On Wednesday, October 15, 2008
As a result of her treatment for Leukemia,
Abbey's hair will start to fall out. In support of Abbey, we had a "Shave Your
Head for Abbey" event! Here are some fun pictures:
On Friday, October 10th, On Friday, October 10th, we will be having a time of prayer in the atrium of the
hospital for Abbey. She will be going back for her two procedures at 9a.m. and
we would really be encouraged if as many of you could come out to pray for her,
us, the doctors, etc... as possible. She will be having a repeat bone marrow test and spinal fluid test to see what is going on in these
places. We are not anticipating any cancer cells to be present in the spinal
fluid since there were none there to begin with, but the bone marrow test will
tell us a lot at this point. They will compare the bone marrow from last Friday
to tomorrow to see how the chemo is working in her body. We are expecting a
miracle! God is using our baby girl for His glory and we are praying that the
doctors would come out and say "we've never seen anything like it before." We
KNOW God can do that! Please meet us in the atrium at 9a.m. and we will cover
Abbey, the doctors and everything else concerning this situation in prayer.
We look forward to this powerful time of
the body of Christ coming together to pray for our precious Abigail.
If you have any questions, please contact Grace Church at
gracechurch@wrgbc.com or call: 330-467-7436
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Dear Grace Family & Friends,
Yesterday, our small group sat down to come up with a
comprehensive list of ways that we can support the Colbert family at this
time. Please sign up for any number of these ways to reach out to the
family. The Colberts have been blessed with an amazing church family...let’s
work together to give them just one more reason to praise God in a big way
through this whole experience.
It’s an honor to serve with all of you
The Colbert/Gorrell Small Group
Friday Prayers
(October 10th & 17th)
*** If you got the church family email - please note the correct dates! :)
On the next two Fridays, Abbey will be going through another round of tests to
determine if her numbers have improved. These are painful for Abbey and very
important in determining the success of the treatment received and the course of
future treatment. The Colberts have asked if people would come up to the
hospital on these two Fridays (10.10 and 10.17) to flood the floor with prayers
for their little girl. If you are able to come to the hospital, we will be
meeting up on the second floor waiting room and we will disperse from there. For
those not coming to the hospital to pray, please join with us in prayer from
wherever you are! As more details
are received about the actual time of the procedure (it is two hours in length),
we will send that information along. If
you have any questions, please contact Hilary or Todd Gorrell at gorrell.family@gmail.com
Visiting
The Colberts
feel very blessed to have such wonderful support from their church family. They
have received many phone calls and visits since being admitted on Thursday, and
appreciate everyone wanting to show their love by coming to see them. However,
we need to share with you that they are starting to feel a little overwhelmed.
We are asking that you please hold off at this time with your calls and visits. If
you want to do something, please consider coming up on one of the next two
Fridays (as mentioned above) or participating in the many other support options
below. These are some of the many things that will make their life easier right
now and will show just as much love and support to the family. If you still
feel it necessary to visit, please contact Hilary or Todd Gorrell at gorrell.family@gmail.com and we will see what can be scheduled. Thank you for
understanding!
Meals
Meals do not
have to be complicated, they can be as simple as macaroni and cheese or ordering
a pizza. The main thing to keep in mind is to make it easy on the family while
providing them with some much needed energy. If you are interested in helping
with meals, please contact Hilary Gorrell at gorrell.family@gmail.com.
Encouragement
While the cards and words of encouragement are pouring in
now, it is important that the Colberts are still being encouraged as the weeks
turn into months while they are fighting this disease. Everyone can send cards
to the family at any time, but we just want to be sure that we are also
intentional with this encouragement and that it never falls off. If you want to
volunteer to send cards or emails on a regular basis, please contact Mandy
Fleming at mfleming@cornerstones.com.
>>>>> If you
wish to send a card now, please mail contact Hilary or Todd Gorrell at
gorrell.family@gmail.com or send
cards:
Colbert Family
C/O Grace Church
1066 East Aurora Road
Macedonia, OH 44056
Donations
There are several things that we can provide to make life a
little easier on the family. A couple things we have thought of are gas cards
(to get to and from the hospital for regular treatments) and debit cards (for
gas and parking, and there are several places to eat within the hospital that
will take Visa/Amex/Mastercard). If you can donate these or other things,
please contact Angela Gore at anggore@gmail.com.
