"It's been a long December but there's reason to believe that maybe this year will be better than the last."

Dear friends,

The doctors took some scans today and found out that he has a small touch of pneumonia.  He's already been getting the treatment for what they would give him for pneumonia anyway, so there's not anything different as far as treatment goes.  In a way, it's nice to know that this could quite possibly be the reason he's on day seven of his fever.  His white blood cells went up from 0.03 to .1, so that's great.  We are waiting for his neutrophil cells to go up.  Please continue to pray for Coltrane as he's still in pain, has pneumonia, mouth sores, and still has that fever.  Pray for us to trust God and give our children completely to Him.  Here is Isaiah 40:31.  It's helping us very much.  

"but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;

    they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
    they shall walk and not faint."

My bible says in the footnotes: wait for the Lord- Savoring God's promise by faith until the time of fulfillment.  This has a lot to do with patience.  The time of fulfillment is always under God's timing.  And this verse really helps us in trials.  And as we know from Romans12:12, we are to be patient while enduring them.  And "Savoring by faith" is just a great way to put it.  It really helps us realize what faith is.  It is a tool.  A very delicate tool that bends, grows, solidifies, and can uplift us all during tribulations of any kind.  It's hard to just wait. But if I put my faith in Him, His word promises to renew my strength (Renew- Find endless supplies of strength).  Right now in this weary time in our lives, it is easy to be frustrated, stressed, and not put our focus on God.  But everyday, my thoughts go to Him more and more.  I am having to rely on Him more than ever, and it's a really good thing.  My heart aches for my dear boy who is suffering, my family being attacked on so many levels.  But He is here, teaching us.  The Great Teacher.  I've learned something this year about Satan.  He is just mean.  He is the destroyer.  I could dismiss the things that seem to go wrong and blame it on Murphy's stupid law.  I won't.  I will call it like it is, and for what it is.  Satan's attack.  He attacks us at weak moments as he is a coward and knows that we are fragile beings.  It's easy for him to whisper in our ears "God isn't listening to you."  Or worse, "God is listening to you, but isn't doing anything."  Those thoughts are hard to deal with.  We have to stay strong in the Word, and remember who God is and how much He loves us.  And put our focus on trusting and being faithful to Him.  Thank you for praying for us.  We are so grateful to you.  

Love,

Justin,

Sonja,

Jack,

and Coltrane

Urgent Prayers

Dear friends,

Coltrane has had a fever for five days now.  They are treating him with very large spectrum antibiotics.  He is now also being treated for a fungal infection.  He is in a very sorry state.  His mouth and face are swollen due most likely to the mouth sores he is dealing with, which are extremely painful.  Please pray for Coltrane's fever to go down immediately and that his pain will be over.  Please pray for strength for Sonja and I as it is wearing on us in a heavy way.  It's so hard to watch our son be in so much pain.  The doctors are saying that all of this was to be expected.  He is in the thick of it right now and his numbers are very slowly going up.  We are focusing on trusting God and not being afraid.  Thank you for your support.  We love you all very much.  God is great and He is the Great I Am.

Psalm 56:3-4

When I am afraid

I put my trust in you.
In God, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
What can flesh do to me?

"Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders
Let me walk upon the waters
Wherever You would call me
Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander
And my faith will be made stronger
In the presence of my Savior"

Love,

Justin,

Sonja,

Jackson,

and Coltrane

Merry Christmas

Hello everybody,

Merry Christmas from the Smith's!  

Coltrane's stem cell transplant went really well.  It only took 15 minutes.  He got sick immediately after they started.  Coltrane's immune system is around 0.01, which is extremely low.  It is what we expected.  He is officially done with chemotherapy!  Thank God for that.  He is feeling very ill right now and is in a lot of pain.  He has a severe diaper rash, and he now has mouth sores.  The doctor is putting him on a morphine drip to manage the pain.  He also will be getting an acid blocker to help with Coltrane's acid reflux problem.  He will feel like this and possibly worse for the next ten days or so. 

Please pray for:

mouth sores to disappear

fever to go down

diaper rash to disappear

white blood count, platelets, and hemoblobin to go up

no unexpected complications to occur

We have been so blessed with charities it's crazy.  The kids had a huge Christmas morning.  Coltrane even got an electric car to drive!  There were so many organizations that gave them gifts.  It was so thoughtful and wonderful.  Thank you all for your support and Merry Christmas!

Love,

Justin

Sonja

Jack

and Coltrane the Brave

If you build it, they will come!

Field of dreams is an all time classic and the amount of faith he had to build the baseball field was admirable That is how I feel every time I put out a challenge to support the Smith Family. I am always unsure if we will meet the goal, but God ALWAYS reminds me that if you ask they will give.  Every time you have given above and beyond my goal. It is as if God says, here is you goal and now I am going to double it or even triple it.  I am always humbled by your generosity and appreciate your support for this amazing family.  Thank you for giving. I know many people have asked for a address of where they will be staying, so here it is.  

