Summer comes to an end.
Dear friends and family,
Despite having our lives turned upside a few months ago, we are always looking for hidden blessings where God has placed us. Our family was apart all summer as William and Cullen both worked at a summer camp. A few days after they returned home from camp, the Lord gave us the opportunity to travel as a family to Colorado Springs where we spent an entire week hiking and experiencing God's beautiful creation of the mountains. Our stay was completely free as a friend's parents were traveling and let us stay at their home while they were away.
The next unexpected blessing was having the opportunity to take William and get him set up at Wheaton College. We had expected to be in be in Peru and had emotionally prepared for either his grandparents or another family member do this for us. But there is something so gratifying (for a Mom especially) to make up his bed, buy a few groceries, meet the roommate and his parents, attend the orientation for parents and students from overseas, and finalize details with finance and health services. We are extremely proud of how well William is doing in this transition and praise God for how He abundantly supplied for all William's needs.
We are also packing up for a full weekend of family and fun as we will head to Michigan City to be with all Bill's siblings and their families (more than thirty people) for a Labor Day extravaganza. For the past 10 years, Bill's parents rent large homes and take their immediate family for this weekend. We have only been in the US for 3 of them so we count it a huge privilege to be able to be here once again.
The reason we must focus on the blessings is that in life there are always the difficulties and frustrations to be dealt with. Yesterday was one of those setback days. We went to Northwestern Hospital for Joy's third immunotherapy treatment, but while talking to the doctor about possible side effects from the medicines, Joy brought up that she has had more headaches in the past week than normal. This gave the doctor pause, and he canceled the therapy for that day, requesting that we have an MRI and PET scan to make sure that nothing more serious was going on. These scans are scheduled for Friday (tomorrow August 30) and the immunotherapy has been pushed off until the following Friday. This will progressively push all therapy dates back by these 10 days and thus prolongs these 15 months of treatment. We would appreciate prayers that these headaches would subside and that she would not have any more side effects that would delay future treatments OR that we would be able to trust God with future delays.
Lastly, we would like to ask prayer for our family as we deal with the very sad news that Joy's sister in law, after undergoing surgery for a brain tumor three and a half years ago and a good while of remission, has now been told that the cancer is back and the doctors have given her just months left on this earth. We are reminded that God has all of our days numbered and that we must redeem each day.
We are officially on furlough now and look forward to seeing as many of you as possible. We will be centering in the Chicago area for the near future but would love to schedule dinners and speaking times whenever possible.
We thank you for your prayers and support during this season of our lives, and would ask that you continue to lift us up before the Lord.
Thank you,
Bill, Joy and family
Despite having our lives turned upside a few months ago, we are always looking for hidden blessings where God has placed us. Our family was apart all summer as William and Cullen both worked at a summer camp. A few days after they returned home from camp, the Lord gave us the opportunity to travel as a family to Colorado Springs where we spent an entire week hiking and experiencing God's beautiful creation of the mountains. Our stay was completely free as a friend's parents were traveling and let us stay at their home while they were away.
The next unexpected blessing was having the opportunity to take William and get him set up at Wheaton College. We had expected to be in be in Peru and had emotionally prepared for either his grandparents or another family member do this for us. But there is something so gratifying (for a Mom especially) to make up his bed, buy a few groceries, meet the roommate and his parents, attend the orientation for parents and students from overseas, and finalize details with finance and health services. We are extremely proud of how well William is doing in this transition and praise God for how He abundantly supplied for all William's needs.
We are also packing up for a full weekend of family and fun as we will head to Michigan City to be with all Bill's siblings and their families (more than thirty people) for a Labor Day extravaganza. For the past 10 years, Bill's parents rent large homes and take their immediate family for this weekend. We have only been in the US for 3 of them so we count it a huge privilege to be able to be here once again.
The reason we must focus on the blessings is that in life there are always the difficulties and frustrations to be dealt with. Yesterday was one of those setback days. We went to Northwestern Hospital for Joy's third immunotherapy treatment, but while talking to the doctor about possible side effects from the medicines, Joy brought up that she has had more headaches in the past week than normal. This gave the doctor pause, and he canceled the therapy for that day, requesting that we have an MRI and PET scan to make sure that nothing more serious was going on. These scans are scheduled for Friday (tomorrow August 30) and the immunotherapy has been pushed off until the following Friday. This will progressively push all therapy dates back by these 10 days and thus prolongs these 15 months of treatment. We would appreciate prayers that these headaches would subside and that she would not have any more side effects that would delay future treatments OR that we would be able to trust God with future delays.
Lastly, we would like to ask prayer for our family as we deal with the very sad news that Joy's sister in law, after undergoing surgery for a brain tumor three and a half years ago and a good while of remission, has now been told that the cancer is back and the doctors have given her just months left on this earth. We are reminded that God has all of our days numbered and that we must redeem each day.
We are officially on furlough now and look forward to seeing as many of you as possible. We will be centering in the Chicago area for the near future but would love to schedule dinners and speaking times whenever possible.
We thank you for your prayers and support during this season of our lives, and would ask that you continue to lift us up before the Lord.
Thank you,
Bill, Joy and family
