We know it’s been awhile since there’s been an update from Anna Marie, but here is one today, and she’s doing great! — Sarah

Hello All,

It’s been a while since I updated you. Since the last update, I completed my Phesgo (HER2 targeted therapy); and based on my prior treatments, my oncologist’s research indicated that it wouldn’t be beneficial for me to have a second year of targeted therapy. That means I’m done with the treatments at the hospital cancer center, and am down to just the natural therapies which currently includes a weekly trip to Kansas City (primarily for a high dose Vitamin C IV). And we got other good news recently! The lab test my natural oncologist uses to monitor for circulating tumor cells once again came back with none detected, and while that does not mean for sure that there is no cancer, it’s definitely a good sign that there are currently no detectable circulating tumor cells! Praise the Lord!

Our family is again enjoying the National Bible Bee summer study (a daily Bible study with memory work). The theme this year is “Witness,” and as we’ve been reading/studying the beginning of Acts, one thing that stands out to me is the power of prayer. And I am reminded again how grateful we are for the prayers of all of you on our behalf through this season. Thank you! While we are thankful for doctors and modern research/treatments, as well as the miracle of the human body (imperfect and sin-stained though it may be), no matter what God wills or what He uses, the health we enjoy is definitely a blessing directly from Him. He IS the Great Physician. And, more than our physical needs, I’m grateful that He cares about restoring our souls and bringing us into fellowship with Him through Christ.

Love,
Anna Marie

“And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, by stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.” Acts 4:29-31

Anna Marie’s surgery went well, and this morning, she has an update. –Sarah

Hello everyone,

Thank you for praying! The flights and surgery all went smoothly. I have slept well, and the pain is not too intense (manageable with ibuprofen). We enjoyed driving the scenic loop at Red Rock Canyon yesterday around my postop appointment. I have never been to this part of the country before; the scenery is beautiful (the cold and wind surprised me)! We are also enjoying cooking and spending time together at our VRBO. We’re flying home this afternoon and looking forward to seeing my sweet family again!

Love,
Anna Marie

“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst
formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting
to everlasting, thou art God.” Psalm 90:2

Today, Anna Marie shares an update as she heads for surgery out of state. Please be in prayer for her! — Love, Sarah

Hello everyone,

I love spring—a celebration of new life as brown turns to green; leaves, flowers, and new plants emerge; and my favorite of all, we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus! Because He lives, we can face tomorrow!

There are a few notable things happening right now. Perhaps the most interesting (and urgent as far as prayer requests go) is that I’m flying to Nevada today for surgery. I’ve had an inguinal hernia for a number of years but it’s become more of a problem in the last few weeks. We had recently talked with my doctors and established a plan of when and where to get surgery done (May seemed like the perfect time for a number of reasons), praying that the Lord would make it clear if it should be done sooner. Well, a week ago Friday night it became clear that it’s pretty urgent to get it repaired when I nearly ended up in the ER due to the hernia.

My naturopathic oncologist was concerned about the use of mesh in the repair; so we are grateful to have found a surgeon in Nevada who specializes in mesh-free hernia repair, and was able to fit me into his schedule this week for surgery.

With another long-distance, intense recovery medical issue for me, we are again so grateful for family support and help! On the home front, Christopher will be home with the children and Grandma Maxwell will be helping with school. My family in Washington has graciously rearranged their schedule on short notice, and my mom will fly to Nevada so she can meet me at the airport, drive me to and from all my appointments, and stay with me at our VRBO. I’ll have my pre-op appointment this afternoon, surgery Wednesday, and then post-op on Thursday. My mom is flying home with me to Kansas on Friday and staying with us through Tuesday when my sister will come. Since I’m not to pick up anything for a couple of weeks and not over 20 pounds for a month, it’ll be a blessing to have help around our houseful of little people. And of course, we are really looking forward to spending time together again.

We appreciate prayers for safety and health in travel, and that surgery and recovery will go as smoothly as possible.

I am coming up on the one-year mark from when I began the chemo and current HER2 blocker/targeted therapy (Phesgo, which is a subcutaneous injection of Herceptin and Perjeta). I finished the chemo in July but have continued the targeted therapy which is a one-year therapy. When that is done next month, I will switch to a different type of HER2 targeted therapy which is a daily oral pill called Nerlynx. We were grateful for the unanimous recommendation amongst my doctors to go on Nerlynx, because I really had no desire to—but, obviously, I’d also rather not be dealing with cancer and the whole purpose of Nerlynx is targeted toward my type of cancer, so even though I’d rather not be taking cancer pills, it does seem like the right decision. I will be on that for another year; so I guess we are basically at one year down, one to go!

The most exciting news is that I had an MRI a couple of weeks ago that was cancer clear! That’s a huge praise since one of our oncologists mentioned that MRI scans often give false positives, so to not even have a questionable element was a blessing.

Thank you all for praying!
~Anna Marie

“Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” (1 Peter 5:7).