818 NE 8th Street

Oklahoma City, OK 73104

Merry Christmas,

Amber

I wanted to pass on a thank you from the Smith Family too.

Dear Generous Friends and Prayer Warriors,

Before we traveled to OKC, we received an amazing gift. There were so many people that worked together sending gift cards, toys for the boys, and a beautiful scrapbook full of pictures and words of encouragement. I just finished reading through the scrapbook and there were so many things in there that I needed to read at this time. I was so touched by everybody's words. I will cherish them always. I will reread them when I am feeling discouraged or alone. We had a huge outpouring of generosity through many types of gift cards for our family. We have already been putting them to use since we have been here. I knew that we were going to have to take a risk and trust in God when I quit my job and God has definitely used his people to provide generously and abundantly for us during this time. You all are an inspiration to us, your kindness will never be forgotten. Thank you everyone, for giving not only your time and money but also for praying. It feels so good to know there is an "army" of people praying. I also want to say a special thank you to some really awesome kids in the FCS (Fellowship of Christian Students) organization at Gravette. My boys loves their surprises and cards.

Love, 

The Smith Family

Awesomeness

Thank you for your prayers.  They have been answered with awesomeness.  :)  We met a PA who really connected with us on a deep level.  She really went out of her way to help us it seemed.  She made a meeting happen that was VERY helpful with Coltrane's surgery.  It would've gone very differently if this lady didn't have us meet the right people.  Coltrane's last intubation went very poorly.  Only 20 minutes after he was extubated, he had to be re-intubated.  This time, we were instructed to make sure we told EVERYONE we saw that intubation was a problem last time.  We told the PA this during our Pre-Op meeting with her.  She then made an appointment for us to see an ENT (Ear, Nose, and Throat) doctor.  The doctor went into the O.R. as soon as Coltrane went to sleep.  He used a microscope and a camera to look and take pictures of Coltrane's throat.  We are so happy that he did.  The doctor came in and said it was very necessary, as Coltrane's throat had a lot of damage from the last intubation.  It would've gone terribly if the surgeons blindly intubated him.  So the ENT doc split the scarring with a balloon which opened up his airway.  This way, Coltrane didn't have to be intubated at all.  They just used an LMA, which is a lot less invasive and applied a anti-scarring agent to his throat.  Coltrane is breathing even better than before surgery!

Coltrane is now on day 2 of his 4 day high dose chemotherapy treatment.  He was feeling pretty crummy this morning, but started to feel better after the nurses gave him some more powerful anti-nausea medicine.  He is sore from his surgery and has a very severe diaper rash from his TPN and chemo.  

We call Coltrane, Coltrane the Bull.  He is fierce and he is one tough little man.  I look up to my little son so much.  He shows no fear during times of stress and the unknown.  However, he still lets the nurses know what he doesn't like, when he doesn't like it!  He is a good boy too.  

Jack is doing very well, except for his sniffles.  He loves to play at the Korral where we are staying.  Between the hospital and the Kid's Korral, we are very well taken care of.  There are volunteers around the city that make dinner for the residents here.  We have dinner here every night this week, for free.  It's a huge blessing.  

Please pray for:

Jackson and I to feel better and our family to not be sick.

Coltrane to not have any more diarrhea, soreness, or nausea.

Our spirits to focus on God and His plan

Our family to be one unit, even though we are distanced for a while.

Me to get the Xbox to work on this Tv.

Thanks so much for your prayers, help, and support. 

We love you so much.  Merry Christmas!  May God bless you.

Love,

Justin,

Sonja,

Jackson,

and Coltrane the Bull

Oklahoma City for the next several weeks

Hello everyone,

We barely remembered but today Sonja and I share a birthday!  So now we're older.....by one year.  

We had a great Christmas celebration as a family.  It really felt like Christmas.  What a joy it was to give each other gifts and celebrate the birth of our Savior.  Jack and Coltrane loved their presents and will be taking some of them with them to OKC.

We are headed out this morning.  I will be back and forth here and there while Sonja will remain at the hospital with Coltrane.  Coltrane is scheduled for surgery tomorrow.  He will be getting a Broviac catheter to gain yet another access point for the doctors to work with.  He will then undergo four or five days of high dose chemotherapy.  the stem cell transplant will come after that which lasts a mere 30 minutes!  We will remain there until his counts recover.  They warned us that the first ten days will be awful and after that it will get better.  It was actually relieving when the doctors told us all this info.  It wasn't as ominous as it once seemed.  

