12/25/12 - Merry Merry CHRISTmas!

For UNTO US is born this day a SAVIOR who is CHRIST THE LORD!

Wishing you blessings of His PEACE, JOY, HOPE & LOVE this Christmas and New Year!

It's been a couple months since our last post so we thought we'd bring you all up to speed on how things are going at the Wiles House!  Since the end of October, Jas has had 3 additional stretchings.  Yes, you read correctly, three is right.  For some reason, God continues to want us to be at Univ of MD more often than we prefer, so we are back to going in every two weeks for Jas' esophagus to be stretched vs. once a month.  Bummer right?   :(  We were disappointed upon hearing the news, as it's not a fun day at all for Jas to have to go through the entire process of a stretching, taking off work, being knocked out, coming back to and all the side effects that come with that whole routine which usually involves not being up to par for a couple days afterward.

However, God continues to show us that this is minor in comparison to what we have been through these past couple years and what others are going through currently.  And it has also opened up the opportunity to reach out to more people on a more frequent basis in the cancer center at the hospital to deliver Believe Big mugs while we're there.  It's amazing how your attitude about your own situation can change when you shift your focus on helping/serving others and the blessing of God's true JOY you are able to experience as a result!  So, for the next couple of months we'll be sticking to the every two week stretching schedule and see if that helps keep his esophagus open for longer.

Taylor loves to help package up the Believe Big Mugs with us to get them ready to deliver to others.

Other than that, I'll give you a few highlights from these past few months.

1. Deer Season: Jas had the most successful deer hunting season of his entire life!  A couple posts ago we told you about the 2 deer he had got, which was a wild success in our house.  However, since then he got an additional 2 deer!  Can you believe it?  We were all thrilled with how God blessed us so abundantly with one of the few meats that are healthiest for Jas to have.  THANK YOU LORD!  What an incredibly special gift! And, Taylor continues to LOVE LOVE LOVE being right in the thick of it with Jas when he brought the deer home, to the butcher, etc.  This girl is going to be a hunter I have a feeling.  To the point where last trip to the butcher, she stayed out with daddy to watch them skin the deer while I had to go back to the car as I was feeling queasy.  I will spare you a picture on this one lol.

2. Thanksgiving: We had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We enjoyed getting up and watching the parade with Taylor.  This was the first year that she was into it and loved it so that was a lot of fun.  Then we celebrated with our neighbors (thanks again Kolariks) eating a very yummy meal at their home.  And we ended the day with a walk to the playground since it was a gorgeous day out.  Nice and low key!

3. Email Hacked: No, we did NOT go to the Philippines :)  For those of you who got the spam email asking for money, saying that we were trapped there, thankfully we were safe and sound in the US the entire time.  Ughhhh!  Sorry about that!  Thanks for so many concerned emails, calls, texts, etc to make sure we truly were ok.  We were so touched by your concern!  Any pray that no one did send the hackers money!

4. Princess Land: Our daughter has officially entered into the princess world.  Oh my!  She loves them all, but her favorite has been Rapunzel from the movie Tangled.  She continues to dress up as Rapunzel daily at our house and live in her magical world lol.  So, our Dr's Asst. Jackie, whom has been an INCREDIBLE blessing to our family from the time Jas was diagnosed with esophageal cancer last year, surprised us and gave Taylor her first ever Rapunzel doll.  Oh my if you could have seen that girl's expression!  Taylor paraded her new doll up and down the streets of Baltimore telling the world about her new Rapunzel doll as we waited for Jason's procedure to end.  PRICELESS MEMORY :)  What an amazing team of Doctors we have to support our entire family!

Miss Jackie and Taylor with her 1st Rapunzel doll

5. Christmas Performance: Taylor had her first successful Christmas performance at her Community Bible Study School that she goes to on Wednesdays.  Let me say that you would think this child would have no problem at all getting up on stage and performing as much as a ham that she typically is.  Well, getting up on a stage and singing is absolutely frightening to her - SURPRISE!   :)  So, we practiced at home and worked really hard to get her pumped up about her big debut with her little friends - Maryssa, Logan, Brady and Mr. Taylor.  Here's the kicker.  The morning of her performance she came over to me fake coughing, saying mommy I think we better not go to CBS today, I have a bad cough.  Really?  3 and a half years old and already playing that card.  HILARIOUS! Well, thankfully she did go on stage and sang a good amount of the songs, which is a HUGE WIN for our household.  Next year we'll work on her keeping her dress down lol.  It was so much fun watching the kiddos on stage singing their hearts out :)  Attached is a video clip of one of the songs they sang.  You'll have to go directly to wilestrials.blogspot.com to view it.  Enjoy!

6. Daddy and Taylor Date:  Jas has decided  now that T is old enough, he is going to make it a tradition each year round Christmas to have a 'special' Daddy and Taylor date and let her get dressed up in her Christmas dress for the occasion.  She of course was thrilled because the poofy-er the dress, the more the princess likes it.  So they enjoyed a fun afternoon together going to a nice meal and then to the movies.  Precious!!!