Anna Marie reflects back on the events of last year and wrote a post to share what is on her heart. —Sarah

As Simon Peter’s brothers and sisters excitedly prepare to celebrate his first birthday, my mind has been traveling back to a year ago and all the events surrounding his birth. I find rushes of emotion catching me by surprise as we begin to pass these one-year milestones. But the overwhelming emotion (often through tears) is one of gratitude because God has shown us over and over again that He is good and He is faithful; that His grace is sufficient and His strength is made perfect in our weakness. I don’t really think I’m crying for the loss of normal last trimester, normal birth, normal nursing, normal routine and life with a baby. Because God gave us infinitely more than “normal.” He gave us Himself. What we knew in our heads a year ago as we entered a “Red Sea place” in our lives, God has proven in our experience as He showed His goodness and faithfulness leading us each step forward.

Also thinking back to the birth, there are some special memories and tidbits that I don’t think I shared before. As many of you know, Christopher and I have enjoyed working together on our babies’ names for months leading up to their birth. But because of everything else going on during my pregnancy with Simon Peter, we ended up finalizing decisions on his name and verse while waiting for my Pitocin to kick in at the hospital—which made for special memories of writing names and definitions and verses on the whiteboard in the delivery room. 🙂 Simon means “he hears” or “God has heard;” and Peter means “a rock.” The meaning of his name to us is two-fold. First, it is a reminder to us that God hears us and is our Rock as we go through this trial. And second, our prayer for Simon Peter is that he will have a close relationship with Christ, hearing Him and seeking Him; and that he will be firmly planted on the Rock and unmovable in his resolve to follow Him.

That tied in perfectly with Psalm 18:2 which we chose as his verse. Shortly after we settled on that, I received a couple of texts and emails from different friends and family who sent that very verse to encourage me! I love when God puts things like that together—another reminder to me of His care for each detail of our lives!

I think we mentioned before that the birth team was such a blessing to us. My day shift nurse was great, and then the night shift nurse went above and beyond helping me to be as comfortable as possible through transition and delivery. Christopher and I were really blessed by her servant spirit. To my surprise, a few weeks ago when I went for my targeted cancer therapy shot at the hospital, my nurse at the cancer center for the day was that same delivery nurse! She just switched to working at the cancer center and it was a happy little reunion when we recognized each other. Since she’s a believer, it was special to reminisce together (and share with other nurses) about the little ways we saw God work in Peter’s birth.

Simon Peter is such a delight to our family. His sweet, laid back personality has blended perfectly with the unusual circumstances and events of the past year. It’s been amazing to see how God has taken care of him for things I was most concerned about for him physically and emotionally. We were overwhelmed by the generosity of a few mamas both here and in Washington who provided milk for him to receive that incredible nutrition for the first six months of his life and he has definitely thrived! 

Simon Peter has been my little buddy through this whole journey. From the time I first noticed the tumor a couple weeks after finding out he was on the way, it was precious knowing that he was growing and gaining strength for whatever lay ahead, and that God would give him the grace needed as well as us. He was my traveling companion to Washington and kept me in my role as mommy while I was away from everyone else at my parents’ home for those few months of chemo. During that time, despite being a sixth born, he was an only child in a household of four adults! He got to visit mountains and seashores, and loved staring up at the tall evergreens on our daily walks.

He adjusted well getting back to life in the Midwest with five doting older siblings. He loves interacting with everyone and is becoming quite the little explorer as he “army crawls” all over the house. As I mentioned earlier, all his brothers and sisters are thoroughly excited about his upcoming birthday, and even though he has no idea what they are excited about he gets fired up with their enthusiasm.

Thank you all for your investment as you prayed for him and us through this journey! We are so thankful for you!

Love,
Anna Marie

“The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength,
in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.” Psalm 18:2

Merry Christmas the night-before Christmas Eve! Here’s a sweet update from Anna Marie including a video. Love, Sarah

Dear Friends,

What a year this has been! I think back to last Christmas and all the unknowns we were facing. As you know, things developed rather rapidly shortly after that Christmas. We have definitely faced some “deep waters” around the labor induction, surgery, chemo – primarily from the standpoint of facing very difficult decisions at times when we didn’t feel like we had all of the information we would have liked to make that decision.

Through it all you have faithfully encouraged and prayed for us each step of the way. Thank you! I can’t even describe to you how we have felt held up by God along this journey.

I believe God has used these circumstances to teach me more about my need for utter dependence on Him. But, oh! I still have so much more to learn, and still struggle with day-to-day opportunities to do so. But God is faithful and I’m thankful that He promises to never leave or forsake, that He will continue the work He began until the day of Christ!

Life is continuing here in the weekly treatment routine (HER2 blocker & supportive therapies). I’ve definitely felt more energy over the last few weeks and have loved all the Christmas activities we’ve been able to do as a family.

One Christmas activity we love is going to the doors of local friends to wish them a Merry Christmas, sharing a few verses,  a Christmas song, and a plate of shortbread cookies. While we would love to also stop by your house, we had to settle for another way to greet you. So we recorded a two-minute video that you can see by viewing it below or clicking this link.

Singing Christmas songs is one of my favorite parts of this season, and I enjoy learning some of the less common ones in addition to the traditional, familiar carols. Here are a few verses of a 1600’s German hymn by Paul Gerhardt that friends taught me years ago. I love the picture of absolute dependence upon and rest in Christ, and the awe it captures in speaking of the Creator humbling Himself to take on the form of the created.