What perfect timing for this transplant!  It's a time in our lives where we have to trust God completely and also a time that we can remember what great gifts children are, especially one that saved us from our sin.  So we are thankful for a God who became nothing to give us everything.  A God who loves us and who's word is powerful.  We hold on to the fact that God will never leave us nor forsake us, and that His plans are perfect.

We are so happy to get this started to get it over with.  

We have been truly blessed beyond comprehension.  So many people are praying for us.  So many people have been so very generous with their verbal support as well as their financial support.  God is working in ways that we can't ignore.  We received a gift today from a family that was unbelievable.  Sonja and I stood together holding each other, sobbing with each other.  They were sobs of great awe in our God and how He works in His people.  We saw this gift and knew that it was something you couldn't ignore.  You just think to yourself "You can't receive something like this and not be changed."  It really screwed us up in a beautiful way.  We saw with our own eyes, the selflessness of others.  The compassion was overwhelming.  We are so moved and destroyed.  God is so great, we are in complete awe of His might and power and kindness.  LOVE.

I hesitate to ask for prayer for this because I know what happens when you pray for patience , but please pray for:

Patience in this trial

Coltrane to not have negative side effects from the chemotherapy

God to protect our family from sickness (Coltrane will be extremely susceptible to any kind of illness

Us to bond together as a family even though we might be separated sometimes

Coltrane to be strong and not have anxiety

Jackson to understand and be confident about him and his family

Coltrane to not have any breathing problems after being intubated for his short procedure of inserting the Broviac

Oklahoma city, ready or not, here we come!

Hello everybody,

Thank you so much for your prayers and support.  It means so very much to us.  We are constantly being encouraged by how many people are praying for us.  Thank you.

Right now our family is home sweet home.  And we love it.  Warm, cozy house.  Ahhhh, the life.  We are getting geared up to make the trip to OKC for the stem cell transplant.  The Oncologists don't really want to do the transplant because Coltrane still has the drain in (he is still receiving TPN for his nutrition).  However, both sets of our Oncology teams in Tulsa and OKC believe the rewards outweigh the risks.  The risk being that the drain opening is yet one more area that could bring in an infection.  So we will be heading to OKC for as little as 21 days to six weeks or more of treatment.  We have a little blessing in disguise.  The doc in OKC said a lot of times the patients will have to stay a very long time during the transplant because they won't eat (no appetite, feeling horrible, mouth sores, etc.).  Due to Coltrane either being on TPN or being able to use his G-tube, we won't have to worry about that!  Yay for that!  The transplant will start on December 16th.  

We are both excited to get this over with, and anxious.  We are so happy that so many continue to pray for us.  That is really the most anyone could ever do for us.  We are unsure of how things are actually going to go when we get there, but we are trusting in the Lord our God for His supreme guidance and peace.  We are sad to see our little son going to have to go through all of this, but it's only temporary.  And so is this life.  It's full of terrible things that can be so daunting.  Life can be overwhelming.  And we are certainly overwhelmed.  We are pretty wiped, frankly.  But we can rest knowing that God supplies the strength we need each day.  We can trust Him and His plan for us.  I really latched on to what Pat said months and months ago in his sermon about trials and suffering.  He said to not focus on the "Why", but the "How".  "How" can God use us in this situation.  Each day we can ask this question.  And yes, it is a choice to ask it.  A lot of times I find myself flying by the seat of my pants and I'm not focused on that question.  Even if things are "normal" (what's that anyway?), we should be asking the "How".  It definitely becomes more clear as to how important it is to seek God's will and how we can serve Him every day in every situation, not just the "hard" ones.  

We are so thankful to all of you for your smiles, your attitudes, your gentleness, your kindness, your faithfulness, and your generosity.  We love you so much dear brothers and sisters.  

Please pray for:

Our faith to grow and grow

For us to not be discouraged

For us to be servants 

For Coltrane to be healed

For Jackson to deal with all of this in a healthy manner

For our marriage

For our parenting

For all the preliminary tests to go well before the stem cell transplant

Little or NO side effects from the high dose of chemo

For bone marrow to begin producing cells quickly and efficiently

For Coltrane's drain output to keep decreasing and that it will be able to be removed soon

For no complications or infections during the whole time.

In Christ's perfect love,

Justin,

Sonja,

Jack,

and Coltrane the Courageous.  

P.S. Thank you to Justin and Sonja for always opening up their hearts and sharing this journey with us. I just want to remind everyone that we are collecting gift cards to send with the Smith family for their 4-6 week stay. If you are interested in donating a gift card, please e-mail me at hogwildamber@gmail.com. 

Thanks for your continuous support and prayers,

Amber Sisemore

This is a picture of Coltrane worshiping during the worship service a few Sundays ago.