Hal’s oncologist visit and chemo went very well Friday. His immune system was nearly twice as strong as it had been at the last visit! We are so grateful for your prayers, God’s mercy is the only answer. The doctor was encouraging and laid out the next steps for us:

Hal will get chemo on April 2nd and then on April 19th while we are in Missouri. We are doing a Midwest speaking tour in April that will find us in Kansas City and then in Springfield, MO. We are so grateful for the Porters who are loaning us their house and the Cox health system in Springfield that has been wonderful in welcoming Hal to do chemo there. Please pray for health and strength as we share God’s Word and encouragement with folks at these conferences – we have a pretty grueling schedule, but we’re greatly looking forward to it.

On April 30th, Hal will get a PET scan that will tell us finally where we stand. There are three alternatives:

1 – The cancer hasn’t responded to the chemo: Immediately prepare for a stem cell transplant (not the controversial kind). They’ll remove Hal’s own stem cells/bone marrow and treat it to kill the cancer and store it. Meanwhile, he’ll receive high dose, drastic chemo to kill all his immune system. Then they’ll give him back his own cells to rebuild it. Not where we want to go.

2 – The cancer has partially responded: We’ll immediately add in high dose radiation to help kill the cancer.

3 – The cancer appears to be all dead: Hal will do two more months of the same chemo he’s been on, then receive half-dose radiation to the tumor site behind his breastbone. This is what we are asking the Lord to do – let Hal have complete response!

In the meantime, we are still doing all of the alternative things as well — and they seem to be helping his immune system recover. Hal has had remarkably few symptoms from the chemo — the Lord is answering your prayers! He is showing a pattern, though of feeling very sick two days after the chemo with stomach cramps, upset and exhaustion. Yesterday, he stayed in the bed all day – most unusual for him.

We’re thankful he felt great Saturday, though, when we had a party to celebrate our fourth son’s becoming a young adult. We had a turkey shoot and cookout and invited godly men in his life to share their wisdom with him. It was an incredible time and Hal stood up all day running the turkey shoot and grilling. God is so good!

Hal’s feeling better today, but Seth and David woke up vomiting during the night last night. Please pray that no one else, and especially not Hal, will get sick! I am feeling pretty overwhelmed today. I know that God is still sovereign and He has a purpose for allowing all of this. May we glorify Him through it!

You have no idea how much your love, gifts, prayers, and notes of encouragement mean to us. I don’t know how we’d make it without you! Thank you especially for spreading the word about our book – it helps us tremendously!

With much love,

Melanie

O Worship the King

O worship the King, all glorious above,
O gratefully sing His power and His love;
Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days,
Pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise.

O tell of His might, O sing of His grace,
Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space,
His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form,
And dark is His path on the wings of the storm.

The earth with its store of wonders untold,
Almighty, Thy power hath founded of old;
Established it fast by a changeless decree,
And round it hath cast, like a mantle, the sea.

Thy bountiful care, what tongue can recite?
It breathes in the air, it shines in the light;
It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain,
And sweetly distills in the dew and the rain.

Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail,
In Thee do we trust, nor find Thee to fail;
Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end,
Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend.

O measureless might! Ineffable love!
While angels delight to worship Thee above,
The humbler creation, though feeble their lays,
With true adoration shall all sing Thy praise.

Writing the notes to his wife and children wasn’t easy, the deeply religious man said.

“Boy, I cried,” he admitted. “Obviously, no one wants to come to that point. I also didn’t want to just get found after having some time — God gave me some time — to think and to pray and to come to grips with the reality. I wanted to use that time to do everything I could for my family. If that could be surviving, get out, then I would. If it could be just to leave some notes that would help them in life, I would do that.”

Just wow.  NBC’s “Today” show has the story online.

It is such a privilege to teach our children about the love of God through our love for them. When they are little we teach them about love as we take care of their needs and come when they call for us, as we keep them safe, and lead them to righteousness, disciplining sin and forgiving and restoring them. This is an incredible responsibility and great honor that should not be taken lightly.

