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 ;)
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| Wiles Cousins and Jas wearing a Rapunzel wig. Lovely :) |
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| Loved the beach at Assateague! |
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| Our first camping trip to Greenbrier |
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| Assateague! |
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| Look at those wild horses |
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| 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.
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| Family Boat Ride |
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| Splurging on our Reeses Extreme Funnel Cake ;) |
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| 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!
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| 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
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!