Joel's Life and Legacy

Every time I have tried to sit down to write this post I have not been able to do it.  So today, I am going to try my hardest to get it done.

My brother Joel passed from this earth into Heaven for all eternity on Friday, May 31st, 2013 at the age of 41.  He had a long struggle with metastatic colon cancer and finally has relief and healing from his pain and suffering.  It was hard to see him suffer for such a time and to such a degree.  And yet, every time I spoke with him or saw him in person he seemed to handle his suffering with much grace.  He was usually more concerned with me and how I was doing than he was with himself.  And that is just the kind of guy he was - one to look out for others.  He exemplified love and compassion to all kinds of people and animals his whole life, and everyone who ever met him loved him.  Joel was a loving son, brother, husband, father and friend.  He is greatly missed here, even though we know that he is celebrating new life in Heaven.

In his last days and months, Joel was telling everyone he knew where his hope was.  He was telling them all about how he was reading 1 Corinthians 15 in the Bible and that his hope was in Heaven and the resurrection of Christ.  Oh to be so bold as he was...I am inspired and also encouraged.  When we lost our little Solveig, Joel was deeply saddened.  He couldn't understand why such a thing would happen to us.  And he wanted so much for us to be able to have another baby.  Joel was so excited when our little Squeaker was born this April.  We had prayed that God would allow Squeaker to be born perhaps just a little bit early so that he could meet his Uncle Joel before he died.  God answered our prayers.  11 days after Squeaker was born, Erik and I drove down with our little guy to see Joel and his family.  We had a really special visit...

There are more things I'd like to say about Joel and I hope to do so very soon.  Thank you to everyone for praying for all of us as we're grieving the loss of my brother.  Please be praying for Joel's wife and their three children.  The kids are here in these pictures.  We love them all very much and their loss hurts our hearts more than our own.

Please Pray For Joel

Friends,

We were blessed to have the opportunity to go and visit my brother Joel this past Thursday.  It was so good to spend some time with him.  My parents were there with Erik and I, and we had the chance to lay hands on Joel and pray over him.  It was a very powerful time.  And there were also some funny moments.  You see, Joel is a goofy guy and has a great sense of humor.  That comes in handy during moments of extreme pain.  As we walked with him through the hallways of his hospital, he had his little i_P_od in hand and he played us some new tunes that he had downloaded.  People were trying to figure out where the songs were coming from.  Only Joel could get away with playing his tunes in the hallways of the hospital!  It was fun and it made all of us smile. :)  He had his landmarks on the walk, including the different water fountains and the different statues.  (He even touched one statue for good luck!  That's my brother!  Funny.)  And he greeted people as he passed them too - he is a very friendly guy, and his kind spirit is contagious.  I'm so proud of him.  And my heart hurts to see him aching, literally aching in his physical body.  He was in a ton of pain that day, and no pain medicine could touch his pain.  How I wish I could have taken the pain from him.

I just spoke to Joel tonight.  He seemed to be in good spirits.  And he told me that he is set to have a CT scan tomorrow at the hospital.  We would love your prayers for my brother and for this new CT.

We know that He is in control.  The Lord is on His throne, always.  He is with Joel.  And He is with us.

I hope that you had a blessed Mother's Day.  It was bittersweet, to say the least.  I will write more about that later...

Blessings to you,
Love,
Melody

Pray...Brother Joel

UPDATE ON JOEL 5/7/12 - Thank you for praying for Joel!  His surgery today went well and he is currently recovering.  Please continue to pray for him...pray against infection, pray for complete recovery...thank you so much.

It has been awhile since I've posted anything about my brother Joel.  Here's a brief synopsis of Joel's history:

Joel is married and has three children.  He was diagnosed with colon cancer in the fall of 2009 at age 37.  At that time, he had major surgery to remove a large portion of his colon.  Then he went through chemo. for awhile and was finally declared cancer free. Two years later, his cancer reappeared, this past fall of 2011.  However, this time the cancer was in different places - his liver and his lungs.  Joel underwent some more chemo. and then the dr.'s checked to see if his cancer had shrunk or spread.   Apparently his liver tumor has now shrunk some and his lung tumors are stable.

Tomorrow, Joel will be having liver surgery.  Approximately one third of his liver will be removed.

Please pray for Joel and his family.  Many of you have been praying for him these past few years, and we so appreciate that.

Thank you so much.  I love my brothers and am so blessed to have them in my life.

The below picture captured a fun moment with my brothers and our dear uncle last Easter in our home...

left to right - Brothers Joel & Eric and our Uncle Ron - Easter 2011

Loss, Hope and Thankfulness

Dear Friends and Family,

My abandonment of this blog is due to my love for my sweet little family and the busyness of our lives. Simply put, most days I'd rather just be with them and do life than spend time typing something up for the blog. But alas, today I feel the need to write something to document the things that have been happening in our lives.

Loss and Hope...

A few weeks ago we were so excited to find out that we were to be expecting our third little baby. What a gift. After praying and yearning for another child for a long time, God blessed us with this little one. However, after just over a week of officially knowing that we were pregnant, we lost our little baby. It has been a tough but good week. Our friends and family members have rallied around us and have been so encouraging. We are so grateful. My dear man has been incredibly loving and sweet and that has meant so much to me. We have felt uplifted in prayer and have truly known an immense amount of peace. Praise be to our God and Father. One of my very dear friends who has been through similar loss said to me, "nothing anybody said really helped me, but the one thing that got me through was knowing that my little babies were safe in the arms of Jesus." Amen to that. I've thought of that so much this week. Thank you, sweet friend, for sharing that with me. And not to be pessimistic, but I just have to say that I really felt that I might lose this child. It was as though God had been preparing me for YEARS for this to happen. I have heard so many stories of miscarriage, infant and child loss and have always wondered not if but when would it be my turn to experience that. And here we are. Again, I have so much amazing peace. And I am okay. And I know that God is absolutely in control of this situation, just as He has been in control of every other situation in my life. And I also have great HOPE that perhaps He will bless us with another child in the future, if He should so choose. For now, we rest knowing that He knows the plans He has for us.