7. Sight and Sound Theatre: Just last week my girlfriend Brandie and I took Taylor and her buddy Maryssa to the Sight and Sound Theatre to watch the show Jonah.  INCREDIBLE!!! WOW, WOW, WOW!  Think full blown Broadway Musical scale, but a biblical based storyline.  Talk about bringing the bible to life!  Wow!  I don't even know where to start with how blown away we were at the show and how amazing it was to see an entire cast, so incredibly talented, choosing to use their talents to glorify God in this way.  They had a ton of live animals along with props that looked very real.  We are so blessed to live only 2 hours away from the theatre in Lancaster, PA.  The only other one in the country is in Branson.  So if you do live close, I would highly encourage you to make it a priority to go.  Their shows change each year and I know next year will be Noah.  We are hoping to go next year for sure!  Here's the link if you're interested in learning more.  http://www.sight-sound.com/WebSiteSS/getshowdetails.do

Taylor and Maryssa

8. DC Trip:  We were able to sneak in a quick family trip to DC this past Sunday to spend some time in the Natural History Museum and then wrap up with seeing the lights around the National Mall.  We've been wanting to do that for a few years now and finally had a chance to go :)  What fun!

To end our post, we wanted to share something so special that Taylor talked to me about that certainly brought the tears flowing.... and continue to do so each time I think about what she has learned from this past year and a half.  We were getting ready to go to Community Bible Study and as we were going through our morning routine she stops and looks at me square in the eye.  She said, "Mommy isn't it such a special gift that JESUS allowed daddy to stay with us for one more Christmas?"  Here come the waterworks again :)  Wow!  3.5 years old and she is learning that God is in control and has given us such a precious gift of allowing Jason to be with us longer than we thought last year this time.  I kid you not, out of the blue she said this with no prompting, I hadn't talked to her about this at all,  while I think of it often!  Tears of Joy!  We are so incredibly grateful for this incredible gift He has given us this year!  And, it's been awesome to share this story with others like Jason's surgeon, Doctor's teams, etc.  I hope she will forever remember this huge life lesson!  

With that we will end with wishing you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and JOYFUL & HEALTHY NEW YEAR!

With Much Love in Him,

Meg

10/26/12 - One Great Scan Down!

Praise the Lord, today has come to pass with great news.  We found out that I have no signs of recurrence at this time!  Thank you Jesus! I had my CT scans with the clinical visit directly afterward and they indicated that the scans looked great.  There was no indication of metastatic activity and some of the previous issues have almost disappeared.  For example, the abscess scar in my lung was all but invisible and hard to find for the surgeon who knew where it was.  Additionally, they were pleased with my progression with nutrition, stamina and healing.  Simply stated, they were very pleased with how I am doing.  So by God's grace, I'll continue down this path.  The next round of scans will take place in February.

Thank you all so much for your prayers, encouragement and support these last few days.  Once again we felt surrounded and comforted by it all.  Don't get me wrong, there has definitely been some anxiety as we anticipated the results today.  We now have a much better appreciation of the weight of these scans, but conversely it continues to make our faith stronger through it all.

Thank you for rejoicing with us in our positive news!

God Bless & Take Care,

Jason

10/19/12 - A Big Day Approaching!

Hi Everyone - We hope you are having a fantastic Fall!

In all honesty, ours has been bittersweet!  We have experienced so many true joys as a family and have been able to celebrate how well Jas has been doing which has been INCREDIBLE to say the least!  On the other hand, we have had such heavy hearts for our dear cancer compadre friends : (  Of course we are missing dear Kat like crazy and continue to grieve that we won't see her until we join her in heaven, however are rejoicing that she is no longer in any pain or suffering!  And, there are many other dear friends who are still battling or have just started their battle with cancer that we are praying our hearts out for. 

So, I know that it's been a couple months since you've seen an actual update on Jas, so I wanted to make sure you get the latest scoop on him.  I'll start first with what is quickly approaching.  He will be going in next Friday, October 26th for CAT scans on his chest, pelvis and abdomen.  His first round of "routine" scans that are to be done every four months or so go forward.  To be honest, we were hoping that we could just live off of how Jas looks and feels at this point, because he is truly doing fantastic in both of these areas.  We really thought we would be able to push all this off until after Christmas.  However, as the Dr. pointed out, if there is something that they can catch early in a scan, than you have a better chance of it being treatable vs. too late.  So, next Friday the 26th it is :)   The nice thing is that we will also find out that same day what the results of the scans are since all will be done at the University of MD.  At least there will not be a lot of wait and see time.  So, please please please, keep our family in your prayers this next week!

For those of you who have experienced cancer and then have had to do the follow up scans, this can be a very anxious time if you allow the enemy to gain a foothold on you.  So, we continue to blanket ourselves with open communication with God and reading God's word to help us stay positive and focused on the fact that God is in control, He has a perfect plan for each of us and He is sooooo much bigger than any disease!  Here's something cool I wanted to share... so this fall I attended a Beth Moore Simulcast.  If you haven't ever done a study of hers, you'll have to try one!  She is such an inspiring, Godly woman who really helps you understand the bible more and put things into perspective with a LOT of energy :)  Anyway, she gave us an electronic resource that included 12 pages of NO FEAR scripture from the Bible.  What a perfect gift in the perfect timing all wrapped up in a pretty bow for us to re-wallpaper our walls with in our house!  Thanks God for that awesome blessing!!! 

