On Wednesday as you might know, we got some bad news.  I have cancer in my lungs and in the area of my left eye.  So unless God decides to spare me I am going to die.  I am not sure how long it will be.  It could be a month it could be a year.  As a transplant patient on immune suppression drugs it is impossible to tell.  As you could guess it has been a hard few days thinking of my wife and two little boys.  It breaks my heart to think that my boys will not have their dad in their lives.  It breaks my heart to think that my wife will have to go to bed every night without anyone to snuggle her. 

But there is more.  Since I bought my little blue car, I have had the license plate of Phil3 8 on it.  This stands for Philippians 3:8 which says, ”What is more I consider everything a loss to the surpassing knowledge of knowing Christ Jesus, for whom I have lost all things.  I consider them rubbish that I might gain Christ.  Over the past weeks I have thought about this verse quite a bit.  For so long I have not lived what this verse said.  Although I have not lived it this is what I do believe.  I do consider everything a loss compared to Jesus.  Yes I am super sad for my family, but I am so looking forward to seeing the King.  It will not be too long and I will get to be with Him.  There will be no more pain, no more cancer, no more tears of anything bad.  I will be healed from sickness and from sin.  I will no longer ever do anything wrong. 

I have lost all things for Jesus, and there is nothing better.  It is not an easy journey, but it is one worth walking.  It has made me, and my wife different people.  It has made us fully dependant on the Lord.  It has caused us to throw away the normal and worthless things of life, and instead it has caused us to seek God, and to firmly put our faith and hope in Him.  We are not perfect by any means, but through this journey of being purified we have been changed.  This is still an extremely hard time.  We have shed many tears, and we will continue to.  We covet your prayers and encouragement.  

In addition to the spot above Jack's eye, the PET scan revealed 3 "hot spots" in his lungs. Two spots are on the right - one on the left. The next steps are not clear, nor obvious. We have a couple of appointments tomorrow. In all this we know that God is bigger....bigger than  fear....bigger than cancer....bigger than death.

"Where, O death, is your victory. Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is the sin. The power of sin in the law.  But thanks be to God!  He gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!!" 1 Corinthians 15:55

Please take a few moments to watch this video. It will change your life - as it has us. What an amazing testimony this precious little boy lived!

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2011/09/26/a-14-year-old-converses-with-death/

We arrived in Rochester last night. We left Fargo around noon and had a wonderful trip down here. The little boys did AMAZING. We woke up this morning and took the little boys swimming. This was Andrew's first time in the pool and he wasn't impressed. He typically is not one to snuggle, but he clung to me when we were in the pool. Aaron on the other hand had a blast! He loved going down the little water slide and he especially like watching Jack and I go down the "big" waterslide. :) Our swimming adventure ended abruptly when Aaron slipped on the concrete and scraped his head and got a fat lip. We were thankful that he wasn't a bad injury and he recovered quickly.

Jack's dad took him to the clinic a little before 11:00 this morning. His CT was scheduled for 11 and his PET scan for 1:00PM.  We will get the results of those scans tomorrow morning at 9:00. We will also be meeting with his pulmonary doctors as they wanted to see Jack when he was down here.

We know that so many people are praying for us and specifically for the results of these scans. THANK YOU! We feel your prayers and know that God is in control.

Jack had his Dermatology appointment this morning at 8:00AM. The doctor took one cut from above his eyebrow  and the report came back cancer. Jack also had some thickening below his eyebrow and a small sample of tissue was taken. It also came back cancer. Being that these spots are so close to his eye, his Dermatologist has referred Jack to Mayo to have them removed.

And so….Jack has a PET scan and CT scan scheduled at the Mayo Clinic next Wednesday (28^th) with a follow-up appointment on Thursday (29^th) to discuss the findings. We will know how to best proceed once we get those results.

I feel like our life has been put on rewind…..to almost 8 months ago when we made the same trip down to Mayo for the same tests with surgery on the horizon….