Well it’s another brief update here.   It’s been a busy but good week.   I just typed a message for our home church in Nome, and I’m once again going to copy it here.   My lymph edema has been a bit better, but my hand is still so puffy.   Typing still makes that worse.   For the first time in months, it seems to me that the Lord is lingering near, I’m crying a lot more but feeling comforted a lot more too.   Hmmm, odd significance there.

I thought you’d enjoy some pics of what we’re up to here.   We just celebrated Christmas with my grandparents tonight.   It was so fun!   Grandma even left up the Christmas decorations for us!  An amazing family we had never even met brought dinner for our family on a really busy and overwhelming day.   More than the amazing food they shared with us (Have you ever had carrot soufflé’ - How have I lived so long without knowing about carrot souffle’?) I was blessed by the knowledge that they had been praying for us for so long.  It is humbling and enriching to be loved by strangers!

God gave me grace in my radiation prep... my mobility after surgery is still limited, and trying to lift my arms into the braces so they could prepare me for laser placement was excruciating.  I honestly didn’t think I could do it, but somehow the grace was there and it’s over.   Yeah!    Things seem to move a bit slowly there, but I am so hopeful to start as soon as possible.

If  you don’t mind reading someone else’s mail, I’m going to once again copy the letter I just sent to Nome Covenant.   It seems the easiest way to get this updated and still get some sleep tonight!

  Dear Church Family,

I have heard of your sacrificial fasting and prayer for us, and I just want you to know how very grateful I am.   My radiation prep is completed, I am just awaiting them to schedule my first treatment.   Hopefully monday will see that finalized.

I feel that the Lord has really been unifying Nathaniel and my heart as we have talked through options and about how to proceed.   I'll bet that's a direct answer to someone's prayer there at Nome Covenant.   Thank you!   We've been looking at everything from traditional stuff at top cancer centers to unconventional stuff out of the country.   Our hearts are very open to what God would have us do.   We're weeding through piles of paperwork, suggestions, phone numbers to call.   A few things have clarified, and we have pursued appointments with those doctors.

One doctor it seems to be impossible to get in to, but she keeps rising to the top as the next consultation we need to make.   On Friday we had some special time in prayer that the Lord would open a door if He was wanting us to get an appointment (it is at the Cleveland Clinic Cancer Center.).   Within an hour, someone from their office actually called us!   Through a set of small miracles, I ended up on the phone with Nicole, who is very interested in our situation and asked us to send my files.   She's working to figure out exactly who we are supposed to see, and seems to be really purposeful in making sure that I will be able to consult there.   I am so grateful to the Lord for working this out, and I'm praying that He will work through Nicole and enable her to connect the necessary dots to get us in there quickly.

Soon after I was diagnosed, I was reading about Paul and Silas in prison.   I always know about how they were freed from their chains, but this time I noticed what preceded.   They were stripped, beaten, unjustly tried, taken to the inmost cell, put in stocks, and then they sat in pain as the hours passed.   At last we find them singing at midnight.   I see in that story that God sometimes asks His children to wait a long time while a lot goes wrong.    I suppose they would have been glad to never be arrested, even as I would gladly have never had cancer.   I don't know what is ahead in this story God is writing for us.   I'd like to think it's near midnight, and He's about to blow the bars of this joint, and we will be freed from this prison of sickness and pain.   But maybe it's only 9:00 PM, and there are long hours to pass ahead.   I know some of you are in your own cells, different than mine, but nonetheless trying to our souls.   Let's not give the enemy a single moment of victory.   Let's not take the easy road of doubt and blame.   What do you say we sing together till midnight comes?   May the chorus send the enemy fleeing and rejoice the heart of our Savior.

I love you all so much!

Singing with you, Carlee for Nathaniel as well