As for Jason's stretchings, his last two were on August 29th and then October 2nd.  I know you probably don't have a calendar out in front of you so let me just tell you, THAT's ALMOST 5 WEEKS APART!  WHOOOOO HOOOOOO!  Thank you Jesus!  His longest span between stretchings yet!  Can you tell we're elated?  Don't get me wrong, he was definitely ready for a stretching by then, but I can't even tell you how it felt to have a break from the hospital for that long after practically living in one this last year and a half.  What a precious gift from God!  So his next one is scheduled for November 16th.  That's a 6.5 wk stretch.  We'll see how it goes :)

Another BIG answered prayer is that his polyp from where his feeding tube came out of his abdomen has healed!  WHAT A HUGE THANKS TO THE LORD!!!  We loved the plastic surgeon that he was referred to who tried a quick procedure on Jas while we were there on our first visit.  Low and behold it worked!  Again, what a wonderful blessing that we did not have to go back to the hospital for another surgery to have the problem resolved.  YAHOOOOOO!

These days Jas is really looking great and has been able to build back about 5 more pounds over the last month!  I'll include a few pics throughout the rest of the blog so so you can see how awesome he looks!  I have a feeling this weight will most likely be his new norm as he has built back great muscle tone now that's he's working out again and able to increase the quantity of food he can intake.  YAY, YAY, YAY!!!  Thank you again Jesus!  Another answered prayer :)

So... are you ready to hear about the fun we've had as a family?

The PPF Funomenon was a BLAST!!!  Velcro walls (oh yes, I participated too), bouncy houses, pony rides, bull riding, princesses and 2 very awesome concerts - Hunter Hayes and Sarah Evans, etc...  It was such a great time to have our family and friends here with us and get to have fun with them and celebrate how well Jas is doing!  Thanks for making the trip and spending your day with us those that came :)  Taylor even got to shoot a BB gun, can you believe that?  I laugh bc she beat her mommy, as I've still never shot a gun yet!  Hard to believe being married to a hunter :)  PPF, you all did a fantastic job and we look forward to making that a summer tradition and support such an awesome organization who has helped our family out tremendously!

We were also able to make another trip back to Ohio to see both sides of our families over Labor Day, which was so AWESOME to see everyone again!!!  Jas was able to join us, with it being a Holiday weekend, as he hadn't been to Ohio since last Christmas.  YAY for family time and being able to celebrate how far he has come!  And.... we left Ohio with an incredible gift from Jason's mom.  The Wiles' family camper lives on, but in Maryland now :)  She handed down her camper to us and we are so grateful for the opportunity to camp more often in the luxury of a camper.  We typically tent camped 2-3 times each year, but that was about all we were willing to do after factoring in the weather, having a toddler, etc...  However, now we will be able to camp much more often, which is something Jason's whole family grew up doing every weekend since he was a baby and something he has had such a desire to do with our own family.  Thanks so much Gigi!!!  So we've camped at Greenbrier and Assateague so far and may have one more trip to squeeze in before it gets too cold.  Below are a couple pictures from Assateague State Park, which is right on the beach where they have wild horses running around. No hotels, condos, etc. only camping.  It was heavenly!!!  We could hear the ocean waves crashing at night while we slept.  Nice!! We hope to make that an annual fall trip go forward ;)

Wiles Cousins and Jas wearing a Rapunzel wig.  Lovely :)

Loved the beach at Assateague!

Our first camping trip to Greenbrier

Assateague!

Look at those wild horses

Taylor loved riding the mini carousel

 We also had a surprise weekend in Hershey Park!  Jas had recognized that our family needed some time away from home to regroup and just smile and laugh a lot.  The month prior had been an extremely tough month for us with the loss of Kat, so smiling and laughter was exactly what we needed!  So Jason surprised us and planned a trip there, which was nice because it's only 1.5 hrs away from where we live yet far enough to be perfect for a get away.  And Taylor had an absolute BALL!  She pushed herself and tried bigger and faster rides this year, along with revisiting rides that scared the pants off of her last year.  It was so neat to see her courage grow!  And it was a reality check to Jas and I that soon we would be needing to ride the big rides with her lol.

Family Boat Ride

Splurging on our Reeses Extreme Funnel Cake ;)

Last year she hated the pirate ship and this year she loved it!

 You'll have to go to wilestrials.blogspot.com to view this video of T on the pirate ship.  

She's so proud that she overcame her fear :)

We had fun going to the pumpkin patch this past weekend to pick the pumpkin we would carve later that evening.  Taylor played with the "gunk" of the pumpkin in a bowl for at least 30 minutes.  She certainly doesn't mind getting her hands dirty!

