October 18 (Saturday)

Yesterday (Friday) marked the end of the first week of 5 weeks of chemo. Joel did very well and did not have any side effects. They left the needle in his port-a-cath the whole week and, after the first day, it did not bother him very much. He just had to be careful not to touch it or let anything or anyone get too close. They removed it and his stitches yesterday and now he can take a full shower and be a little more free to move around. We will start again Monday for the 2nd week of treatments. His brother, Jeter, will be taking him since I have training classes for the upcoming elections. I work for the local election precinct and I feel this is something I really need to do.

We received word this week that a very dear friend of ours who serves on the Association of Christian Schools International board with Joel has been diagnosed with cancer. He has a very good attitude about this and we all pray that God will also touch him as He has touched Joel.

Wednesday evening, our church held a blood drive in Joel's honor. They had a goal of 50 pints and reached that goal. We appreciate all the donors and volunteers who helped make this successful.

We are so grateful for our pastoral staff and friends who have lifted us up in prayer during this time.Please continue to pray for Joel. This is just the beginning of a very long process that will take him until April of 2010 at which time he should be finished with all of the chemo. We are so optomistic that his treatments will be successful and that through all this, God will be glorified and that lives will be touched.

Through these next 4 weeks, I will probably only post once a week unless something changes in the routine. Again, thanks for all your prayers. Joel and I really enjoy reading the comments you are leaving on the blog. Please keep this up as it really brightens our sometime routine days.