My Dad's Continued Battle

My Dad, Donald found out earlier this month that he's got three more tumors on his lungs. The doctors have taken him off his cancer meds for now, but will be starting him on different ones soon. His cyber knife surgery doctor wants to wait and watch. He wants to take new scans the first week of January to see if more tumors have appeared or if the existing ones have grown. To operate on the tumors as they are (very small) they would risk damaging lung tissue that they may otherwise be able to spare (if the tumors were a little larger, making them easier to deal with). Every time they operate with the cyber knife on him, they have to inject (by needle) a small gold fleck onto each of the tumors so the cyber knife machine knows where to zap. Every time they inject those flecks, he is open to infection. Then when they operate, if they zap some of the lung tissue in the process of zapping the cancerous tissue, then they are at risk for compromising the lungs altogether. It's risky, so they're waiting and watching for now. He nees all the prayer we can give him.

I believe God can heal him of this cancer completely. Let's all pray for healing. Show him that we care and we believe in God's ultimate healing power! Thanks to all of you who are praying for him.

A Quilt for a Cause

At the end of September I auctioned off a quilt I made to raise funds for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. It took me a total of about three months to make the quilt (in my spare time). The ribbon design is based off a design my sister, husband and I put together for our Light the Night team shirts last year. We called the design our "ribbon lady". That original ribbon design is in the top left of this first picture. The other three ribbons are symbolic of the different parts of Isaiah 40:31, "But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles, run and not grow weary, walk and not be faint." I sewed this verse onto two quilts I made my parents two years ago for Christmas to keep them warm through their respective battles with cancer.

The original "ribbon lady" I already pointed out symbolizes the end of this verse, "they will walk and not be faint". The praying ribbon lady symbolizes "those who hope in the Lord"; the eagle symbolizes those who will "soar on wings like eagles"; and the last one (top right) symbolizes those who will "run and not grow weary". The verse is sewn in red thread around the black border of the quilt. The reverse is white with a block patterned border, and there is a red rope-like trim to the quilt. The quilt fits a queen sized bed.

The quilt was listed on eBay for 10 days and the Lee's Summit Journal did an awesome piece on it. (If you're interested, here's the link: http://www.lsjournal.com/100/story/37603.html) In the end, my Aunt Barbara was the winner with a bid of $200! Thank you Barbara for your contribution. What great support for my mom!