And I'll leave you with an incredible day we were blessed with this past Thursday!  God just took our breaths away on this day as we were completely unprepared for something this amazing happening :)  Jason decided to take today off of work to go hunting on opening day of muzzleloader season.  I kid you not, before 8am this morning he texted to let me know that he had gotten two doe.  HOLY SMOKES!  Can you believe that?  And last year he wasn't able to hunt much due to undergoing chemo and radiation, so we needed for him to get a deer this year.  What an awesome gift from God to provide us with one of the few meats that Jas is able to eat still.  You should have seen how pumped Jason was!  And then to figure out creatively how to get the deer out from there :)  You see Ohioans, we have mountains here in Maryland lol.  So you may get a deer, however then you have to get it to your truck which can be much more challenging.

 Well, there was no way at all that Jas would have been able to drag 2 deer, almost a mile back to the truck.  So he improvised with help from our friends, thanks Rowes and Couches :)  Jas drug the deer to the river, loaded them up on a canoe and floated down the river to a take out location.  This gets even more comical bc it then involves me, who gets squeamish around blood as Jas made me help him load them up, but Taylor was enamored by it all.  Wheew!  What a day!  Can I just tell you that Taylor was absolutely fascinated about it all!  She kept asking Jas to replay the entire morning to her. Including the part about how he was attacked by a raccoon and how he had to kick it twice to get it to leave him alone in the pitch black of the early morning.  Can you imagine!  I would have packed right up at that point and went home :)  She LOVED being able to touch the deer and watch Jason move them to the truck, etc.  She even went with Jas to the butcher to see how that process worked and walk into the big freezer that, "felt like winter."  Too funny.  Here are some cute pics from our adventure today!

Imitating the deer's tongue

So, that's it for now!  Thanks so much for your continued prayers for our family!  As you can see, God continues to shower us with his love and allow us to experience His true joy through it all!  We are so incredibly grateful!

With Much Love!
In HIM,
Meg

9/20/12 - In Memory Of Our Dear Friend

Well it is with great sadness, but deep God given joy that I am writing this post.  One of my 2C sisters (Christ & Cancer), Kathleen Hargest, who we have blogged about and was a dear friend to Megan and I, passed away after a courageous 2 yr battle with lung cancer on Sunday 16 September.

A picture of us before she spoke last November at a Believe Big event

 (Kat is on the left)

She was a trailblazer in how she responded to the diagnosis, took the treatments and setbacks and gave glory to the Lord through it all.  We learned so much from her and her contagious smile will never be forgotten. It has been a surreal week as we morn the loss of a great friend, and it reminds us how fragile and short our time on Earth really is after all we have been through this last year, but how restoring and eternal the Kingdom of Heaven is for those who put their faith in Jesus Christ and decide to follow him fully.

Kat speaking at Believe Big

As we celebrate her life today, we rejoice in what she stood for and how she was steadfast in her faith.  As we got say good bye a couple days before she passed, you could just tell she was ready to meet Jesus face to face.

Saying good bye like that is never easy and trying to understand God's plan and will is often impossible, but His eternal promises never fail.  So as we continue to serve God's kingdom, we pray and trust in God's Sovereignty and know that God is using Kat's trial and death for His Glory.  Pray for her husband Brian and her three children, Maddy (6), McKenzie (4) and Aiden (2).  Please pray they have the boldness and zeal that their mother had for Jesus.  We love and miss you Kat! Thanks for being such a wonderful example and an awesome friend and we'll see you in a blink of an eye in heaven.

Further, if you are in or Frederick, MD next weekend 29 September, please join us at a pancake breakfast fundraiser to support her family with future childcare expenses since Kat stayed at home with the kids full time.  Below are the details, but if you are unable to attend and still want to support the family, please send checks to: Frederick Church of the Brethren, 201 Fairview Ave, Frederick, MD  21701.  Please write checks to FCOB  MOPS and put Kat in the memo.

 
God Bless & Trust in Him

Love Jason, Megan and Taylor

8/21/12 - Another Great Month!

Well it's been a while since I have written a post, which from my optic is a good thing, but from yours may appear long overdue.  So as I sit here on the plane flying back from my very first work trip, reflecting on the last few months, I feel so blessed to be doing as good as I am doing.  Yes you did read correctly, I'm back to traveling for work and made it home safely after a week away. By Gods grace I will be able to continue that.  I was discussing with my co-workers last night about what all I had been through and it really struck me how much improvement there has been since I went back to work.  Now don't get me wrong, there is still a long way to go, but the simple fact that I am where I am at, is something I am not taking lightly.  Here is a pic of Taylor taking care of me the minute I returned home and she saw that I had a cold.  Dr's kits, books, toys, 'spitty-up' buckets, you name it she spread out on her bed.

