I cannot believe it's been 5 years since the day that haunts us and blesses us at the same time. November 17th 2011 was the day Jarrod miraculously had his tumor removed. That tumor was considered impossible to completely remove. We are so thankful for Jesus Christ and His supernatural power. We are thankful for His grace that spared Jarrod's life spiritually and physically. God has done exceedingly more than we have asked or imagined!
Jarrod is still tumor free to this day. He is working full time and supporting our family of five. Jarrod continues to walk with a cane but also continues to improve and progress. More feeling in his body has also been restored which means his nerves are continuing to heal. The doctors gave him just two years to improve but we are on year 5 and his healing and progress continues. On Thanksgiving, the children and I decided to go for a walk. Jarrod went outside just to watch so he stepped out without his cane. When they saw daddy outside, they cheered for him to walk with us without his cane. He couldn't deny them so he came. He walked from our house to the end of the street and back home without his cane. Another miracle for the books!
The night after Thanksgiving, we visited the hospital Jarrod stayed at for a month five years ago. We have the fondest memories of celebrating Thanksgiving with our families that year. I know it sounds strange but it was one of the best Thanksgivings because the gift of life was more precious to us. We weren't bombarded with all the tasks of preparing a holiday that we are supposed to express gratitude but are too stressed to enjoy it. We were able to truly celebrate life and genuinely be thankful for all of God's blessings. This year we wanted to reminisce and continue our celebration of life there. We also wanted to visit some of the nurses and staff that are so dear to us. Unfortunately, most of them were not there. Only one of them were working that night. He had us take selfies on his phone to show the rest of the staff that were not there. We were able to share our story again to the other nurses that we never met and bless them with gratitude for their hard work. It was a blessing to us to bless them. As we were reminiscing, we were approached by a wife of one of the patients there. She asked us questions about Jarrod's tumor, what the doctors said his outcome would be, etc. She then told us about her husband who just had his third surgery to remove parts of a brain tumor. The doctors are unable to remove the entire tumor because they don't want to harm any parts of the brain. Because they've tried surgeries and radiation without success, they are now on experimental treatment. Just like Jarrod, his outcome is unknown. We then got the chance to meet her husband and speak with the both of them. Our hearts ached for them. They had two young children at home waiting for their daddy to come home. We felt the pain they all were feeling. I couldn't fight the tears on this one. Our hearts broke for them. They wanted to know how we went through it and so we shared with them how our Savior Jesus Christ carried us through the entire journey. He is the one that gave us our hope, our drive, our victory, our perseverance, and our joy. We left their room with an ache in our hearts and tears in our eyes. They didn't share the hope we had. You could feel the pain and sadness in their room. I can't imagine going through what we did without God. Some might say that our "religion" or our God is just our crutch. I respond, why yes He is! Without our "Crutch" or a more relatable word, "CANE", we would fall flat on our face! Our hope, regardless of what happens in our lives is in Heaven and in Jesus Christ. His Word tells us to "set our minds on things above." This world is so temporary and tomorrow is promised to no one but when you have the God of LIFE as your foundation, you have a lasting hope that will not fail you.
Again our hearts ache for this family we met, for more reasons than one. Join us in praying for them. Pray for healing physically and spiritually. Pray that they will find the hope that continues to get us through. Pray that God would also use us! We would love to bless them the way so many have blessed us.
Agsin, we are so thankful for everyone of you who have prayed for us, blessed us, encouraged us, and helped us along this journey. We remember each one of you and pray for you. To this day you continue to bless us. Just last week one of you put our Christmas lights up on our house and a couple of you carried our Christmas tree and placed it inside our home. I could keep going with the many ways you all continue to help us. We will forever be grateful for each one of you. Thank you for inspiring hope in our lives.
