so very thankful! We are planning a big camping trip this summer with him and his family. My grandparents own a cabin on the river and we are going to have a weekend get-away and teach Christopher how to fish and canoe the river. He is going to have a blast!
As we were getting ready to leave, we hugged Christopher and he said "I can't wait to spend the weekend with you all. Can we stay a week instead?" lol

Then he turned to his mom and said "what if I get sick and die. then I can't go camping."

My heart broke in two. I wanted to just break down right there but thankfully I held it together. At such a young age (9), he knows the severity of his bone cancer. He knows that his relapse is a major thing and that the cancer has moved to his lungs. I pray every single night that this camping trip will be one of many for Christopher and that one day he and Jed can camp with their kids and tell them all about this journey of childhood cancer and how it brought our families together. What a deep bond the families in our unit form. A bond that cancer cannot destroy!

Stepping back into the clinic after a six week break was a bit of a reality check. It is easy to distance yourself from it all when you aren't at the clinic on a weekly basis. But the reality is, even though we are not there every Wednesday now, the clinic is still full. On Wednesday. On Monday. On every single day of the week. You can walk the floor of our cancer unit any day of the week and find children fighting an awful battle! It is not an easy place to be, but it is very place the Lord chose to use to open my eyes. Open my eyes to a brand new ministry for me, open my eyes to so many needs we never knew before. I couldn't help but shed a couple tears as we walked past the rooms full of pale children with bald heads. It seems like an eternity ago that we were in the rooms and yet, it is hard to remember the "before cancer" time in our life. I get emotional watching Jed run around the clinic as I catch a glimpse of a parent in a nearby room watching him. I know they are thinking "please God..let my child run and play in the halls soon!!" The moms almost always mention Jed's long hair. I know they are hoping to see the same in their own child one day. With each set of scans, we as parents in the waiting room hold our breath. As the child's name is called and the parents go back for the results, we all just sit and wait. Almost as if we are waiting on the results of our own scans. When they finally emerge, we rejoice with the clean scan results and cry with each relapse. Through our hugs and tears after the bad scans, I know each of us are quietly begging God to "not let this be my child next". At times, it's a nightmare. We could never make it without a gracious God who walks along beside us. Sometimes carrying us, even still.



So many of my "Wednesday kids" are struggling right now and are in need of your prayers.


Baby Jaxon had a very important PET scan this week. We are waiting on results. Please pray the tumors from relapse are gone and the only thing left is scar tissue...or nothing at all!

Pray that the new chemo will begin working for Christopher. He relapsed after only 6 short weeks of remission and is now on a high dose chemo.

Pray for Maddie. She has had such a rough fight with ALL Leukemia. I would love to see her in remission and cancer free!

 Our babies who are cancer survivors!!
 The next morning we all slept late! We woke mid-morning to a big family breakfast and kids begging to open gifts!
 I love the big smiles and squeals that filled the room that morning!

Christmas Eve evening we all gathered at our Grandma Goosey's house for more family time!  
 Sleepy Jedidiah didn't care if we were about to eat and open gifts! He was still exhausted from the night before!
 Jedidiah and Lexi
 I love looking back at the picture we take every year in front of Goosey's tree. The first picture I took, Reagon was only 7 years old! I love how well our kids get along and love each other! Reagon and Hudson are always good for a big laugh, Kendall and Lexi are inseparable, Harli and Jed play great together and of course, little Presli gets spoiled by them all!
 Five generation picture
 We came home late Christmas Eve night. Jed couldn't wait to put out cookies and milk for Santa before crashing in bed with the girls.
What a fun Christmas morning! First of all, Josh and I woke up super early to wait on the kids. And we waited. And waited. We had some super sleepy kids!! Finally, close to 9am, we made enough noise in the kitchen to wake Reagon up. It wasn't long before the entire room filled with wrapping paper.


