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Hey ya’ll! J Welcome to our blog! We have become good ol’ Texans, trying to adjust to this crazy heat, thunderstorms and Southern drawls!  We are happy that you are joining us on this journey! These past few weeks have been a bit crazy, to say the least, but we are making the best of this trip and loving life because of God’s grace! But…I guess I should start at the beginning. Most of you are familiar with this brain tumour journey that we have been walking through these past five and half years. If you aren’t familiar, we will include what has led us to this point in our Journey.  

January of this year, we found out that the brain tumour had started to grow again. It was very difficult to hear. The doctor decided to wait to do any treatment at the time, but mentioned that it looked like radiation was the next step. Our hearts dropped. We just had our third little blessing, we moved to a great house in the country and were starting to enjoy living a “normal” life again. We both did not feel at peace with Kyle doing radiation and voiced all our concerns to our neuro-oncologist. We both felt that Kyle was young to have radiation.  We knew at the time that radiation can be beneficial, but that the side effects of it can be rather difficult now and more so down the road and we just did not feel at peace with that.

In every decision that we make we try to live by our wedding text. Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart and lean NOT on your own understanding. In ALL your ways, acknowledge HIM and He WILL make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)  So we gave it up to God and both felt like doing radiation at the time was not what we were supposed to do. And for those of you who might not know…we are major believers in God’s supernatural healing!! We have experienced it ourselves personally and have seen many others healed by Jesus!! After Kyle’s first diagnosis, we really were given no hope from the doctors. They gave him a life expectancy of 2 months to 2 years to live. So..we started reading God’s Word. We started reading about the life of Jesus. We had called ourselves Christians for years, but yet we hadn’t been truly spending time reading God’s perfect and good Word. We were very uneducated in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And…what did we find? God’s amazing LOVE for us! (John 3:16) That Jesus healed and healed EVERYONE who came to Him! (Matthew 12:15) And that He said that WE will do the same works and even GREATER things than He did. (John 14:12) And also that by Jesus stripes we ARE healed! Jesus bore not only our sins, but our sicknesses on the cross. (Isaiah 53:5 & 1 Peter 2:24) This became a light of hope for us during our dark time. And we wanted more of God’s voice by reading the Bible.

Many people have said to us, how can you be so joyful during this time? Even on doctors reports of Kyle that we have read, doctors have written…he seems a little too happy considering his situation…and our answer is…it’s because of JESUS!!! Don’t get me wrong, there are times and days where we feel the attack of the devil, but we uplift each other by reminding one another of all our blessings and to just keep our focus on the gift of Jesus. When we would do that, all our fears and doubts would melt away and a joy that cannot be described would replace all those negative feelings. On one of our children’s cds, there is a song that speaks straight to our situation. (On a side note: Have you ever noticed how amazing children’s praise and worship songs really are? They speak straight to my soul!! Even songs that I sang as a child..I’m singing them now like, yah!! This is SO true! J) The song goes like this “Joy unspeakable that won’t go away, just enough strength to get through today. So I’m never going to worry what tomorrow will bring, cuz my faith is on solid rock. I’m counting on God! The miracle of Christ in me, is a mystery that sets me FREE. I’m nothing like I used to be, so open up your eyes you’ll see…Joy unspeakable!”  This is EXACTLY how we feel!! With Christ IN us, we feel JOY!

Over the summer, we were able to really enjoy each other as a family. We moved to a country property and were enjoying watching the kids play outdoors! We got to watch Cohen play soccer, Shaelynn ride her bike and watch Bennett explore the outside. (And learn that NOT everything he puts in his mouth tastes good!) It was a REAL blessing!!

In July we learned that the tumour had continued to grow. Not what we were hoping and believing for. Again radiation was brought up and again we felt defeated. But we met a really great friend and mentor over the summer and he reminded us that when Peter went out on the sea to meet Jesus and looked around at the water and started to sink, Jesus didn’t just say “ok, goodbye! You didn’t keep your eyes focused on me, so I’ll let you drown.” No…he grabbed hold of his hand and led him back to the boat and into safety. This is where we are at. We’ve learned that we are still so young in our knowledge and understanding of God’s word… BUT …HE will never leave us or forsake us!
A family member had told us about proton radiation. It is a newer type of radiation that can be used on all types of tumours throughout the body..one being glioma brain tumours. It is proven to be beneficial because it offers fewer side effects. (http://www.mdanderson.org/patient-and-cancer-information/proton-therapy-center/index.html) Since I am not a very good physicist (J) I have included a great informative link on proton radiation and its’ benefits.

