A Long Day Ending in Singing to the Lord

Yesterday Caleb had a Chemo treatment, flew to Tucson, Arizona, had dinner with his buds for the first time since his diagnoses and sang with the 200 member all-state choir.  It was not easy for him.  He didn't get sick but got tired and had to lie down for a few minutes.  But, Sarah told me that as soon as the choir started to sing one of his favorites he jumped up and finished out the rehearsal.  We give praise to God for the answered prayer that he is even in Tucson.  We continue to pray that he will stay healthy while he is in Tucson.  With his white blood count down his immune system isn't functioning like it should-but God is in control.  He's already been able to live part of a dream.  Pray with us that he'll be able to complete the weekend.

Our doctor-Dr. Walsh- we really feel blessed to have been assigned to.  She is really wonderful and has a great compassion for her patients.  I think she knows that Caleb being there with his singing buddies was going to make a difference in these initial days of treatment.  Other doctors might have not seen it the same way.  But, whether he makes it through the rest of the rehearsals, we believe she's made the right decision for Caleb.

The kids are singing a Negro Spiritual at the festival that comes from words from Scripture-it goes like this-"Sing unto the Lord a New Song, Sing unto the Lord all the earth," from Psalm 96:1.  So, we sing during the bad and good times knowing God is Sovereign and knows the future.  May all of us live out this hope!

Prayers Answered

Thank you all who prayed that Caleb could be in Tucson on Thursday for all-state.  Our doctor, Dr. Lexi Walsh, felt like she could change his treatment schedule so that he could be treated on Thursday instead of Friday.  This will make it so Caleb can be there at nearly all of the rehearsals.  We need continual prayer that Caleb's stamina and strength will remain good up until and during the music festival. 

Caleb is officially enrolled in the study to be given the new treatment for his Leukemia.  The results of this new treatment so far have been really encouraging.  Please pray that the treatments are effective. 

Thank you all for your prayers and concerns-we greatly appreciate all of you. 

Caleb Is at His Second Home!

Today Caleb was finally discharged from the hospital.  After a lumbar puncture and chemo treatments he went home with Sarah to the Ronald McDonald House for the rest of the week.  We praise the Lord for the excellent care that Caleb recieved so that he would be strong enough to get back to semi-normal. 

We heard some scarry news and then some really good news that made the scarry news way less scarry.:)   Caleb has the Philadelphia chromosome type of Leukemia.  15 years ago this was very bad news and the prognosis was not very good.  But, there are new chemo treatments that are having excellent results in stopping this particular type of Leukemia.  We were encouraged to know that there are many people who have recieved this new treatment that are cancer free. The results (so far) are very encouraging.   But, since the treatment is new the long term results are still not known for sure. 

Continue to pray for Caleb that these treatments will be exactly what he needs to get rid of this disease.

We are still hopeful that Caleb can make it to all-state next weekend-but pray that it will be the right thing for him at this point in his journey. 

Thanks you for all you prayers!

These verses have been encouraging to us throught this great trial:

Psalm 40:1-3
 ¹I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
 ²He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
 ³And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.

Continued Progress for Cal

We've had a great week and Caleb continues to respond postively to treatment.  Please pray that we can work out his all-state participation.  Right now he is listening to a Monteverde Madrigal.  It is the least exciting of the pieces that they will be doing next week.  Caleb is in good spirits and is now checking facebook on his own.  We've been able to get a device that makes it really easy for him to communicate with his friends and family.  

God willing he leaves the hospital on Saturday or Sunday.  He will stay in Vegas until his journey to Tucson for all-state.  After that hopefully he will be able to return home and maybe even go to school a couple of days a week. 

All of these things we pray in God's perfect will.

Again, thank you all for how you have lifted us up in prayer and Spirit.  We have been touched in a way that we cannot express in words. 

Again, God encourages us through the words of the Psalms:
Psalm 125:1-3

¹They that trust in the LORD shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever.

 ²As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people from henceforth even for ever.

Mohave High School-A Place of Caring

"A Place of Caring" would really have to be an understatement.  Today I was overwhelmed with the support and love poured out by our student body.  There has been some negative press about our school--but I just won't believe it.  After the incredible show of support and love for my son-I can't imagine a better group of kids for Caleb to be spending time with .  Many of my students have showed heartfelt compassion for Caleb's situation.  I'm saying this for Caleb and all of my family:  We truly feel like we can climb this mountain.  On Friday I didn't know how we could do it-but today I know we can do this as a throng of people who care at Mohave High School are lifting us up!  God is Good!