So I have been putting off this change for a bit, but now the time is right.  So in the spirit of our past fundraiser, I am going to change our blog name from Wiles' Trials, to Wiles' Miles (not the web address, just the title of the blog).  Not that we don't expect other trials, heck everyday can be a trial, but in that we hope God doesn't have anything else as major planned for us this year.  Of course if that's His will, we'll rest well in His sovereign power and trust in His almighty plan. We do still plan to blog and include updates on both myself and the family.  We just feel it's time to change how we title and refer to our blog which reflects more of our mentality now.  We have appreciated all the prayers through this and those who continue to pray for our family and my health, and will definitely post new prayer requests if needed.  We continue to feel the blessings from using this blog for outreach and are strengthened and amazed by how God is still using our trials to help others.  I'm still blown away that we've had 23,000+ visits to our blog.  Amazing!

So, since I have gotten back to work, my strength and stamina have increased ten fold. I remember those first few days and weeks returning back to work, I would get home and and just crash in exhaustion. Now, I am working a full week, exercising three or four times a week and still have some extra juice on the weekends for the girls. I am still worn out from the long days, and that is part of the reason you haven't heard from me and that there are only so many hours in the evening for T and Meg's.  As I continue to workout, a little weight and a lot of strength are returning.  There for a while, it was such an ebb and flow when my esophagus kept quickly restricting and wouldn't allow me to eat the quantity or with the consistence that I needed.

This last month has been really good and the last stretching indicated that my esophagus is staying open for longer periods. Praise Jesus! That is a huge blessing, not only with a good unrestricted diet, but I don't have to have it stretched every two weeks any longer.  I have graduated to only going in once a month.  What great news for us to hear.  Megs and I are overjoyed!  Less time off of work, less trips to Baltimore, less times to find coverage for Taylor, less fasting, less time being knocked out...  Praise the Lord!  We were teasing the team as we headed out of the office that day telling them that we love them and all, but were thrilled that we wouldn't have to see them as often as we have been.  We were doing cartwheels as we left that day, with of course a lot of strange looks from those observing that didn't know our story.  So the next stretching is scheduled for September 6th.

The other cool thing about my last stretching that Meg wanted to share was that during the appt. she sat in the waiting room with another spouse of an esophageal cancer survivor. She and the other wife were able to compare ''war stories" from the past year about the treatment, surgery, recovery process to see what was similar and different.  I know that it meant a lot to her to meet another family impacted by esophageal cancer and to know that this man is still alive 3 years later.  Isn't God so loving with how He continues to provide us with hope in this way?  It sure did help the time in the waiting room fly by for her and be yet another reminder of how many others are out there that are impacted by this specific type of cancer.
 
The only residual issue that I am dealing with is a polyp where my feeding tube was in my abdomen area. After the tube was pulled, the hole sealed but the polyp didn't heal itself so I'm still needing to cover it everyday with a band aid to provide coverage as fluid accumulates around it. Guess that's what happens when it's in there for five months.  So we have an appt. next week with a plastic surgeon to see what the game plan will be.  Other than that, working on building my muscle tone back after such atrophy is going to be a chore.  I have a feeling that my upper back muscles on the right side are going to be my biggest challenge.  This muscle group was the section cut by the thoracic entry to reattach the esophagus and needs the most conditioning.  I still remind myself that this is a marathon, not a sprint.

So as we continue to return to 'normal' around the Wiles house, we Thank You all again for your prayers, encouragement and support. This has definitely changed my daily focus and it has allowed me to see with much more clarity.  With that, I will leave you with some of the things we have been able to do over the last few months.  Hope you enjoy!

Well, vacation in Myrtle Beach was a BLAST!  It was so nice to have a full week of true relaxation with the family.  We are so incredibly grateful that the entire Gurney side was able to go this year.  We were laughing bc we counted the number of times that Meg put shoes on that week and it was only 3 times.  And 2 of the 3 times were to walk the pier, which we walked to from where we stayed.  Now that is our kind of vacation!  (We added vaca pics to our blog page, so you should see them on the perimeter of the page when you visit it.)  From there, Taylor and Meg headed to Ohio for 10 days to spend time with the Wiles side and some more time with the Gurney side and friends. It was a huge reality check that it had been over a year since Meg and I had been apart that long after all of the cancer madness began.  I'm so thankful that God allowed the annual summer trip to take place for them, but hoping next year I'll be able to rejoin them again.  Thanks to the Couches for taking care of me with appointments and a fishing weekend while Meg was away.

Love this one!

Meg's Thirty-One Goodies!

Another amazing thing that took place was that Meg's friend, Cynthia Zarcone, had a Thirty-One fundraiser for our family.  As a result, she let Meg go on a shopping spree and get some product that she loves for our family which she is so excited about!  We love what this company stands for which is based on Proverbs 31-look it up!  THANK YOU to those who participated and to Cynthia for blessing our family in this way.  Another example of how God continues to shower us with blessings through this storm! Love Megs!
 

 Another fun thing Taylor was able to do this month was attend a backyard Bible Club hosted by our neighbors - the Van Deldens.  What an awesome outreach idea and Taylor had a ball!  It was great to see the neighborhood kids pull together in this way and learn more about Jesus.  Here they were doing scripture memorization together, each kid holding up a word and standing in order.