I was reminded of this again when I read this story of Daphnee Plaisin and her husband Reginald Claude, who for days, combed through the rubble of their earthquake-collapsed home with their bare hands trying to reach their two year old son, Redjeson. They could hear his weakening cries and would not leave him, but kept trying to rescue him. What a picture of the love of God the Father, who at great cost to Himself, would not leave us in our sin, but died to save us. I’m sure Daphnee and Reginald would have cheerfully died to rescue their son, but thankfully, Spanish rescue workers came to their aid and Redjeson was saved in time! There is the loveliest picture of the little guy’s face when he first saw his mother and father. He looks like he is thinking, “There you are!  I knew you’d come!”  What a delight!
Here’s a little more about the heroes who rescued Redjeson.

H/T DrudgeReport

It’s been one of those weeks for our family. Actually, it’s been one of those years, but that’s a story for a different time. In the midst of Hal’s pneumonia and probable cancer diagnosis, three of the children recovering from surgery, three of the other children sick and getting sicker, our oldest son still at college for exams, and sickness finally overtaking me, it’s been pretty rough around here. If you know anything about us, you may have done the math on that last sentence. There were only seven children mentioned and we have eight. That’s because Matthew is the last man standing.

We’ve had a lot of support from our church, family, and homeschool group, but on a hour by hour basis, there is just a great lot to be done to keep a family our size going. Normally everyone in the house who can walk pitches in and does chores to keep chaos and disorder (mostly) at bay. What happens, though, when the Lord takes out the rest of the troops?? Why, you man up and do what must be done. It started this weekend, before the rest of the boys got sick. When we discovered that Hal was really sick, I rallied the troops and started trying to catch up in the house. We’d been traveling and things had pretty much fallen apart. We did a ton of laundry and cleaned and straightened and everyone worked their hearts out. Then Samuel and Seth got sick. That left Matthew.

That’s a pretty hard mission, to pick up the responsibilities of a whole bunch of siblings, but Dad is down, too. Matthew really is the last man standing. This was brought home when I was sitting here at my desk and suddenly realized that my teeth were chattering. Dragging my attention off of what I was doing, it occured to me that it was about forty degrees where I was sitting and we had a pneumonia patient and two post-operative patients in the house! I called Matt and asked him to check to see if the flue were open, since I sit next to the hearth. He grabbed a flash light and poked his head up there and said, “Yep, it’s open.” He reached up to close it and a huge piece of metal fell into the fireplace! The flue had fallen out entirely!

After a moment of panic, Matt went up to talk to his Dad. I scooted out of there – it was soooo cold – and decided to visit with Hal for awhile. Before long Matthew came up and you could just tell he was victorious. He was standing tall. He grinned and told his Daddy how he’d figured out what to do, found the tools he needed and fixed the chimney. He may have been proud, but we were prouder. He’d been confronted with a job he knew nothing about and there was no one to help. There was no way his sick Dad could have fixed it in that cold. So he did it.

That’s what men do. They stand in the gap. When they find themselves the last man standing, they keep fighting. They go down, if there’s no alternative, still fighting. God made men to be fighters. To fight against sin and evil and disorder and decay. And sometimes laundry and chimneys.

[The painting is “The Battle of Culloden”)

We’ve done that now for over twenty years. The day we decorate the tree is greatly anticipated in our home. I serve party foods instead of dinner; things like meatballs and cheese ball with crackers, chips and dip, and eggnog. Eggnog is a favorite in our house (non-alcoholic and generally diluted with milk) and the day we decorate the tree is the first time we drink eggnog in the season. My favorite time is when the youngest child sees the tree come in the house. The look of awe is delightful! “Dad’s bringing a tree in the house! What in the world?” their eyes seem to say.

We take time to remind our children that the use of a Christmas tree is not described in Scripture, but it is one way we can show our joy in God’s gift of Jesus Christ to us and remind ourselves of what He has done for us. The fresh evergreen reminds us of eternal life, that there is coming a time when death shall be no more. The lights remind us that Jesus is the light of the world.

Each year as we decorate the tree, we tell the stories behind each ornament. When we unpack the blown glass cornucopias, we tell our children about the year that Hal had been laid off and God’s abundant provision for us. The little Wright flyers remind us of the year our family made a movie about the Wright Brothers and the director’s clapboards of the year our boys’ films did so well in competition. The tiny life jackets remind us of the year we spent weeks at the Lake since Hal was now self-employed and could work from anywhere. The ornaments that others have given us enable us to talk about them and their roles in our lives as well. As we unpack each ornament and place it on the tree, God’s incredible blessings to our family, in hard times and in good, become obvious to all of us. Decades of memories hang on our tree.