I Love Her More.

The saying "No news is good news" is true in our case. I haven't updated the blog in several months, because thankfully, there is nothing dramatic to share. We are just living our lives, enjoying our family time. We are blessed to be surrounded by family and friends as we make memories with our happy, healthy kids.  Izzy is doing awesome, we couldn't ask for better health for her. She is our miracle child, and we thank God for her every day.

We have seen God's hand in our lives in profound and powerful ways since the day our lives were turned upside down...Christmas Eve 2011 when Izzy was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma and OMS. We have been lifted up by prayer warriors and God answered those prayers to bring HIM glory. We have had people share their stories with us about how God used Izzy's healing to change their lives. That deserves repeating...God used Izzy's healing to change people's lives around us! We have been so touched and blessed to hear stories of friends and family members who found their way to Jesus, and we pray that there are more lives changed that we may never know about. We are humbled and awestruck by His love and power.

We have a few prayer requests to share with you today:

1. Please stop what you're doing and thank God for our miracle. It is easy to get swept up in the daily craziness of life and lose sight of the miracles around us. If you have kids, please pray over them and thank our Heavenly Father for them. As I reflect back on our experience with Izzy's illness, when we were in the thick of it, one thing that stands out to me clearly is the truth that God placed on my heart..."I know how much you love her, and I know you can't understand this but I LOVE HER MORE. She is my precious daughter, I created her." God loves our children more than we do, what an amazing truth that we can rest on and put our hope in.

2. This Thursday, (10/18) Izzy will have her 3rd scan since her tumor was removed in January. The first two CTs have shown that everything in her little tummy looks perfect. We have no reason to believe that anything is different now, but there is always anxiety because, after all, we are human. Thank you for your prayers that she is still healthy. We will meet with her Oncologist to review the CT results on Thursday, followed by her monthly IVIG treatment and steroids. Uggh. We hate this so much, we want our baby to be done with the pokes and the medications.

3. Which brings me to my third prayer request. We are traveling to Springfield, Illinois to meet with the OMS specialist, Dr. Pranzatelli, on November 8th. He will be conducting a thorough evaluation of her from a neurology standpoint to determine if she has any signs of OMS that we may be unaware of. He will determine the next step of her treatment. We have followed his protocol since Izzy's diagnosis, and the plan was to complete 12 months of monthly IVIG/Steroid treatment and as long as she is doing well, she can be tapered off the medication in 2013. That will tell us if her symptoms are being controlled by the medication or if she actually is in complete remission. Please pray that Dr. P sees the miracle that we see, and that her symptoms never return.  

Thank you for your prayers and love.

Karen & Tom
Charley, Kaleigh, Hailey, Izzy and Emma