We started looking into this more and found that Canada does not have proton radiation yet, but that many hospitals in the United States did. We decided to have 2 different consultations in the United States to discuss with doctors there if proton radiation was a better option for Kyle than regular IMRT radiation. Both were very optimistic about Kyle’s situation and both eluded to the fact that if you had to have a cancerous brain tumour, Kyle’s type was a good one to have. (Thanks…I think??) And that proton radiation might be a better option because of Kyle’s location of tumour, type of tumour and that he is so young. We were led to MD Anderson in Houston Texas for various reasons; they are a top cancer hospital in the world, Kyle’s sister lives in Texas (so having family closer would be a major bonus) and we heard through personal friends that the patient care is exceptional! And to be honest…I wanted the BEST for my best friend!  It was a whirlwind of activity in a short amount of time; visiting with doctors, travelling to the US and back, finding housing for our little family and covering our bases at home… it all came down to one little (HUGE) phone consultation with the doctor from MD Anderson. After she and her team planned out two different radiation maps (one being proton, the other being IMRT) we discussed the pros and cons of each and the doctor believed that proton would be the more beneficial plan (less radiation to the normal brain tissue), but that ultimately the decision was up to us. YIKES!!!

Immediately after the phone call, Kyle and I started praying…but with three kids 4 and under, the prayer kept getting interrupted by… mommy, I’m hungry….mom, Shaelynn hit me…dad, come play with me and wahhh!!! So, praying together was a little difficult.:) I left Kyle to spend some time praying and reading the Word while I took the kids outside.
After about an hour Kyle came outside with a smile on his face. I asked him, “well?”

He says with confidence, “We’re going.”

“Okay. When should we leave?”

He says, “tomorrow.”

I’m like, “o…kay… I better get packing.”

 We have learned recently and believe that God speaks to us through His word and that it has an answer for everything. While Kyle was inside praying, he began praying in the spirit and spoke our wedding text and asked God to “direct our path” in making this decision. With his hands in the air he felt God telling him that if he read in the bible north that meant no treatment. Then he heard God say if you read west or left, that means treatment in Hamilton, and if you read east or right that means treatment in Houston. Kyle opened the Bible and read Psalm 98 which says:

Oh, sing to the Lord a new song!
For He has done marvelous things;
His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory.

 We thanked God for His clear direction and the peace that we felt and franticly started to confirm travelling and living arrangements. This was Tuesday evening and Kyle was to begin treatment that Thursday.  

Everything fell into place beautifully; Housing, a vehicle, travelling, location to the treatment centre etc. and the kids have adjusted SO well!  When we got here, we felt a little overwhelmed and you know how the pesky devil works. Is this really what God wants for you? Did He really say come to this hot, sticky city of Houston Texas to get treatment? And right when we started having these thoughts God reminded us YET again of His hand in guiding us here. A friend of Kyle’s brother-in-law Justin texted him a passage of scripture. He didn’t know anything about how Kyle came to the decision to come to Houston, but really felt God pressing on him to share this verse from Isaiah 41:10:

Fear not, for I am with you;
Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
Yes, I will help you,
I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

Okay God! Thank you for the affirmation!

Shaelynn is loving it here, as she’s wanted to be a cowgirl for a while now! Cohen is enjoying having a pool to swim in and spending some quality time with his best friend, his daddy! Benny is a mommy’s boy! As long as mommy is near, than Ben doesn’t care where he is! While we have been here he has learned to say mama and it is pretty CUTE! I am just happy to be altogether as a family. My goal has been to try and make this as enjoyable for everyone as possible and so I am trying to make this a special vacation for the kids! We call it the radiation vacation. J

And Kyle is doing amazing! How can I even begin to express how proud of him I am? He is taking treatments like a champ, while at the same time being an incredible husband and dad. He had enrolled in Bible College correspondently before we left and is enjoying spending his time doing his studies. He is also enjoying having a gym downstairs at our apartment and just spending quality time with his family. He has treatment 5 days a week and gets the weekends off. Treatment takes about half an hour and he doesn’t feel a thing. The proton centre is not even 10 minutes away from where we are living. They have an AMAZING toy room for the kids, so the kids love going to daddy’s doctor’s appointments to play. We have found a really great church here and have started making friends.

Things to pray for: Thank God for his amazing grace and healing power; please pray that Kyle will continue to feel as great as he does and that any side effects that the doctors are speaking will not come; and please keep our children in your prayers!

We just feel SO blessed! Sometimes we are in awe of God’s grace and goodness in providing for us. He has provided AMAZING family and friends that have made this transition in our lives SO much easier!! First we want to send a very HUGE thank you to Kyle’s sister and bro-in-law Sarah and Justin. They have not only walked alongside us throughout this whole journey, but have been amazing spiritual friends as well. They played a big role in us considering MD Anderson. As soon as they got the word that we were moving here, they found babysitters for their three older children, made the 10 hour drive down to Houston and got our apartment set up for us before we got here. This is only one example of their goodness! We really can’t thank them enough for EVERYTHING they have done! We love you Vyns!! We also need to send out special thank you’s to the Vyns’ friends who graciously took care of the three older kids and also helped with getting things in order here. Thank you SO much!

We want to say thank you to all of you that were willing to drop everything to watch our children over the past few months. Kyle’s parents, my mom and dad, Erika, Rachel, Tam and Joey! Thank you for loving us, supporting us and more important loving our children! Thank you to all our family and friends for your financial support, love and prayers over this past year. We really can’t thank you enough!!

Blessings for now, the DeKonings!