Winter Storm Leon – 1/31/14 Update

Dear Friends and Family,

Well this certainly has been a different week for us southerners!  In all my life I’ve never seen anything like what happened on Tuesday!  I had just dropped Mark off at an FCA directors meeting and decided since the weather was clear to go ahead and stop at Whole Foods – I came to quickly realize this was a bad decision!  When I came out just 30 minutes later there was snow everywhere and the traffic was already awful!  It took me 4 hours to get home which is about 10 miles.  My main concern was Mark – riding in the car is not a pleasant thing for him right now and sometimes a 30 minute ride can cause him tremendous pain. Long story short – it took Bill and Mark 5 hours to get to our house and when he got there Praise God he was feeling pretty good – Mark said the whole way home God just gave him peace and comfort and calmness – I was so thankful!  Our daughter plus an old friend ended up staying the night with us as they were stuck and couldn’t get home.  I was just very glad when all my family got to their homes.  Many spent the night out and we felt very fortunate to be home!

Due to the weather Mark missed two radiation treatments and his appointment with the surgeon about his colostomy.  We are back on track now and he should have 5 treatments next week as well as a procedure on Wednesday to put two stents into his kidneys replacing the one he has there now.  We think the tumor may be shrinking some so keep praying!!  We trust God can shrink that thing completely!!  His pain is about the same but the meds are really helping.  I will say however, if you get an odd text or email from Mark or you’re visiting with him and he either repeats himself or suddenly falls asleep then just know – it’s the drugs!!  I’ve actually had quite a few laughs.  One quick story – he recently had a DVD he wanted to watch and asked me to set up the laptop so he could watch it.  He fell asleep in the middle of it so when he woke up he watched it again – two days later Jessica is here and I come downstairs to find her setting up the TV so he could watch this DVD – he thought he had never seen it!!  We just have to laugh at these things – Mark will laugh too once we explain it to him sometimes more than once!

We were recently discussing trust in the Lord and how we’ve learned to trust in a different way.  You may have heard people say before as we had that they daily trust the Lord and sometimes it’s hour by hour or minute by minute but until the past few years neither one of us had experienced that.  Now, that is how our life is – we do trust God daily but on the hard days it’s hour by hour or minute by minute and we rely on Him more and more.  I understand why we learn to trust Him more in the hard times but wish it were like that all the time!  God has been so good to us in both the good and the bad and we see Him in all circumstances.  We are both extremely thankful for what we have learned and what He has taught us.  

Please continue to join us in praying for a miracle!  God has this and we trust Him with it!  Pray that God will be glorified and that we will seek opportunities to share His love with those we come across.  

I hope you all have a wonderful week-end!

With much Love and Gratitude,

Mark and Lee

Isaiah 61:3

To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”

Psalm 9:10

 “And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.”

Psalm 22:4 

“Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.”