I Believe In Miracles

“You are the God who performs miracles;
you display your power among the peoples.”  Psalm 77:14

Sometimes it’s hard to know what to share and what not to share with others.  You put stuff out there on the internet and you never really know who is reading it and if anything you write is anybody’s business.  Really it’s probably not…I mean, who’s business is it that I love to run and I love to chase my kids around to all corners of southeast Missouri?   Nobody’s really.

But those are things I enjoy and I like to share them with you; hopefully it gives you something entertaining to read, keeps you in touch with our family, and maybe gives you a little uplifting now and then.

On that last note, I’m not going to lie, it’s been a long couple of weeks around here.  Jack’s dad has had test after test run, and even spent a few days in the hospital, to try to determine the cause of some gastrointestinal symptoms he had been having.  After being in the hospital, the symptoms went away but scans revealed a mass on his kidney-completely unrelated to anything else he had going on. 

What??

They had no idea there was an issue with his kidney. <----I believe this is the first miracle.  Doctors did a CT scan to try to determine the cause of his symptoms, and found nothing to cause those symptoms, but found a small tumor on his kidney.  Shocker to everybody!

This is the good news/bad news scenario:

 The good news is that we found nothing that could be causing any of your symptoms and everything GI related looks great.

The bad news, there is a mass on your kidney.

Suddenly, the GI symptoms were gone but we were left wondering “What NOW?” in regards to the kidney issue.

Doctors in Cape first ordered a PET scan because they believed the mass to be kidney cancer, renal cell carcinoma.  Upon getting those results from the urologist this past Monday, the doctor said that “Yes, it is kidney cancer and it has already metastasized (spread) because of the way the scan looked.

Oh boy.

This sent us into a frenzy of phone calls, prayers, and anxiety.  The most important phone call Jack made was to my oncologist in STL.  He had us fax Jack’s dad’s paperwork and scan reports to him at his HOME, so he could look over them Monday night and he would get back to us.  Yes, he is that awesome.  

Tuesday morning he called and had already set up appointments for his dad to see a urologist and an oncologist at Siteman for yesterday (Wednesday).

Yesterday morning Jack and his parents headed on the all too familiar trip to STL.  Prayer warriors from all over were lifting them up in prayer, asking God for good appointments and safety on their trip.

How did it go??

Two words: PRAYERS ANSWERED!!!

The PET scan from Cape was a false positive they believe, and while the kidney does have what looks to be a malignant tumor on it, they treat it by removing the part of the kidney with the tumor-NOT the whole thing as they believed in Cape! <-------MIRACLE AND PRAYERS ANSWERED!!!

He will have surgery in a couple of weeks, and they will of course monitor him every few months, but all is perfect and well.  God answered our prayers with a resounding “YES” this week and we could not be more thankful.

Thankful that we serve a God who is more mighty than we ever imagine,

more amazing than we could ever dream,

and more loving than we will ever know.

We are rejoicing!  Won’t you rejoice with us too?

Love you guys.

xoxo