Joshua's 3rd Birthday

Today is Joshua's third birthday. Grandma, Aunt Donna, and Aunt Kim took him and his brothers and cousins out to Chuck E Cheese's for his birthday. Jeremy is still in California and I am here in Palestine, so neither of us are able to be there with him, but Grandma assured us she'd take lots of pictures :) I will post them when I receive them.

This past month has been an interesting one. My Dad is doing better and will be returning to work this weekend, Praise the Lord! His radiation has been effective and has shrunk the tumors in his brain by a third. The radiation will continue to work for about three months, but we know that his life is in God's hands. He starts chemotherapy this Tuesday (June 2nd) and will have treatments administered one day every three weeks for 6 cycles (one cycle being one administration). Lord willing this will help to reduce the cancer and, Lord willing, stop it's growth for quite some time, although the doctors are only hoping to increase his quality of life for the average of 12-14 months that someone with my Dad's stage of cancer typically lasts. He is still in God's hands, though, and we know that God can work miracles if it is His will. Oh! I also got the privilege of shaving my Dad's and Grandpa's heads! Dad was losing all of his hair from the radiation so Grandpa said he would get his head shaved in honor of my Dad and I got to shave both of them! Grandpa let the boys help! :)

The boys have been having fun going back and forth between Houston, where Jeremy's parent's live, and here in Palestine where my parent's live. I have some pictures of the boys playing with Grandpa that I will post for you here. Thank you all for your prayers and support of our family through this!

James holding new baby cousin Kaitlyn (Jeremy's sister Kim's daughter)

Joshua wearing Papaw's glasses (Jeremy's Dad)

My Daddy with all his hair before radiation

James and his drawing of Superman!

Jonathan with Grandpa's hat and Pops' ( my Grandpa) cane

The boys having fun rolling down the grassy hill :)

Shaving Dad's head

Joshua helping shave Pops' head

Beautiful Bald men :)

James and Grandpa

Jonathan loving on Abby

sitting by the garden plot with Grandpa

Jonathan on Grandpa's knee

waiting patiently

Sometimes it is not easy to wait. I feel torn in three pieces right now, but must wait for God's timing to move. I am currently staying with my Parents who live with my grandparents. Dad is doing ok, but very tired. We found out through his new doctor that his cancer is more spread than we realized and the spots are larger than we realized. It is inoperable. The boys are with Jeremy's parents and Jeremy is still in California and I miss them all. And I must wait. please continue to pray for us.

My Grandpa Strong (My Dad's Dad) passed away in March. He was a wonderful man and will be very missed.

crazy hair and sprinklers

Daddy gave the boys baths one day and they came out looking like this. We let them play in the sprinkler outside the next day before washing out all the goop in their hair.

baby shower

I was also able to go to Vanessa's baby shower in March. It was wonderful to see our Oki family again! I wish I had taken more pictures.

The boys playing... James really needed his friend time!

JP, Aaron, and James

wonderful friends

Cathy and Vaness with their quilts

month of March

The month of March was a lot of fun for us with my sister here. We made some pillows and a quilt for her, went up to Lake Tahoe and played on the beach and in the snow (Mari took most of the snow pictures), and had a lot of fun just hanging out. Here are some pictures of her visit.

Jonathan hamming it up on the beach

The boys at Lake Tahoe at sunset

A mountain view of Lake Tahoe

The quilt Mari and I made for her

The pillows and the back of the quilt

In the snowy mountains

A walk in the snow


it's squishy

Making snow angels


There it is :)


Making a snowman


Not bad, Boys ;)


Snowball fight!


thigh deep in snow

Prayer request

About three weeks ago my Dad started losing function on the left side of his body. He went in to the doctor this past Monday and they thought he might have had a small stroke so they scheduled an MRI to check on him. They found two lumps on his brain. They sent him to a better hospital in another town (this happened yesterday morning) and that hospital ran more tests and found that my Dad has masses all over the organs on the left side of his body: his lungs, brain, liver, and kidney (adrenal gland). They have diagnosed him with stage four (last stage) cancer and have given him about a year to live. Please pray for my family. Pray for God's peace. Pray for our decision making. Please pray.