HEALER- Kari Jobe

Clinging to these words today. He IS the Great Healer. Trusting in his goodness...

Need your prayers!

TUESDAY, October 19th
After visiting the surgeon today, my Mom found out that she has a cancerous tumour in her thyroid. She has had several thyroid surgeries in the past which means there is a great deal of scar tissue, making the now needed surgery virtually impossible to complete, without rupturing the vocal chords. The tumour is growing at a very rapid pace and there is now concern that if it isn't removed promptly, it may start to seep through the walls of the thyroid and into her blood stream. So essentially... this is a seemingly "lose-lose" situation. If she has the operation, she'll likely never speak again. And if she doesn't, it could be fatal. As you can imagine, the fear is very real for all of us right now, and though we're trying to keep an optimistic outlook, this is incredibly scary.

Her surgery has been set for Nov. 24 but it is very likely that they'll be shooting to do it on Nov. 3rd as the surgeon has an open day. This will be confirmed within the next few days.

Please pray for a number of things:
- pray for guidance & wisdom for the doctor as he performs this very risky surgery
- pray that the vocal chords will go untouched
- pray that the doctor will be able to remove ALL of the tumour
- pray for deep PEACE for Mom and our family

Thank-you for interceding in this way. I know Mom will appreciate all the prayer she can get!

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Friday, October 22

We could use more prayer for my Mom. She just got more discouraging news today.

The surgeon that was supposed to be performing the surgery in November has now called to say that he just doesn't feel comfortable doing it, and has decided to refer her to another specialist in Vancouver. This comes as a great discouragement because the fear is that now it will take even longer to get the surgery done. She's already been put through the "ringer" for the last 9 months, and the thought of having to go through MORE testing and waiting LONGER is absolutely defeating.

Please pray that this new surgeon will get back to her immediately, and that the surgery won't be delayed any longer. This is tough enough as it is, let alone the thought of it being put off.

Thanks & we'll try to keep you posted.

From baby to little girl...

Its hard to believe Callie is already 15 months old--- though her independent personality is starting to resemble that of a 2 year olds, more and more each day, so I guess its not that surprising that she's nearing the year and a half mark :)

She took her first steps shortly after her 1st birthday but "officially" started walking at 14 months. And now its hard to imagine her ever doing anything else. She runs around the house with such exuberance, I can't even remember what crawling looked like.

Put her in a room with other kids and she absolutely, 100% has my extroverted personality. She thrives! But as soon as she's in a room of adults, she's the most shy and quiet kid around. Strangest thing to watch.

Her vocabulary has absolutely exploded as of late. Some of her most common words are:

"Heeeello!"

"Awwwww done!" (all done)

"More"

"Peeeeez" (please)

"Tattoooo" (thank-you)

"Open it up"

"Ball"

"Puppy" & "woof, woof!" (and a whole myriad of other animal sounds)

"Happy"

"Baby"

"Mommy"

"Daddy"

"Hot" (which refers to anything hot OR cold... gotta work on that ;))

"Naa-naa" (which means nigh-night, and is what she calls her special blankie)

"Dallie!" (Callie)

"Eli" (her cousin... she just learned that today!)

"Taaa-daaa!"

"Ight!" (light)

"Shoes"

"Down"

"Up"

"Noooooo!" (we hear a lot of this one... hence the nearing 2 year old attitude!)

.... and so much more! We look forward to each new word or phrase and the hilarity it brings to the day. And the more she talks, the more her personality shines through. Its SO fun!

She still loves to sing and dance and now knows the actions to "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and especially loves the "down came the rain" part. She's also a bit of a "class clown" and loves to get a laugh.

INTENSE teething has become the new and literal "thorn in our flesh." The poor girl has been an absolute inconsolable mess for the last few days and we anticipate the arrival of molars or possibly eye teeth at any time.

Her love for "naaa-naa" (blankie) has grown immensely over the last few months and has become a true vice. It has to go EVERYWHERE with us. We've recently nicknamed her "Linus" because she walks around with her blankie draped over her shoulder and looks like the character out of "Charlie Brown."

Her love for the outdoors also grows each day. Our new house is just 2 minutes away from a field of horses, cows and even a donkey. She loves to visit them and wave hello! We're also just a 5 minute walk from the Vedder River trail. Anytime spent walking at the river makes for a very happy Callie.

One of my favorite things about Callie these days is her love of music. She bobs away in her car seat when we're listening to music in the car, and if you say, "Callie, can you sing us a song?" she automatically breaks out in singing. Its gibberish, mind you, but its cute nonetheless :)

Well... that's all the time I have right now so I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of Callie and her cousin Elijah. Eli & Auntie Viv came for coffee this morning so I snapped a few photos of the two cousins. Callie absolutely adores this little ray of sunshine...

A month of much...

I have been desperately wanting to post but have honestly had ZERO free time. MTE has been taking up most of our waking hours, between class time & homework, not to mention our very busy 15 month old. But life is good and we're intensely grateful for the way God has been moving in our hearts & lives. His provision has been abundant!

Thankfully, our class schedule is into more of a routine now and we mostly have half days (with the exception of full days on Wednesdays). September truly could've been referred to as "the month of much." Much class time, much learning, much transition, much homework, much mentoring, much exhaustion, much, much, MUCH! It was full and I'll admit, felt like more than I could handle at times, but we survived and it was truly, a great month of learning & growing.

Anyway... although I have been wanting to upload some new pictures, all I can offer today are a few videos of our "busy bee." Our iPhoto is full and I need to get some pictures off before I can add more. So for now, here is a glimpse of Callie-bear these days (although these videos were taken over a month ago). This is mostly for Uncle Craig & Auntie Jen :)

I'll write more later. Gotta go get the munchkin out of trouble ;)