"His Mercies are New Every Morning..."

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow! Psalms 145:1-3 "I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable". Those were the words I had just read when Dr. Ivy came into my room at 7:45am this morning asking if I was ready to go home? That was music to my ears, "because there's no place like home". We were in our home by 9:30am, a miracle in itself. I was able to walk in the backyard a few times today and get plenty of rest. I am so thankful to be on this side of my journey, knowing that resting, recovery and a few more chemo treatments lie ahead of me. God has been so faithful and loving through this whole process and continues to show me and my family such grace each new day.

Psalms 148 " Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights! Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts! Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the Lord! For he commanded and they were created. And established them forever and ever; he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away. Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word! Mountains and hills, fruit trees and all cedars! Beasts and all livestock, creeping things and flying birds! Kings of the earth and all people's, princes and all rulers of the earth! Young men and maidens together, old men and children! Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his majesty is above earth and heaven. He has raised up a horn for his people, praise for all his saints, for the people of Israel who are near to him. Praise the Lord".

I can truly say I am praising Him today! Thank you sweet Jesus for taking me on this journey with you. You are to be praised in ALL things and I pray others would see how awesome your greatness is.

"Today is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it".

"Surgery Post-Op Report"

Flowers that brightened up my room. Note the caption on the cup of flowers I received today- "Today is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it."

I was able to sleep last night with no pain meds from 11:30pm to 6:45am. Once the pain meds kicked in today, I have had constant nausea and have thrown up twice. My stomach is very bloated and I have an incision from my lower abdomen almost up to my sternum. Needless to say, it hurts really bad when I get sick. I know this is short term and I should be feeling better soon. It felt good to shower today. Not sure when I will get to go home because the IV is all I have for nutrition. My mouth is extremely dry and I tried crackers, but they stick to my teeth.

Psalms 40:1-4 "I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust."

I know the pain I'm in will be short term and while I wait I pray my eyes stay on Jesus and not the things that don't matter in this life. I've been able to walk the around the 5th floor several times today.

Tony has been with me day and night and I'm so blessed to have him.

"Rejoicing"

"Today is the day the Lord has made and I am rejoicing and glad in it". How AWESOME is our God? I can answer that question with "He's alive and continues to show me unbelievable grace. Amazing Grace-how sweet the sound. I am so thankful for this journey in my life and I pray others will seek Him and find that when we go though storms He is the only one that can give you total peace. I was never anxious or claustrophobic yesterday before surgery. God took care of every detail. Oh how He loves me! I was able to get rest last night other than when nurses came into my room. Psalms 91:14-16 "Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation." I had read these verses on 3/10/12 and wrote in the margin of my bible "I am healed".

I was able to get out the bed today and sit up in a chair. Walked the halls of the 5th floor. Doctor said there will be a few more rounds of chemo 4-5 weeks from now until the cancer marker is down to the teens( currently at 46). My brother asked Dr. Ivy if I would be able to travel around the world in November and December. We told him we had auditioned for the "Amazing Race" and he got excited for us.

My heart is full of joy today and I'm so grateful for all the prayers from friends, family and others I do not know. Psalms 103:1-5 "Bless the Lord, O my soul, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems you fom the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's."

Remarkable. Remarkable. Remarkable!

God is REMARKABLE...

Our day started with good news. Janet's CA 125 level has dropped from 288 to 46 since starting chemo. She was taken into surgery around 11 am and her doctor just came out and shared the good news with us.

In the 2 minute conversation we had with him, Janet's doctor said the word remarkable THREE times. He said it was remarkable that there was no cancer in her abdomen as her previous doctor had seen. He said it was remarkable that it was only seen in her ovaries after the previous doctor couldn't even find her gall bladder because her abdomen was in her words "covered in tumors/cancer". Our God is remarkable. We told the doctor that we weren't the least surprised. God is the ultimate healer and Janet has had so many people praying for her and we know those prayers were heard.

Webster's dictionary defines remarkable as worthy of being or likely to be noticed especially as being uncommon or extraordinary. We think this was an extremely appropriate choice of words for Janet's doctor to use.

She is in recovery right now and we haven't seen her yet. She has said all week that she cant wait to wake up and have Tony tell her the good news and that it is all over. That moment has almost come. She will be in the hospital for three to four days and then will have 3 or 4 more rounds of chemo to lower her CA 125 level to the teens. He sent some of the cancer off for pathology in case we needed that information in the future.

We will update you with how Janet is doing in the next little while, we all can't wait to see her, to hug her and to tell her what she already knows, that God is amazing and has heard our prayers!

--Jenna

"You Are More"

Tomorrow I am scheduled for surgery at Northwest Hospital in Springdale at 9:30am. I will be having a complete hysterectomy and will find out the effect chemo has had on my body the past few months. I can honestly say I have complete peace that I will be in God's hands. I've had so much encouragement from others today through phone calls, texts and people at church. I was surrounded by two different groups of people today praying over me. The youth in late Sunday school this morning then tonight the deacons, ministers and their wives circled around me and Laurie Smith, the pastor's wife, as she will be having back surgery on Tuesday. My brother David came up from Texas to be with us tomorrow as well.