 Josh and I had so much fun watching the kids open gifts. All three were very excited about their Santa gifts. After our morning breakfast, the girls played their new board game while we cleaned up and got everything loaded and ready for Memaw Lida's house. I used to complain about having to GO GO GO at Christmas time but this year, I was just so happy to be able to spend it with our family. My perspective has truly changed on many things because of the past year.
 I love that I get to spend every Christmas for the rest my life with this man! God truly blessed me with an amazing husband.
And look at this beautiful little boy! Josh is thankful that most of the smocked rompers I buy for Jed only go to a size 5T! He has told me since Jed was a tiny baby that he would be super happy when he was too old to dress in these adorable jonjons! He has no style! =)
Christmas morning at Memaw Lida and Papaw Lonnie's house is just what Christmas cards are made of. A huge farmhouse style table filled to overflowing with the best cooked food in the state! It's not unusual to hear several people say ":this is the best food I have had all year!" and it's the truth! We all love Memaw's cooking. Don't know why it is so much better than anyone elses. I think it is all the love that goes into each dish. After the meal, the kids open more gifts!
 Jed and Hayden had a blast playing together!
 Nana Teresa and Kendall
 Remember Jed's wife Mazie? They celebrated their first Christmas together! lol

I couldn't wait to hit all the after-Christmas sales this year. One thing I am always on the lookout for is crafts for my kids. Hobby Lobby has some adorable crafts and at 85% off you can't beat them! Remember the painted nativity? That was sure worth the $ spent last year after Christmas. Kendall loved the apron craft kit. She did a good job on it and wore it when she made sugar cookies for Santa.  
Jedidiah loves making cookies! We made so many this year.

I almost cry looking at this picture. I love his beautiful long eyelashes. This picture takes me back to a moment in time in March as my mother in law and I stood by Jed's bedside just minutes after he was moved to recovery after his first long surgery. As we stood over him, waiting for him to wake up, we stroked his beautiful head full of brown hair and we both started to cry. As the nurse came into the room, my mother-n-law asked her if she thought he would lose his beautiful eyelashes and in a soft voice the nurse said "he probably will.".  We both cried. Not just about the eyelashes, but about his unknown future. I am so grateful that God hears the cries of our heart. The deep painful cries as we beg him to stop the aggressive cancer in our sweet baby's body and the emotional soft cries from the heart of a mother and grandmother over eyelashes.

I love this picture because Jedidiah couldn't resist eating the cookie dough off of the rolling pin!
One Sunday night, I took our youth kids to a light display set up by Make-A-Wish. Our Sunday school gave a donation in Jed's name. I am so proud of them! As I have said before, it is awesome to have a front row seat to the work God is doing is so many people's lives...even the youngest of kids!
This Christmas season, as you can all imagine, was very different for me. The whole tone of the season was changed from the past years. Normally, I kick it into over drive and try to cram a hundred events into a few weeks and stress out and stay up late and wear myself completely out. This year was the most relaxing year I have spent as an adult. I was finally able to slow down and enjoy the season. When the kids were doing crafts or making cookies, I wasn't busy filling up a sink full of soapy water or trying to make sure the snowman cookie looked just right. Instead, I payed more attention to the things my children said to me. Some things I'm sure I missed in the past. I payed more attention to that sparkle in their eyes as they opened their gifts. I savored each and every hug and kiss and each and every "I love you Mom". This year, when I took our stockings out of the box and hung them from the fireplace, I cried so hard. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to have only 4 stockings hanging from our fireplace. I couldn't imagine what so many of our new friends were facing. Those who said goodbye to their sweet children after the hard fight with cancer. I prayed a long prayer that day. Thanking God for the five stockings hanging in our home and asking Him to be with those who were not as blessed.

Christmas time is about the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Without Him we would have nothing. With Him, we have an everlasting hope! We have a healer!!! We have a Saviour!!!!


Christmas time is also about family. I pray that we will never forget that. God has done so much for our family this year. How many families do you know that have two cancer babies? And God took care of them both! Both finished chemo in the same year, only 7 months apart! Now, that is something to shout about!

I pray that each of you had a wonderful Christmas this year. I can't imagine going through this journey without the support of each of my blog readers. The encouraging words from all over the world meant so much to me. There were times I would wake up at night and unable to go back to sleep, would spent countless hours at my computer reading my blog comments. What a blessing you all are to me!

I also hope that each of you took time to hold your family close this year. You never know when God will choose to take them home.


1 John 4:16

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.