Praise you in this storm!

Ever come across a song, a painting, a sunset...anything that just stops you in your tracks? Strangest thing, this morning, after dropping the kids off at school, I had one of those moments. The Casting Crowns song "Praise you in this storm" comes on the radio...actually, I don't even remember recognizing that the song was on until I was tearing up. I then realized the song and just couldn't hardly hold it together. I pulled over, just sat and listened to the song, prayed and just soaked it in. Wow, what an experience!

"...You are who You are, no matter where I am..." Could anything better summarize where we are right now?

5 down -1 to go!!!

We (Janis) switched the days of the chemo treatment up a bit this time and instead of what would have been the normal day (last Friday), she scheduled it for today (Tuesday). It was close, some of her blood levels were getting close. We, like many other families have been bombarded with a particularly pesky bug this past weekend. It has come on pretty quickly (I could feel it coming on Sunday) and it hit sunday night-kids were out of school Monday and Janis was wiped out. Fortunately, it seems the bug is moving pretty quickly and kids were back in school today, I was feeling much better and Janis was cleared to take another treatment. We are on fever watch...so if her temperature rises we will be calling the Dr. for some sort of voodoo or magic potion to help her get thru it. Pray for an uneventful week.

Thanks again to all who are continuing to bring dinners and pray for us....it really is a huge help to have the support.

Chemo -Treatment 4

4 treatments down, 2 more to go. Janis won't really allow us to count this one as 'down' yet until she makes it thru the first week after the chemo. I don't blame her, this is a rough week and all indications are that it will be 'typical'....

Continued Thank you's for all still praying for us and helping out!


Joh 3:16 "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.
Joh 3:17 God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.
Joh 3:18 Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!!!!!

Col 3:15 Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness.

Thank you just isn't enough. Janis' cancer crop was a great success. There were tons of participants (I realize not necessarily a great choice of descriptors when all that attended were women, but will take my chances). Thank you to all who participated, donated, stopped by, helped out, organized it... Thank you so much.

THANK YOU!

What a week! -glad its over.

Ecc 1:11 Nobody remembers what happened yesterday. And the things that will happen tomorrow? Nobody'll remember them either. Don't count on being remembered.

Been a while since the last entry. This was a tougher than normal week by our recent standards. Part of it was just a normal life happening with a couple boys going to school, playing basketball, etc...another part was the chemo and the reaction to that....and part of it was adding on a sick kid at the beginning of last week. I really was feeling overwhelmed, smothered last week....apparently getting through this cancer stuff isn't going to be easy.


Thanks to all that is continuing to pray for us and help us through with meals, support, hitting me with the racketball...after making it through a week like that, I am encouraged more than ever that we will make it through the weeks ahead.

Chemo -Treatment 3

Janis had her third chemo treatment today. Unfortunately, this is becoming routine. Now that we are into this cycle, its pretty predictable how she will be and how the medicines are affecting her. Janis is taking a TCH treatment along with a shot of Neulasta to boost the white blood cells. The first cycle, due to the floods, she didn't get the neulasta until the following week. Janis had a pretty good weekend (I couldn't hardly keep up with her) The second cycle she had the shot along with all the other medicine and she pretty much was wiped out with flu-like symptoms all weekend. With all the events going on this weekend (Hayden has 3 BBALL games and the cancer crop) she wanted to put her in the best chance to be able to attend as much of the festivities as she can so she decided against the neulasta until next week. Well that plan seems to have worked...but this time, her blood work indicated she is a bit anemic...so instead of a shot to boost the white blood cells, she received a shot to boost her red blood cells. Anyone want to guess at what the side-affects are for this shot? Please answer in the form of a question....What are flu-like symptoms? Yes, you guessed it. So far, so good as the flu-like symptoms haven't hit quite yet. Janis, went down to the school to see if there was any help needed so we dropped her off and came back and played some video games.

I said to Janis today, after the appointment, that its half time....3 down, 3 to go....she said she won't call it half time until she gets thru the first week that has been giving her the most trouble with the nausea.

Crop out Cancer January 19th

Janis' friends are putting together a fund raiser for cancer related medical expenses. Here are the details;

The Janis Dobyns Cancer Fundraising Crop will be on Saturday, January 19th from 9am to 9pm at the Centralia Christian School. For $30, people receive a light breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as table space to work on whatever craft project they would like to bring. Stefanie Wahl is organizing the event with the help of Janis's Scrapbooking Club. For more information about the event, call 748-3906 or 748-8734.

Also, email: mailto:dobynsteammom@yahoo.com