Thankfulness...

This Thanks_giving time, I am so filled with thankfulness for my family and my friends. God has blessed me with such a dear bunch of people in my world. To my husband and our sweet Bug and Buzz, thank you for being connected to me. Thank you for loving me even when I'm kind of out there. Thank you for sticking by my side through thick and thin. This has been a seemingly interesting year of that. But HE will be praised, and we will glorify HIM together through this.

I am thankful for the family I was born into. Thank you Mom, Dad, and brothers for being there for me and for sharing life with me. This Thanks_giving, we are all so filled with gratitude to have my brother Joel here with us after his very challenging and difficult year of cancer and surgeries and trials. If you have been following his story, right now is another interesting turning point for him. Please please pray for Joel and for his family. And may the Lord be glorified through Joel's life and through this entire situation.

What are you thankful for this week? May the Lord bless you this Thanksgiving. May He clearly show you His presence in your life and His truth.

Much Love from the frozen, beautiful, snowy north land...

Yeah Spring!

I'm SO excited that it is starting to get "springy" outside. YIPPEE!!! When it hits the 40's in this land, I just want to put on my shorts and t-shirts and run around outside for hours. Well, or at least not wear a jacket, which I've been doing a lot lately. It's glorious. Everyone seems happier, and that's a lovely thing.

While I type, my kids are running around with Ea_ster eggs and Mr. Po_tato He_ad parts, chasing each other. It's good to see them playing together.

This post is very random so far, so why not continue the randomness, eh?

My mom just found out that her yearly (or bi-annual?) scans for cancer came back FREE once again! We're so excited! This means it has been 9 years since she was declared cancer-free. Hallelujah! Praise to God alone. We're thrilled. On the flipside, my brother J is still dealing with his cancer and the chemo. treatments. He has a lot of pain after his chemo. and then starts to feel better right before he gets hit up with the treatment again. I guess that's just how it goes. But I don't remember it being quite as painful for my mom when she went through it. I suppose it is hard to compare one's pain to another, as we all respond differently and tolerate pain in different ways. And they have/had very different cancers that manifested differently, so that is part of it as well. Cancer is so interesting. I'm reminded again of the phrase "cancer is not limited." J certainly hasn't let it limit him. He went outside a few days ago to prune trees, even with pain. I'm so glad he could do that. I'm sure it helped get his mind off of everything.

I'm waiting to see if I will be featured in a commercial for a local news station here as well as on the web for the clinic I went to for my colo_nos_copy. I volunteered to be interviewed for the clinic. I haven't heard yet, but I might also get asked to do a news interview in addition to the other interview. That would be neat. I'm so over the privacy of the situation, that I had the procedure done and that a polyp was found. I'm just incredibly greatful for this preventative medicine and hope things like this don't become limited or unavailable if our country decides to change he_alth_ca_re too much. But this is something I don't want to sit and worry about, so I'll try not to do that.

On another note, my honey and I are enjoying lots of time reading and talking together lately. It has been such a good bonding experience. We're learning and growing in our marriage, and I'm grateful for it.

Well, must log off...tis nappy time...hope to post pics soon.

Almost Christmas!

WOW, I cannot believe that it has been several months since I last posted anything. Of course, life will always be busy with small adorable children under foot, but seriously, I think it has gotten BUSIER than I could've imagined! :) I'm so glad to have these wee ones under foot though. Buzz is now 17 months - where has the time gone? He started walking at 15. 5 months and running about 3 weeks later. Little Man is VERY busy and has a hard time sitting still for long - kind of like his sweet Daddy! And Big Bug is my very chatty, busy and mostly happy three and a half year old. She has been singing a LOT lately, which is really sweet. In fact, about a month ago, Bug sang a little duet with me at church when we joined my parents in their program for the senior citizens. It was so sweet that I could barely sing with her - the tears were massively hanging out in my eyes as my little girl was singing "into my heart, into my heart, come into my heart Lord Jesus. Come in today, come in to stay, come into my heart Lord Jesus." I have fallen in love with that piece since I heard it on the new Se_lah album, which in case I haven't mentioned before is one of my favorite groups. I love their renditions of hymns and new songs as well.

In other news, I'm busily getting ready to make gingerbread houses with my kids and my dear friend C and her kids this week. That will be so much fun, I can hardly wait! My grandiose plans of creating the gingerbread myself went to pot last night as I realized that I really don't have the time to make gingerbread this week...and that's okay. SO, we're going to do the easier route of using graham crackers, and they'll be really cute and work well!

This past week was Thanksgiving, and I must say I'm very thankful for my family and friends. I'm especially thankful that my brother Joel could be with us for the holiday along with his darling family. Joel was recently diagnosed with colon cancer, had surgery to remove a large mass, has a colostomy now and has begun his chemotherapy treatment at a sister hospital to a very major medical center here in MN. The whole ordeal has completely shaken me and I'm still trying to process it. It was nine years ago that my mom was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and in the same year was HEALED of that wild cancer that had ravaged her body. We are so grateful to have her here. And we are praying for healing for my brother Joel. I'm learning once again to trust in the Lord through this time and to ask for His peace upon my brother and his family. Lord, be near to them.

May you have a lovely few weeks leading up to Christmas. I'll hopefully write more soon and add some pics of my family. Blessings be upon you.