Medicine of Immortality "It's a cold, and it's a broken, 'Hallelujah!'"

Latest on Bob WebberPosted by Rick on January 22nd, 2007

Dear friends,

Four weeks ago this past Saturday my oncologist sent me home from the hospital with the news that I had 2-4 weeks to live. However, once off all the heavy medications, I began to feel better—not well enough by any stretch to return to a normal life but better than I felt in the hospital.

I seem to be holding my own at this point after continuing to improve steadily those first two weeks. Now I seem to be holding my own, neither worse nor better from day-to-day.

The cancer, which has remained inoperable, is either, 1) being destroyed and I am healed [which we pray and hope is the case] or, 2) is temporarily in some kind of holding pattern and may stay that way for a while or take a quick downturn at any time.

Please continue to pray for both Joanne and myself. We are both a little depressed, yet continuing to trust in the power of God to heal me. Thanks so much to all of you for your many, many continuous prayers, for your love and for all the cards, emails, etc. We literally feel upheld by your faithfulness and intercession on our behalf.

Love,
Bob

Semi-clean house and happy babyPosted by Rachel on January 22nd, 2007

Kyrie’s third molar arrived yesterday, and since then she has been a happier baby, more eager to play independently, give hugs and kisses, and generally be the sweetheart that we all know her to be. Of course, this will only last until that final molar starts rearing its ugly head (do teeth have heads?).

I managed some laundry & general cleaning of the house today and with the exception of the crackers that Kyrie spilled on the floor, the house is in good order.

I forgot to cancel the pregnancy subscription I had set up on babycenter and I got a “9 weeks pregnant” email today. I felt my heart sink into my stomach a little, promptly deleted it, took the subscription down, and am feeling better. I am still having a hard time with pregnancy envy, but it is fading and I am working so hard to be happy for my wonderful pregnant friends. (I’m not looking for sympathy, just venting a little.)

Just to clarify, we are not sure if Salem is a girl or boy, although my gut always told me boy. We’ll find out someday. Thank you to everyone who commented with their prayers and condolences below.

SalemPosted by Rachel on January 20th, 2007

I’m not sure how to start this post, but I am ready to share this with you all.

We found out I was pregnant with our second baby on December 20th. On January 15th, we discovered that we were losing our baby. I was exactly 8 weeks. An ultrasound indicated that the baby had stopped growing at around 6 weeks. This has been perhaps the hardest thing we’ve gone through as a family. Experiencing a loss is overwhelming, especially when it is our beloved child. We’d already begun bonding with our little one, and it’s been a painful several days. We are beginning to heal and rest in the knowledge that our baby is now with Jesus.

We named our baby Salem Jude. Salem means “peace,” and Jude means “praise,” or “the praised one.”

We hope to be reunited with Salem in the Resurrection someday, and we rejoice that our child is in the arms of the Saviour.

SupernerdPosted by Rick on January 19th, 2007

You know you check out too many books when you receive the English Department’s only Christmas card from the Interlibrary Loan librarian.

Some picsPosted by Rachel on January 19th, 2007

On the plane…where I don’t want to be again in a very long time…

Asleep on the bed in the hotel at Memphis, where we had to stay overnight because we missed our flight (stupid airlines).

So good to be home, surfing the net!

Messmaker, messmaker, make me a messPosted by Rachel on January 17th, 2007

Kyrie scooted down her stairs into her room this morning with a very poopy diaper, and unfortunately, some of the poop escaped on the way down. That was a fun surprise this morning.

She also decided to smear half of a banana all over our bedsheets.

She’s had a bath this morning, but since then has covered her face in tomato sauce from her favorite food (lasagna) and banana goo.

Maybe later I’ll let her feed herself some yogurt!

It took us 3 days to get homePosted by Rachel on January 16th, 2007

Due to freezing rain in Tulsa (of all places), we got stuck in Minneapolis on Saturday evening. We decided to make the most of it and took the 2.5 hour trip to Belview, MN where my aunt and uncle reside. We had a lovely visit, although it was very brief, much to our disappointment. We’d planned to stay the entire afternoon on Sunday, but since our evening flight to Tulsa was cancelled AGAIN, we had to find another way back home, so we were re-routed straight back to Monroe. The only problem was that our flight would be leaving several hours earlier, so we had to run. We made it in plenty of time, but at the ticket counter, an incompetent agent took about half an hour to try to sort things out for us, and ended up royally screwing up our tickets anyway and sending us to Sioux City! No, we didn’t actually go there, because she miraculously got the first leg of the flight right, and we made it to Memphis. By the time we reached Memphis, the last flight going out to Monroe had already left anyway, so after the agents there fixed everything to make sure we would actually be going to the right place, they put us up in a hotel and gave us food vouchers. We decided to take advantage of that and enjoyed some Memphis style ribs, which were delicious. The next morning (Monday), we made it back to Monroe. It is good to be home.

An overflow of pictures & cutenessPosted by Rachel on January 8th, 2007

Timothy with NumbersPosted by Rachel on January 7th, 2007

On the drive over to Red Robin for lunch this afternoon, I sat next to my nephew, Timothy, who gave me an earful. Here’s a few examples:

“Maybe someday I could go out on a boat. Like in 12 days!”

“In 3 days I’m going to be 7.”

“Maybe when I’m bigger, I could climb a whole tree. Like maybe when I’m 7 or 8. Or 9! Or 11, or 20.”

“When I’m big, I could build a church and climb to the top of it, like maybe when I’m 7.”

Haha. He’s a nut.

A good weekPosted by Rick on January 2nd, 2007

So life is good.

My good buddy, Nathan Blevins, got engaged.

I’ve read a bazillion books in the couple weeks, and even though it tired me out, I feel relieved to have read everything I wanted to read on vacation. I have an off day tomorrow before I leave for Florida on Wednesday.

Tomorrow is my nephew’s birthday.

My niece started walking a couple of days ago.

She did it while we were on a double date with Forrest and Rebekah. The date had no kids. It was awesome.