So growing up in North Fairfield, OH, we were know for our peach orchards, so we try to pick peaches every summer in Maryland to recreate those memories I had from my childhood.  It was a bumper crop this year, the trees were loaded and the peaches were huge. We were thrilled to learn that our favorite orchard that we went to in the past actually uses safe organic sprays.  

Sneaking a bite together!

Meg and Taylor, along with awesome friends of ours headed to the Baltimore Zoo while I was traveling and sure had a fun day together!  Here are a few videos that should make you smile.  One is of Taylor feeding a giraffe for the first time. The other is of a chimpanzee playing knock know with Taylor and her buddy Maryssa.  You'll have to go to our actual blog to view the videos: wilestrials.blogspot.com

The evening that I returned home from my work trip, Meg was able to have another Believe Big Mug Making Party with her bible study gals.  She came back refreshed and rejuvenated after being a single mom for the week and we now have 8 more mugs to brighten cancer patients days with.  Yay!

Bible Study Gals 

Man, we are in awe at how much we have been able to do this past month  Thank you God!  We are so incredibly blessed.  We are looking forward to heading out to the PPF Funomenon this Saturday and to see family from both sides come in to town for it.  Country concerts, rodeo, cookouts, pony rides, bounce houses...all kinds of 'Fredneck' fun.  Can't wait to celebrate what the Lord has done in our lives with our amazing family and friends who have loved us through this past year!

God Bless
Take Care


Jason

8/8/12 - Come to the Family FUN-omenon on August 25th

Are you looking for a fun filled family day at the end of August in the Frederick area? Country artists Sarah Evans and Hunter Hayes will be singing, bounce houses will be out for the kids and food is included throughout the day! The organization who sponsored the Miles4Wiles walk is hosting their 7th Annual Patty Pollatos Family FUN-omenon in Frederick!

Date:            Saturday, August 25th
Time:          12pm to 6pm
Location:  Frederick Fairgrounds

Cost:            

2 Adult Ticket Package: $75
All Adult Ticket packages purchased in advance via Megan Wiles will go directly into Jason's PPF fundraising account. Tickets bought at the gate will go toward PPF's overall operating expenses.

Kids ages 6 to 13: $10 - Kid's tickets may be bought on your own either online through the website below or at the gate and will go toward PPF's overall operating expenses.

Kids 5 & under: Free

Please email Megan at megan_wiles@yahoo.com no later than Friday, August 13th if interested in purchasing adult tickets in advance for proceeds to go to Jason's account.  Thanks & God Bless!

For More Event Details: http://www.ppfinc.org/

7/12/12 - What an Awesome Past Month We've Had!

Hi Everyone – We hope you’ve been enjoying your summer so far!  For us, this past month has flown by. Man, our last post was shortly after the Miles4Wiles walk took place and that was a little over a month ago.  Hard to believe!  We figured we’d catch you up on this past month, especially since it has been such a great one!

The first week after the walk, in early June, was a pretty good one for Jas!  He was feeling and doing great!  However, by the end of the week, he was unable to get anything down including liquids.  That was interesting bc usually we could still get smoothies down him when his esophagus began to close up, but this time even water was an issue.  Thankfully at that point his feeding tube was still in!  So we prayed a lot for quick resolution while we waited to hear back from the Dr. as to when they could get Jas back in for a stretching.  While we were pretty frustrated that the team was not getting back with us over the course of a handful of days regarding when Jas would be scheduled in for stretching, we experienced a miracle with God completing removed them from the picture to solve the problem temporarily!  After Jas was unable to eat or drink anything for about a day and a half, we decided to try to make it a goal to at least get one smoothie down a day to keep his digestive system working and to not completely shut down like it does each time this happened in the past.  So, he did try to work toward our new goal and guess what?  It went down vs. coming back up!  Thank you Lord!  Immediately after Jas tried some soup which went down with no problems.  And very quickly he progressed to some leftover Thai that he had not been able to eat and that went down well.  Holy Smokes!  God opened his esophagus back up without involving the Dr’s at all.  THANK YOU Jesus!  What a HUGE relief!  You have to realize, our concern was building pretty quickly at this time bc they had told us that their goal was to take the feeding tube out of Jason by the end of June.  In the back of our minds, we kept thinking what on earth would Jas do at this point if his feeding tube was already out, as they would have no way to keep pumping calories in him if it weren’t still in...  Very concerning to think about!  So from that point until his next stretching on June 13^th, Jas was able to eat/drink thanks to God's intervention : )  Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t easy getting it down as his esophagus opening was extremely small again, but open enough for calories to go down.

The stretching on June 13^th went smoothly with no complications.  YAHOO!  Thank you Jesus!  We will never take what should be a somewhat easy procedure (while it requires them to put Jas under each time) based on what happened earlier this year with the tearing and hospital stay!  So when he goes in for a stretching, they measure the opening of his esophagus to see if it’s wider than the last time or not.  Then they inspect his entire esophagus to see if there are any signs of cancer or other problems while they are in there and also take a look at his stomach to make sure there are no concerns there either.  So far so good!  Then to do the stretching part of the procedure, they use a balloon and inflate it on the inside of his esophagus to force it open to a certain diameter.  Each time he goes in at this point, they will “stretch” it out wider than the time before. 