If I could have sung a song at church today, I would have sung "You Are More" by Hillsong. Jordan blessed me by singing it for me this morning in our church service. I have posted the link of the song that you can copy and paste.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8-9uOwDObM

Thank you for all those that continue to pray and have been prayer warriors for me. God is Sovereign and is in complete control of this journey and my Hope is in Him. I will be sleeping peacefully tonight knowing no matter the outcome, He already knows and will be with me and my family. He is AWESOME!!!

"Today is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it."

"My Hope"

Today began with "Hope" in the Lord. I read Psalms 130:5-8 "I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities." I know without a doubt my hope is in the Lord for He has redeemed me. I told Tony no matter the outcome from surgery on Monday, my hope will remain in Jesus. I have received cards in the mail almost everyday since my diagnosis and this afternoon I received one that said HOPE, You can hold on to HOPE-no matter what happens because there's One who's holding on to you. He'll stop at nothing and do anything to make sure you have everything you need. Waiting in hope with you to see all God will do. Again, I don't believe things are a coincidence, God gave me that verse this morning and reminded me again this afternoon from a card to where my Hope is to be found.

We decided today would be a great day to go out and do some biking on the trails for the whole family. David, Jordan's boyfriend, was in for the weekend and was able to join us. Hudson even joined in on the fun too. We had a great time enjoying God's beautiful day that He blessed all of us with.
Bryan, Jenna and Hudson (Hudson wasn't too sure of this adventure at first)

Tony, Me, Jordan, David, Jenna, Hudson, and Bryan

So thankful for the time we all had to share together and the memories that were made. Hudson loved hanging out on the bike. Sad thing is the bike carrier he was riding in broke and Bryan had to carry him in his arms for part of the ride home. Luckily it didn't fall apart with Hudson in the carrier. I'm not too sure biking trails and a baby in a carrier is the best idea.

Jordan and David went to a Naturals game (the rest of us weren't invited) so we went to our downtown square and ate at the "Station Cafe" outside. We decided to go for a walk and visit "Grandma" in the nursing home. On our way back toward the square, Hudson got to spend some time in the tree outside of Studio 412 (where Jordan and I work).

Hudson loves trees!!

David and Jordan at the Naturals Game

I am so grateful for my family and our time together today. God is amazing and His mercies are new every morning, great is His faithfulness.

"Today is the day the Lord has made, I rejoiced and was glad in it."

"Pre-Op...... Check"

Yesterday I went for my pre-op at Northwest Hospital in Springdale. Two and half hours later I was done and headed to work. My human side and flesh kicked in and I started missing the idea of getting to go to work. I know it sounds weird, but I really am so grateful for my job and love what I do. I had to fight my emotions and not be a cry baby. Not sure why it was hard to think about having time off, normally I would think it was a great idea. I have been blessed to be able to continue to work and I've said many times, being around others really lifts my spirit. Today was a much better day and I am thankful to have a dear friend, Susan Byrum, take over for me while I'm gone. We visited and went over everything. The month of May is a very busy month for the youth ministry at our church and I have complete peace that she will step right in and do a great job. Thank you Susan for such a sweet spirit of helping out at Studio 412 while I'm gone. You are such a huge blessing to me.

My surgery is on for Monday, April 30th and the time has now changed to 9:30am. I know people are praying for me because I am not fearful and have complete peace in whatever the outcome may be. It will be a big day for me and my family. I had blood drawn yesterday to find out what my cancer marker will be. It's called CA125 and we want that number below 30. When I was first diagnosed, it was at 288. I am praying for Dr. Ivy to have wisdom and also to have rest for him over the weekend so he will be refreshed to do my surgery.

God has continued to be so faithful to me on this journey and constantly shows me His love everyday. I also know that when you put your focus on Him and try to tell others about His grace and love, Satan tries to take away your joy and will do whatever he can to take your eyes off the Lord. These last few days have been a test for me and it has been easy to let "things" creep in and take away your joy. I am thankful to have God's word to keep me focused on what is most important, His love and peace that only He can give. Here is what I read this morning and it was exactly what I needed. Psalms 122:6-9 "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! May they be secure who love you! Peace be within your walls and security within your towers! For my brothers and companions sake, I will say, Peace be within you! For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good." It would be so easy to take my eyes off the Lord and dwell on selfishness, but He continues to give me the peace that He is in such control and I would be the one losing out if I stayed on my own path for life. I am thankful His word is active and a living source we can cling to in our time of need or weakness.

II Peter 1:3-8 "His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

I don't want to be unfruitful for Jesus and I want His name to be glorified in all I do. He is the reason that I have peace and He deserves my very best attitude that I can give to let my light shine for Him.

"Today is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it."