July 2007

Friends and Family,

God hears your prayers for Shannon! Thank you everyone!

Last week, 2 days prior to our scheduled clinic visit for chemo, our doctor (Dr. Eric) phoned and said ... he just had to call because he had several emotional experiences this day over blood results and couldn't wait for our visit. Additionally he wanted to assure us that these results were not of his doing but clearly God's hand.

The 2 pieces of good news he shared were 1) Shannon's cancer cells had gone from 45% to 1% (totally unexpected reduction in such a short period) and 2) one of family members is a matched donor (the odds were heavily against this)! I could go into a lot of scientific jargon to explain how incredibly good this news is, but the bottom line is that Shannon's cancer is so aggressive that time could be our enemy, so this is a miracle!

In this race against time, this is the first of several hurdles that we must clear. The next is for Shannon to continue to endure the high intensity chemo that's causing hair loss, weight loss, and many other unpleasant side effects. Those to come are the need for her to be in complete remission just prior to her bone marrow transplant, then her body's acceptance of the bone marrow graft (which will be as grueling as her chemo), and finally our ability to complete the first half of her senior year through home schooling.

Please continue your prayers for the hurdles to come and for Shannon to be able to tolerate her chemo. We've recently had several really bad chemo-days.

Through this experience we have come to see the presence of Christ in all of humanity, not just in the goodness of all of you but literally in all people, and have realized how blind we had been to this truth in the past. The blessings being poured over us daily still leave us amazed.

Attached is a photo of Shannon with her doctors - Dr. Arceci on the left (Shannon calls him St. Francis) and Dr. Eric Schafer on the right (known by Shannon as 'J.D.', the doctor on "Scrubs")