Our day was not off to the start that I was hoping for Joel had a really rough night. He ended up sleeping in till almost 9am. Not sure if I mentioned this before but here at CHEO there is a menu that you can order from between 8 am and 7 pm. If your child wants to eat grapes and chicken nuggets all day that’s okay. They figured it is better to eat grapes all day then having your child eat nothing.

I ordered Joel his breakfast and got called to the front desk for a phone call, (Joel has a wheel chair in his room now) so I got Joel in his wheel chair and we went to answer the phone. It was Audiology, they wanted to book an appointment in the next few days. So they said they would consult Joel’s schedule and get back to us probably Friday. After getting off the phone to our surprise Daddy was here!! I wasn’t expecting Dave until the afternoon. The next thing we were told was someone was coming to take us down to audiology Joel had an appointment right now. Poor guy didn’t even have his breakfast yet.

His test went fine. They get a base line so when he starts chemo they can tell if he is experiencing hearing loss. Unfortunately if he does it is irreversible. (On a side note I was reading the side effects of the different chemo drugs… a little scary…when we know more about which drugs they will be using I will get you all praying about that.) When we got back to the room our breakfast was waiting.

Just after we finished breakfast Pastor Tim dropped in, it is always encouraging to have visitors. I thought physio would be by in the morning but we didn’t see them until the afternoon. Things were a bit better today Joel took a few more steps and was a little more willing to try walking then the day before. I never thought I would celebrate a few steps so much. It is hard to describe each of our kids first steps were so important but these are different. Joel hasn’t taken any first steps without assistance. Each attempt gets us a little closer to home.

Apparently Joel’s case (that sounds so weird) was presented to the oncology team today so maybe tomorrow we will hear something. Joel goes at 12:30 for his Lumbar puncture and his staples removal tomorrow. Please pray for our morning, Joel wakes up looking for food and will not be able to eat until after his procedure.

All and all today was a pretty good day it was nice to have Dave here we hadn’t seen him since Friday. I have another guy for you all to pray for, his name is Colin and he has been Joel’s roommate for the past week. He has been a great roomie and we are sad to see him go. Tomorrow he is having brain surgery too, his tumor is in a very difficult to get at region. After his surgery he will be in ICU for awhile the likelihood of Colin coming back to our room is very small but it is our hope that we will see him back on this floor very soon. Please pray that the surgery is a success and for his Mom and Dad (Laurie and Mark) who are quite worried to say the least.

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.-Hebrews 11:1
These are powerful words but having sat in that waiting room that I know Colin’s family will sit in tomorrow I know they can be hard words to trust even when you are desperate to trust them. I am so glad that God takes faith the size of a mustard seed and in many cases it is my guess He works with faith even smaller then a mustard seed. Jesus said in Matthew 17:20 “I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” A mustard seed is about as small as the tip of a pencil, that is pretty small…mountains those are pretty big. I think we often think we need to have more faith, we can’t dare doubt. Jesus didn’t say we need big faith, or just faith, He said small as a mustard seed faith. That’s not to say that we have to stay that small but it is comforting to know that He doesn’t expect us to start off with mountain size faith.

Joel’s tumor was a mountain to us and it has been moved ‘from here to there.’ His recovery and upcoming treatments look like mountains that need tackling but my faith even if it is small at times is sure of what I hope for and certain of what I do not see. I am confident in God to see us through, around or over these mountains.