So, here’s another REALLY cool part about that day!  I had been discussing with Jas for many days (while we were frustrated about the length of time it was taking to get Jas in for the procedure) about how I was going to talk to the Dr. to see if they could just put him on a standard schedule to do a stretching every two weeks for now, since that seemed about the timeframe that his esophagus stayed open before food would start getting stuck again.  While Jas thought I was crazy (he thinks this often of me LOL), we prayed a lot for God to help us come to an agreed solution with the team that would have a greater sense of urgency and help us to be more at peace in case this happened again.  Well, while Jas was under for his procedure, our Dr’s Asst. Jackie (who has been amazing to us since Day 1 with helping us get in with our Dr. much quicker than the average patient and treating us with a Huge sense of urgency) came in to the waiting room to see me and give me a big hug.  While I shared with her our concerns about the length of time it was taking to get Jas in when he had an emergency like this, she was extremely compassionate.  And before I even recommended my “crazy” idea about pre-scheduling Jas in for every two weeks, she looked at me and said, “why don’t we put him on a treatment schedule to where he will be on the books to have a stretching every two to three weeks?”  Are you serious?  My jaw dropped!  Holy Cow God, you did it again!  I didn’t even have to bring it up, she did.  And never have we even heard that they do this type of arrangement before!  I guess this is something they do have to do at times for patients who just have stubborn esophagus’s that just want to keep closing up : ) God is so good isn’t it?  Smile.  Needless to say, now Jas is on the books to have a stretching every two weeks until they find that his esophagus is staying open for longer.  YAY!!!  Since the 6/13 stretching, he also had one on 6/28 and 7/11.  And again, no complications, everything went smoothly!  PRAISE THE LORD for answering our prayers so clearly!  The even better news is that when he went in for his 7/11 stretching his esophagus opening was 1 mm wider (pre-stretching) than the time before.  That is fantastic news and means that the stretching therapy is working.  Praying that for each additional time he goes in that his esophagus continues to stay open wider each time. 

So, it has been uphill from there!  Jas started back to work the week of June 11^th.  Can you believe it?  I’m still pinching myself daily because it’s still a dream/miracle that he is doing this well, considering his diagnosis 9 months ago.  He has come such a long way, looking back over this past year and I’m so proud of him of all of the battles that he has battled through.  Again, I have no idea how people go through something like this without the comfort of knowing that God is with us always, every single step of the way.  I’ll tell you what, we are looking at every day as an absolute blessing at this point!  So the first two weeks back to work he worked two days a week to ease back in.  We were so blessed to have a buddy of his drive him to work those first couple of weeks!  What a relief to know that he at least could rest the 2 to 2.5 hours round trip commute after having a full day of work!   So he then moved to 4 days a week and began driving himself and has been working this schedule for a handful of weeks due to having either a holiday (the 4^th of July) or his every two week stretching taking place.  While he's exhausted by the end of the day, you can tell he is really enjoying being back to work and getting back into the swing of things.  We are so grateful for Jas' employer and his bosses!  The compassion and patience they have had with Jas over the past year has been phenomenal and made all the difference to us!

How's Taylor doing through this new transition?  Well, we're working with her on the adjustment back to only seeing daddy at night again, as she had about 9 months of having daddy home all day when he wasn't in the hospital.  Please pray for her not to get mad or act mean to Jas (as she is starting to do that with him bc deep down I think she's hurt by not seeing him as much), but for her to understand this is a good thing that daddy's back to work!  Such a hard concept for a 3 year old to understand after the year she has been through too!  Our little trooper!  On a positive note here, she and I have been loving our time together getting to do all sorts of fun summer things together!  Blueberry picking, swimming, concerts in the park, story times, movies, playdates.... ah it feels like old times again and little by little I see her trust rebuilding with me.

This girl loves her rain boots!

She sure does love the playground

We also had Father’s Day during this time.  Well, I’ve always wanted to surprise Jas with pics of Taylor and I for a gift but never had the energy or patience with a toddler before now.  I have to be honest, all of the prior times of picture taking even just for Taylor were not fun to say the least.  They ended up with me soaked in sweat from doing everything I could possibly imagine to get that girl to stand still for a second and smile, while bribing her with snacks and prying her sippy cup from her hands.  Wheewy!  So I was a little nervous about how this would go.  Well, in order to surprise Jas we had to do it on a day that he was at work.  And I really didn’t know until the morning of my birthday whether he would be going to work or not.  So, he did.  So, T and I went in for pictures.  And can I just tell you, it was the most enjoyable picture session she’s ever had!  Maybe 3 years old is the magical age for the switch.  Or maybe it was God’s amazing birthday gift to me that day.  Either way, it was an amazing gift that I’m so grateful for!  Here are a couple pics that were taken.  Now here’s the funny part of this story.  I worked with Taylor all day about how she needed to keep what we did a secret from daddy for 3 days until it was Father’s Day.  Seriously every 5 minutes I would quiz her about whether or not we were going to tell daddy what we did.  I prepped her to say, you will find out on Father’s Day daddy.  So what was the first thing she said to Jas after all of that hard work prepping her when he got home from work?  Daddy, did you see your pictures we took for you yet?  HAHAHA.  Needless to say we celebrated Father’s Day on my birthday : )

