Cade The Warrior

This week has been amazing. THANK YOU FOR PRAYING! We are so humbled by everyone who has reached out, sent a text, sent WAY TOO GENEROUS gifts. We have literally been surrounded by people throughout these past six weeks, all over the country, and close by who have refused to let us walk alone. I have been encouraged by each and every person who has reached out. It has not gotten lost in the shuffle- it has been an IV of hope to our family.  I am so glad when God said it wasn't good for man to be alone, He wasn't just talking about a spouse. We have needed people more than ever before in our lives, or at least recognized the supreme value of friends.  This week I've taken Cade and Lily every day to chemo, and brought a friend. It's a weird, unprecedented form of a hangout for me. But brave friends have said yes when I've asked, and in a place where I was anticipating loneliness, fear, and anxiety, light has invaded with blistering hope. We've prayed over ev...

Merry Christmas! We have had a really wonderful Christmas as a family, and Cade has been refusing naps, zooming cars around the floor, tackling Chad, and full of exuberant and boyish joy. We are incredibly, deeply thankful. He has been keeping all his food down, eating copious amounts of pancakes (that I snuck a lot of flax, juice plus protein powder, and whole milk into), and bananas and peanut butter. I'm praying for him to get good and fat and happy in the coming months. Cade finished radiation therapy last Friday, and several friends met us at 7 am that morning, with a motorized car with a gigantic bow on it for Cade to ride down the hallway to his last treatment. He rang the bell, did great, and woke up grumpy as usual. We are thankful that radiation is behind us, and that the last week of it (which was supposed to be the worst) actually turned out to be the best week of all the treatments. Cade had energy, ate tons, goofed around, and thrived. Wow. Thank you for praying....

One of my favorite places to eat in college (along with every other Baylor girl) was a little hole in the wall restaurant called Food for Thought. I think I basically went for the frozen yogurt. In all of my trips back to Baylor the past eight years I've never made it there again. Which is sad. Waco has been touched by Fixer Upper though so too many new things draw my attention.  I wanted to blog today just some verses, prayers, podcasts, songs that have been food for our thoughts lately. I always wondered on the outside of trials in other peoples' lives what they thought about, how they managed. I couldn't fathom walking through things, and I have a pretty vivid imagination so I was always attempting to walk in their shoes. This situation has me realizing no two people face trials similarly. What encourages me might totally depress someone else. I am motivated by things that are particular to me. I am so grateful that Chad and I truly do think a lot alike in this situati...

A friend of ours texted and said they were speficially praying Cade would do so well he would end up  fighting with his sisters again, like normal. I am so thankful to report that he and Haven have had a few wrestling matches over this weekend. Cade has been, for the most part, laughing, building puzzles, and chasing balloons around our house. Thank you for praying! This week Cade finishes radiation- and Chad and I both are feeling momentum. He has finished his radiation to his lungs, and now all that remains is four mornings of finishing abdomen radiation on the side where the tumor is removed.  I am attributing these victories to God’s kind response to your prayers: 1. Cade has been energy-full and off the couch since Thursday.  2. Cade has successfully eaten every day and his nausea has been controlled. We’ve only had a few episodes that I think were caused by too-rich foods and gag reflexes over a certain weekend antibiotic he has to take.  3. Our family h...

Thank you all so much for praying with us for Cade. Please pray tomorrow for Cade to be able to eat without vomiting. For the past 48 hours, he has thrown up after any meal he eats. We think this is a result of radiation to the side of his abdomen where the tumor was, but we need prayer that we can find a medication to help ease his nausea and supernatural healing so he can actually eat.  Tomorrow he gets another round of chemo that should not take long, please pray that his body responds well, and he does not have any adverse effects: nausea, jaw pain, neuropathy, any kind of seizure.  The wonderful news is that tonight at dinner he was most himself, up off the couch, teasing Lily and Haven and drinking hot chocolate. I was so encouraged to see his spirits up. Now we just need that plus the ability to go to bed and not wake up to throw up whatever he ate for dinner.  I spent time meditating on Matthew 7 today where Jesus Himself encourages us to ask and keep on a...

We cannot even express how much it means to us to have so many of you praying with us for our pal. Thank you so much! My brother's football friends all wore Cade's initials when they beat Navy this weekend and I might have cried when they won because it felt like a breakthrough on Cade's behalf too. This week Cade has radiation every morning again, so please keep referring to the radiation prayer points post if you are praying for him in the mornings. Please keep praying for Cade's appetite; breakfast is usually our best time to cram him with calories and because of radiation (where he goes completely under) we lose that opportunity and have had a hard time making it up for the past week. Starting Thursday, radiation will be at 7 am, so hopefully getting home earlier will spark his appetite again for the remaining seven treatments after that.   Pray for Cade's appetite in general- it's typical that chemo can change tastebuds, and we are trying to ...

Time: Thursday afternoons Prayer Points 1. As of right now, Cade is receiving one outpatient chemotherapy for the next few weeks. Please pray with us that this drug only destroys the cells that are cancerous, and that miraculously it does not destroy any other part of his body. Here's a pretty crazy verse that gives us faith to pray against any bad effects of treatment in Mark 16:18: And these signs will accompany those who believe: In My name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not harm them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will be made well.” 2. Please pray for all of the effects, and none of the bad side effects of chemo. Some of the side effects we are especially concerned about right now would be: jaw pain, mouth sores, neuropathy (nerve tingling in hands and feet), infertility of any kind, damage to other organs- especially his remaining kid...

Radiation Therapy Prayer Times: Weekday mornings from December 5-22 between 7-10 am EST Prayer Points: Please pray that Cade would experience the Lord shading him while he is alone in the radiation treatment room. We are using Psalm 121, particularly verses 5-8 for radiation prayer each morning.   “The Lord is your keeper;  the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.” 2. We have had several people get pictures of consuming fire, so we are praying that these radiation beams are precise and exacting, and his cancer cells are consumed by the fire of God. (Hebrews 12:29) 3.  We are praying that Cade would sense the presence of God with him while he is undergoing treatment and that even the radiation technicians would sense that Someone is hoveri...