Caleb had another day of getting stronger.  He was up and about and tomorrow they'll put in a line that will make him more mobile as he is treated.  He's on his way out of the ICU and will have much more independence from now on.  Continue to pray for his recovery!

More Small Steps for Caleb

Our nurse just said "we really had a good day!"  Thanks Jennifer for your good care of Caleb!  Yesterday Caleb had his third procedure to separate the blood in order to get the bad white blood cells out of his system. The count dropped from nearly a million to 55,000.   We praise the Lord for this success.  Today it was as low as 44,000.   We've had great care.  In fact, I'm listening to one of the other nurses check to see how Caleb is doing.  We have been blessed by the Sunrise Children's Hospital Staff and their caring ways.  We owe a great debt of gratitude to Dr. Walsh and her associates here in the Peds ICU

Yesterday was an exciting day for Caleb as six of his choir and band buddies showed up to encourage him.  They even broke out in song.  It was a special concert for the staff.  Caleb smiled more than he has so far since being in the hospital.

I am overwhelmed with all of you who have shown prayer support!  It has certainly helped make a difference.  It has caused me to think more about the Theology of prayer, healing, sovereignty, and many other important aspects of our God.

We are infinitely blessed and are amazed at the God who cares and loves us.  He has demonstrated His love through many of you.  Thanks you for being a part of the great Body of Christ in your encouragement.  Continue to pray.  Caleb has gone from a critical cancer patient to a still serious one that has made good strides  for a permanent healing in God's Will.   My current short term requests are that Caleb will be able to be rid of his vision problem and that he will be able to get up and walk around.  He still has not been able to do such things because of his critical condition.

Finally, on a funny note, Caleb still perks up and sports info.  We were both appalled that the Coyotes gave up game tying goals in the last 15 seconds the last two games.  At least we got one win.  But, Caleb still is interested and was conversing with one of the nurses about UofA's #1 basketball recruiting class.  This Arizona grad didn't know nearly as much as Caleb did.

Thanks for your prayers-we know that the faithful will continue to lift him up to the Great Healer.

Prayer. . . availeth much

Today Caleb is sitting in bed playing a video game on his Uncle Randy's tablet computer.  He is going through his final treatment on the centrifuge blood machine.  The machine he's on takes the blood and spins it about so that the parts will separate.  Then the white blood cells are removed.  These are the bad cells.  We are praying that the white blood cells in his blood will drop below 100,000.  Not a bad couple of days since the number once was nearly 1 million.  When they do then he can start the treatment to destroy the Leukemia in his body.  We are trusting that the Lord will work with the doctors to get Caleb back on the path of a healthy life.  We are overwhelmed with the outpouring of friends and family from all over the world that are praying with us.  I wonder if the effect of the electronic media in prayer has made a difference in the Kingdom of Heaven?  Many of us are reminded or hear about prayer needs so much quicker and effectively than before information could be shared electronically.  At least we can say we've been blessed by those who have shared their wonderful  prayers.  "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."  James 5:16

Climbing the Mountain With Caleb

This blogs started 4/13/12 the day after our son Caleb Evins begins his mountain climb to defeat the terrible disease of Cancer.  He is beginning his battle with Leukemia.  Today he is getting another blood treatment to knock down the white blood cells which had grown to an unusually high level.  

Caleb has demonstrated symptoms of this disease for over a month.  But, we just didn't believe it to be this serious.  He had a very strange set of circumstances that made it difficult of anyone to realize that he had a serious illness.  His wisdom teeth had been bothering him and he had lost some weight ( we thought because he couldn't chew very well).  He also had other flu-like symptoms which we attributed to the flue.  But, looking back everything he was going through was more dire than he ever let on.  Caleb, is one who handles discomfort and pain pretty well.  He doesn't get emotional and kind of guts through things.  So, we didn't get his blood work until yesterday.  The disease has tried its best to dominate his body, but thanks to the good medicine that has been developed we are fighting back and having some success.  There were some good thing that have happened since Caleb was admitted.  The white blood cell count has dropped and there is no cancer in his spinal fluid.   The doctors were suspect of this, but Praise the Lord the disease is limited in its spread.

As to Caleb's attitude and demeanor of what he's facing.  He's up to the battle, so far.  He is a very focused kid and has already focused his energies on winning this battle.

For me (Craig), this is hard.   I love my son.  He is such a unique individual.  He has such a creative mind.  His memory is fantastic.  He has a very nice sensitivity to the things of God.

Caleb's biggest  dream now is to somehow be able to make it to the All-State music festival.  This will be a very hard goal to achieve.  We pray for God to restore him to an healthy enough state so that he can fulfill this small dream in his young life.

I am challenged by God's Word from Psalm 119::  Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.