Here’s another funny story for you all that took place this past month!  After Jas reached a point to where his endurance was strong enough, we decided to go on a camping trip in VA that we had put on the calendar months prior if he was doing well.  Jas loves to camp and has many great memories from camping every weekend with his family while growing up. Well at this point, Jas still had his feeding tube in.  It was driving him crazy!  Every time he ate/drank, he could tell when the food/drink was at the digestive part of his small intestine where the feeding tube was as it was quite painful.  And the outer area where the tube exited his body was starting to get infected and really bothering his skin.  It all around was not good!  So, since he was on a “schedule” in terms of stretching and knew that we would have no electricity camping, he thought this would be a good time to quit the feeding tube cold turkey.  Initially Jas told me that he was going to yank out the feeding tube himself, and I about have a heart attack.  That’s the last thing we need was another hospital stay for another complication right?  So, after conversing back with his surgeon team many different times, telling them that he was going to try to yank it out himself if they didn’t get him in before we left for camping, I about fell out of my seat when they told me that I could pull it out for him.  Well, chuckle chuckle, that’s not quite how it played out.  I relayed the good news to him that he would not have to take another day off of work to go to Baltimore and that we could take care of his feeding tube on our own.  The nurse had walked me through exactly what I needed to do, but as I stood there in the bedroom, I started to turn green thinking of what she warned me about possibly seeing.  (I have a weak, weak stomach)  Of course Jas knows what a wuss I am so he starts laughing at me and asking me what the big deal is.  As I explained to him what the nurse had shared with me, I guess I glanced away for a second while I was dramatically talking with my hands and looked back at him and low and behold he was laughing as he held up his feeding tube that he had yanked out while I wasn't looking.  This is just so us, it makes me laugh.  So, the stinker did it himself.  No problems at all THANK YOU LORD!!!!  And off we went to camping the next day with no ball and chain.  What sweet freedom Jas experienced that he hadn’t had in almost 6 months!

What a gorgeous view we had from our campsite!

Fishing together

Jas enjoying fly fishing on the river

Boy was our camping weekend an amazing blessing!  Here are some pics from our trip.  We went with our MD family - Brandie, Eric & Maryssa Couch (Miles4Wiles co-organizers) and Brandie’s Mom/Dad/Sis. So appreciative that they let us join their family on their annual camping adventure!  What a great time!  Taylor repeatedly said over and over again, “I love camping!  I never want to go home!”  LOL.  Needless to say, she has her daddy’s love for camping.  It was an amazing spot in the George Washington National Forest and our lot was right on a river that we played in for hours each day.  The guys went fly fishing and the ladies and little girls (they act like sisters with hanging out so often) played in the water all day :)  It was the first time I had ever camped truly roughing it with no electricity and no shower house.  I wasn’t sure how I would fair the no shower house part.  But, we did it well and were grateful for baths in the river!

Maryssa and Taylor - loving their pizza while camping!

Most recently we had a great time celebrating the 4^th of July!  Taylor absolutely LOVES fireworks so we went to see them in Middletown, MD (about 15 minutes from us) the Saturday before the holiday.  It would have been too hard to see them on the 4^th and then Jas go into work the next day, as he gets up at 4:45am.  They really were awesome!  Then on the actual holiday, we headed into Frederick’s downtown for the festivities and a country concert and ended the day by cooling off at a pool party.  Thanks to Bob & Marion for having us!  Here’s a pic of Jason’s John Deer Tractor he grew up with, which he decided to pull it out for the first time for Taylor to use on the 4^th.  She LOVES it!  And Jas smiles everytime he sees her on it : )

And, we are looking forward to heading out this weekend to spend a week with the Gurney side (Meg’s side) at Myrtle Beach.   Then Jas will head back to work from there, and Taylor and I will get to go back to Ohio for 10 days to see family and friends, catch up and have fun!

Again, each day is an absolute blessing!  We can’t thank you enough for your continued love, prayer,encouragement and generosity! God is so so good!  We are blown away by the fact that our blog has had over 22,000 views to date!  Can you believe that?  What an incredible group of supporters/encouragers God has blessed us with!  We feel bathed in love and continue to pray that God uses us and our story to touch others lives to bring them closer to Him and to help others who are battling cancer as well.  Also, we continue to hear of other survivors that specifically had esophageal cancer and are doing well today.  Thank you for sharing with us!  It brings tears to my eyes each time I hear of a survivor of esophageal cancer, as I know God continues to provide us with hope in this way!

We'll keep you posted as the summer progresses, but if you could please continue to pray for Jason's esophagus to stay open and for ultimate healing of his body we sure would appreciate it!  THANKS!

With Much Love in Him,

Meg