Let the prayers begin!

Hello everyone!

I am writing this update from the hotel dining room in Zion as I am waiting for Ryan to get his pump hooked up for the second time - he has already received the rest of the infusion this morning and afternoon. We met with our PA this morning and he was really pleased with Ryan's state of being heading into the new cycle. He told Ryan that in comparison to most other patients, Ry's rash isn't that bad (a point of view that perhaps my hubs doesn't agree with!). A few blood counts are low, but not low enough to withhold treatment. I am going to take the lab sheet home and see what foods I can get into him that will help bolster these counts!

We haven't yet mentioned it yet publicly, but two weeks from now is going to be a very big week for us. We are going to be in Zion August 6-8. Monday the 6th, Ryan will be getting a PET scan done, and we will find out the results on Tuesday in the afternoon. Wednesday he will be getting treatment and then heading home.

These scans are a very big thing for us. They will show the extent of the impact that radiation has made - these will be the first scans that have been done since April, when it was decided that radiation could have a big effect on his cancer. So naturally we are both excited and nervous about these. The good sign (physically) is that there has been virtually no sign of the same pain that Ryan had before the last scans in April. We are asking that if you could think to pray for us the next couple of weeks, please do so any time that we pop in your mind! We need peace and comfort - the weeks leading up to these events are very unsettling. We also are crying out to God for healing, for negative scans, for a miraculous healing - for deliverance. We know that we likely still have a long road ahead of us, but to have encouraging news would be such a shot in the arm!

And yet though we pray for good results, we pray also that God's perfect will would be done. We know and trust that He is sovereign, and once again we are choosing to submit to His will for our lives, no matter what that entails. We desire to glorify His name from the highest of mountaintops and the lowest of valleys. He is good. All the time.


Bring The Rain - MercyMe

I can count a million times
People asking me how
I can praise You with all that I've gone through
The question just amazes me
Can circumstances possibly
Change who I forever am in You

Maybe since my life was changed
Long before these rainy days
It's never really ever crossed my mind
To turn my back on you, oh Lord
My only shelter from the storm
But instead I draw closer through these times
So I pray

Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings You glory
And I know there'll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that's what it takes to praise You
Jesus, bring the rain

I am Yours regardless of
The clouds that may loom above
Because You are much greater than my pain
You who made a way for me
By suffering Your destiny
So tell me what's a little rain
So I pray

Holy, holy, holy
Is the Lord God Almighty