All Things Work Together!

Loved Ones,

Today was a very quiet day for Ray filled mostly with naps. One of the pre meds before chemo is a steriod which makes for a late night on the first night of chemo and a tired day the following.

Though his appetite is impacted, he still did a good job eating, maybe not the beet soup, but good fruit and veggies. More soup for the rest of us!

The girls had a great day playing and going to the pool and thanks to Nana and Miss Sue, Mommy even got a nap! Thank goodness!

We've thought a lot today about how exciting the progress is in Ray's liver.

When we first started treatment we were disappointed that because of Ray's high liver enzymes we weren't able to be part of a clinical trial that is running at Northwestern. The trial was for people who weren't expected to do as well on traditional chemo, but was fairly toxic and thus his liver disqualified him.

This is a clear example of God's protection for us. If Ray had qualified, we would have no doubt taken part in this. I should say, this lady right here would have pushed really hard for him to be on it!

But as it turns out, Ray has done incredibly well on more traditional chemo treatments, accomplishing remarkable progress with less toxicity.

Our prayer through all of this has been that God would heal Ray -- giving the chemo a miraculous impact -- super power to eradicate the cancer while protecting Ray's healthy cells.

The chemo is great medicine, but we believe the progress we saw yesterday is God's answer to these prayers.

We have a long road ahead, but we believe God's answers will be no less miraculous than what we've already seen! We say this to give credit where credit is due and to remind us all how important our prayers are, and how POWERFUL our God is.

"And we know that in ALL things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."

"What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?"

Romans 8:28, 31

not alone and not afraid --

kristin and ray