The day has finally come. Wow, on one hand the time seemed to fly by, but on the other hand at times the minutes seemed like hours. Tomorrow we'll drop the kids off at school and head for Blodgett Hospital. Actually, we dropped Emily off at our friend's house tonight already. We're pretty much ready for this week. Kristi has been busy getting everything taken care of and completing the Christmas shopping too. It's amazing how she gets everything done!
We had a very incredible experience this afternoon at church. This past week another very special person from Calvary was diagnosed with lung cancer, so Pastor Frank called a special time of prayer this afternoon for people to come pray over Kristi, myself, Rich and his wife Mary. I bet over 100 people showed up. We broke up into 2 groups and people just poured prayers over us. Just an amazing family to be a part of. For the most part, we are very much at peace. It's only when I stop and start thinking that I start getting overwhelmed and anxious. So we've kept real busy all weekend. I'm sure Tuesday will be a very difficult day of waiting and anticipation.
We heard that in Ashley's Sunday school class this morning they went around the room and each child said what he/she wanted for Christmas this year. Ashley's answer: "I want my mom to be healed for Christmas". What an angel.
Tonight we met with our small group again and spent 2 hours laughing and talking. We ended by them praying for us once again. We love those guys!!
So with Kristi being out for surgery, you all will have to put up with me for the next couple of weeks. :) I'll try my best to update the blog as much as possible over the next few crucial days (I'm not sure if Blodgett has wireless). I'll do my best to be as timely as possible. I know there will be hundreds of people checking throughout each day so I'll be as prompt as possible. I'll for sure update the blog tomorrow night and Tuesday night. If the updates are short it's because I'm tired or I'm waiting for more information...I'll do my best! Thanks for understanding. We know the surgery will begin at 7:30AM Tuesday. Please take some time out of your day Tuesday to pray for Kristi. The estimated time is 5 hours.
I will probably be coming home every other night, so if you send an e-mail I will print it off and bring it to Kristi. This was her favorite part of her first hospital stay. She looked forward to me reading her e-mails to her each day...sometimes I had to read them to her 3 or 4 times because she would doze on and off while I was reading them to her.
Also, Rich heads off to Boston this week so we need to shower them with prayers as well. Please pray for Mary and their kids as well as they start down this path that we've traveled. They will hear a lot of unsettling things/statistics this week and that can get very overwhelming. Please pray that along with all of the information they will be getting that they will remember to fully rely on God and turn everything over to Him. They're in a very scary part of their journey right now and need our prayers.
Some specific prayer requests for this week:
* Kristi's prep tomorrow goes well.
* Rich's flight and traveling is uneventful
* Kristi's surgery Tuesday goes as scheduled and that they find no cancer
* Pray that Rich's meeting with the doctors on Tuesday also goes well and they develop an encouraging plan for his treatment
* Pray that our kids are safe and remain healthy this week.
* Pray that Emily doesn't get home sick. She will be gone until at least Saturday.
* Pray that Nathan and Ashley don't worry too much and can stay focused on school and having fun. They were very upset tonight and worried about mommy, so if you see them give them extra hugs.
* Pray for peace and comfort for me as well.
* Pray for peace and comfort for Mary as well. I remember being in her shoes almost one year ago. Agonizing.
* Pray for everyone involved with both families (you!). This is really a trying time for all involved. We all need to pray for each other.
Thank you all so much!
Love,
Brian & Kristi