O Jesus Christ,
Thy manger is
My paradise at which my soul reclineth.
For there, O Lord,
Doth lie the Word
Made flesh for us; herein Thy grace forth shineth.

He whom the sea
And wind obey
Doth come to serve the sinner in great meekness.
Thou, God’s own Son,
With us art one,
Dost join us and our children in our weakness.

Thy light and grace
Our guilt efface,
Thy heav’nly riches all our loss retrieving.
Immanuel,
Thy birth doth quell
The pow’r of hell and Satan’s bold deceiving.

Thou Christian heart,
Whoe’er thou art,
Be of good cheer and let no sorrow move thee!
For God’s own Child,
In mercy mild,
Joins thee to Him; how greatly God must love thee!

The world may hold
Her wealth and gold;
But thou, my heart, keep Christ as thy true treasure.
To Him hold fast
Until at last
A crown be thine and honor in full measure.

May we truly keep Christ as our True Treasure this Christmas season and hold Him fast in the New Year – knowing that He will hold us fast, as well!

Merry Christmas!

Anna Marie

“And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call
his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.”
Matthew 1:21

Happy Monday, y’all! Today Anna Marie’s sharing an update on how they’re doing. —Sarah

Hello Everyone,

Autumn is arriving here in Leavenworth! I love waking to the cool morning air, the golden brown leaves fluttering to the ground and sprinkling the deck and yard with nature’s confetti. In addition to family life at home—school, work, yard work, etc.— we have enjoyed some family adventures like going on little hikes at nearby Weston, having a picnic dinner at a site where Abraham Lincoln gave a speech (I love how we can bring our history studies to life like that!), and special games Christopher thinks up to play in the backyard with the children. Also, he and Joshua have done fall lawn rejuvenation for a few years now, and just spent a couple Saturdays doing that. Folks enjoy having this great father/son team work in their yard, and I love how Christopher includes Joshua in their little business!

While we are enjoying the beautiful weather here, though, our hearts go out to all those affected by the wildfires out west. My family (in Washington) is safe, and we are grateful for the rain that cleared the hazardous air conditions that were keeping them inside.

The change of seasons reminds me of the life seasons we are going through. As much as I sometimes wish I could go back to a previous season, this is the season God has us in right now. I want so much to not only be content in it, but to embrace and cherish it for the opportunities of spiritual growth and relationship-building in concentrated family time. Each season has its own beauty and ways of glorifying God if we will humbly accept it. That’s not to say it’s always easy, and I have definitely had emotional ups and downs along the way. I think reaching the point of admitting “I can’t do this” is right where God wants me—not continuing that train of thought in despair, but realization of my need for constant reliance on Him.

The children have been remembering last September when we were treating head lice. While that was certainly not a “season” I would have chosen, it’s cute to hear them talking about it and to realize what special memories we all have of that time. I know we will cherish many special memories of the season of life God has given us right now and I want to be content and thankful. I’m so blessed to have this time surrounded by my sweet little family!

I met a precious young mom at one of my treatment facilities and we quickly became friends, keeping in contact via text. I was grieved when I received a text recently from her husband letting me know she passed away; while I know it is glory for her, our hearts ache for her husband and three young children left behind. Goodbyes are a sad reality of gaining many sweet friends in cancer treatment; but I’m so thankful for the opportunity I have had to get to know these brothers and sisters in Christ and am grateful that He crosses our paths to encourage each other in Him! And I’m again reminded to cherish these days with my family because, cancer or not, none of us knows how much longer we have on earth. May we be faithful with every moment!

I’m continuing the Thursday afternoon treatments of targeted therapy every three weeks and Vitamin C IV’s weekly. A sweet neighbor of ours has been bringing dinner for us on my treatment day which is such a blessing as I usually get home right at dinner time; and we are thankful for Christopher’s flexibility in work hours since we aren’t having anyone over to help with childcare these days due to caution with exposure to any illness. Speaking of which…

We asked my oncologist about my immune system and his thoughts on social interactions. He said it’s not just about blood counts, but also how far out from chemo I am. For 3-6 months following chemo, he said my immune system will be compromised because my body will still be working to recover. So, for now, we are keeping on what we’ve been doing: being cautious, avoiding unnecessary shopping or being indoors with others, and grateful for the lovely weather to visit outside at a distance!

Since I generally prefer staying at home anyway, it’s not too great a hardship right now. 🙂 Mom Maxwell is doing most of our grocery shopping for us, which is a blessing, and she has helped us remotely in other practical ways like ironing clothes and cooking/freezing meat so it’s ready to add to soups, beans, etc. Abigail and others have blessed us with freezer meals, too. And I’m blessed by Christopher and the children’s willingness to help out and enable me to get more rest these days.

Thank you all again for your ongoing support and encouragement! I hope you are enjoying your beginning of fall and cozier days with your families!

Love,
Anna Marie

“For who is God save the LORD? or who is a rock save our God?
It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect.” Psalm 18:31-32