…there are still miracles at work in this world.

I went to Jacob’s site this morning, worried about what I would find. He had been doing better the last few days and was even off the oxygen. But I was still concerned. Well, my friends, it seems a miraculous work is afoot. Since Jacob was doing so well, they decided they might want to do another round of chemotherapy on him but first wanted to run a tumor marker test. This test generally will show if the treatment is working or not. And this time – it’s working! The numbers have dropped significantly and are showing that the tumor is dying! They’ve decided to go with another round of chemo for now and see what happens.

Please keep praying for Jacob and his family! It is amazing to me the strength and faith the Duckworth family has through it all. They are a real inspiration to me and so many others.

I can’t begin to express my feelings about the tragedy on the Gulf coast. I am a news junkie and spent most of Sunday afternoon and evening lying on my bed flipping between CNN, FoxNews and the Weather Channel. I became very attached to one reporter on Fox who was in the French Quarter and who was becoming increasingly concerned about his own safety and that of the people he had met as the day wore on. I watched in disbelief as they packed thousands of folks who had no where to go and no means to go into the Superdome.

I am in awe of the power of that which we have no control over – weather disasters, fire, etc. It is unbelievable to me how much devastation can be wrought in a few hours – lives lost and homes destroyed. I think it will be a few days until we truly know the depth of this tragedy but I already feel the grief for all that is lost.

I wish that I could pick up and go down there to help in any way. I wish I could even just help one person. It troubles me to not be able to do that when things like this happen…

Wow, it has been quite a week.

Monday, I had p/t right after work. Tuesday, I had an appointment and then led home group. Wednesday, three of us travelled to and from the Poconos for a funeral. Thursday, I had a youth group leaders meeting and Friday afternoon I left for an overnight leadership retreat for 10, 11 and 12 year olds. I ended up sleeping in a cabin in the woods with ten girls and another female leader. No bathroom – you had to walk through the camp to the bathhouse. Oh, how lovely it was.

But the icing on the cake was when we were cleaning up the cabin yesterday, getting ready to leave. I had one of the girls sweeping and the others cleaning and packing up – when a snake crawled out from under someone’s mattress. Suffice it to say, there were ten screaming, freaking out girls in my cabin. Finally one of them shoved it out and off the porch with a broom. As far as we can tell, the boys put it in there in retribution for being sprayed with a supersoaker……LOVELY. But I have to say, after my initial SHOCK, I handled it fairly well. I had about eight ideas running through my head while the girls were screaming but the one with the broom acted faster!

So, I am home, exhausted and not at all ready to return to the workforce tomorrow. I think I need a vacation! Anyone have a rental on an island, far, far away from civilization (but no snakes or spiders, either, please!)

A sad update – one of the Caringbridge kids I follow passed away today. Colin (see link) had been having a very hard time lately and got very sick a few days ago and there was nothing left for the doctors to do except make him comfortable. Please pray for his family.

Please pray for the Duckworth family. Jacob is one of my Caringbridge kids (see link to the left) and they have just learned that there is no treatment left for him and he may only have a few days to live. I’m so shocked and saddened by this…yet I can’t even begin to imagine what the family is going through. Yet through it all, their faith remains unwavering. Jacob’s dad posted John 16:22 on their site:

Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.

Even after working for a cancer network for over six years, I’m still astounded by how complex each case can be and how even the most aggressive treatments may work for some and not others. It breaks my heart to see and hear of so many struggling and so many losing the battle. I pray that one day, all the people working so hard in this fight will find a way to prevent cancer all together…and in the meantime, to continue to find new and better treatments to help people survive.

Or maybe make that crazy bee! I feel like I am running constantly this week. There is so much going on. It’s been pretty calm for a while but it always throws me off when I have a week like this. But I have some dear friends who are helping me to get through it with my head still attached! And I am thankful every day for them – and for all of you! : )

We had a youth group picnic today at Neshaminy Creek…while the boys played cards, the girls captured crayfish…. 

My friend Kym and her family adopted a nine-week old Burmese Mountain Dog yesterday. He is just a big ball of fluff! And such a sweet guy too.  

This is Missy-girl about two weeks ago. What a cutie she is! She is behaving really well and getting along with the boys but is scared of the traffic on their road, the lawn mower and the sheep next door… 

Whew! Today has been quite a day so far. I took the day off from work and my mom came down to help me clean up my basement. After seeing how a friend in the neighborhood had done hers, I wanted to create a space where kids can play when they come over or I can do crafts/scrapbooking and leave things spread out. But the basement was quite…well…crowded? That’s probably an understatement. I had a ton of junk. Some boxes had never even been opened from when I moved in two years ago.

We sorted and I had a ruthless attitude – if I hadn’t opened it or didn’t know what was in it, it was history. We ended up filling up the entire back of the Forester with stuff (stacked to the roof – we couldn’t even close the hatch all the way) and taking it to a local thrift store. I have about that much stuff to trash too – they’re going to love me on trash day! But the basement is much better organized and we’ve cleared a nice size space out. I can’t wait to get a rug and some things up down there to make it more like a finished room.

The best part,though, was spending the day with mamacita. She is so very organized (and a cleaning freak!) and I knew that she would be able to whip me and my evil basement into shape. Plus she knocked down all the cobwebs and spiders, which is a major thing in my spider-fearing book!

So now my back is yelling at me and I am in major need of a nap! But maybe that means I will sleep well tonight. I haven’t worked that hard since workcamp so I sure hope so.

TTFN!