Home
Maintenance
Taking care of the home is not going to be as important as
taking care of the family, but it is still needed. If you are interested in
helping with seasonal yard work (cutting grass, raking leaves, shoveling snow),
please contact John Malone at malone828@yahoo.com.
The house will
also need to be kept as sterile as possible inside for Abbey’s health and the
whole family’s health. If you are interested in helping clean the house
regularly or donating cleaning supplies, please contact Lisa Leach at lleach24@yahoo.com.
Music
The Colbert’s have asked for new music to listen to in the
hospital and at home as they will be spending lots of hours inside. If you want
to donate Christian music or kids music to the Colberts, please contact Bethany
and Chris Solyntjes at bethany@wrgbc.com .
Videos
Since it is preferred that kids do not visit, especially if
they are sick or having symptoms, or if it is during flu season, we thought that
it would be really neat to tell Abbey by video that we love her and miss
her. If you and/or your kids want to put together a short video segment, please
give it to Bethany or Chris, and they will work on putting together DVDs that
can be sent to Abbey on a regular basis. You can contact Bethany and Chris at bethany@wrgbc.com .
Hair
With the
treatment that Abbey is receiving, she will lose her hair. One way that the
kids (and adults) can show support is by cutting their hair or shaving their
head. We will be offering free hair cuts on a date to be determined and
videotaping the experience to put a smile on Abbey’s face. We will be donating
the longer hair to Locks for Love which provides hairpieces to children that
have lost their hair due to a medical condition. Please be watching for more
details.
 Jacob
This whole situation is going to cause Jacob (their five
year old) to have to grow up fast... let’s make it easy for him to still be a
kid. If you would like to volunteer to transport him to friends’ houses or
activities, please contact Laura Malone at malone828@yahoo.com.
Experience
Calling on others’ experiences is sometimes very helpful
when you feel like you are walking into the unknown. If you have been through a
similar situation and would like to offer encouragement by sharing your story
with the family, please contact Ashley Mobley at mobley.family@ymail.com.
Medical
terminology can seem very foreign to most of us as well. If you have a medical
background and could serve as a “translator” to the Colberts if they have
questions, please contact Ashley Mobley at mobley.family@ymail.com.
Bible Verse
Signs
Shelley has
asked for Bible verses on bright poster board to hang on the walls that the
family can start memorizing together. If you have these signs or anything else
you want the family to receive, please bring them to church on Sunday and give
them to Todd or Hilary Gorrell (we work in the K-2 room first service) and we
will be sure the Colberts get them.
Prayers
Prayers are
always needed and can be given by all of us at all times! Let’s not forget to
pray throughout our days for Abbey’s healing and the strength and endurance that
the whole Colbert family is going to need for the months to come. Some specific
prayer requests from the family are listed below:
· Pray please for Abbey, that she will not have a lot of pain.
· Pray that she would sleep good at night and not get too homesick (she kept
asking us to take her home today).
· Pray that they would find no cancer in her bone marrow (they already said
that they have never seen it not spread there with what her numbers are looking
like), but we know God can make there be no cancer there.
· Pray that it would not be in her spine.
· Pray that we could be creative in keeping her happy, comfortable and
occupied.
· Pray for lots of good talks with her about God and His care for us.
· Pray that she would be able to really experience God's love for her.
· Pray that her little body would handle all of these medications o.k. and that
she would be able to bounce back quickly.
· Pray for strength for Jim and I ... that Satan would not be attacking our
thoughts.
· Pray for our relationship, that it would be strengthened.
· Pray for sleep for us at night.
· Please pray for Jacob and Micah as they will be away from Jim, myself and
Abbey a lot.
· Pray that we would be a light on this hospital floor. That people would
see Jesus through our family.
· Pray for strength for our parents as they care for our boys.
· Please pray for her to completely beat this.
Other ideas
If there
are things that you think of that have not yet been mentioned above, or if you
have any questions, please contact Todd or Hilary Gorrell at gorrell.family@gmail.com or
by phone through the church (330) 467-7436
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Dear Friends and Family,
My hands are shaking as I write this. This afternoon I was home watching new
carpet be put into my house and eating homemeade popsicles with Jacob and
Abigail and it is now 4:30am and I am sitting in a hospital room. Today
our sweet Abigail was diagnosed with Leukemia. I will back up a little so
you know how we got from there to here in one short day.
About two weeks ago Abbey came down with a fever followed by a cough for about a
week. In that weeks time, I had her at the doctors office two times
because at first I thought it might be strep and the doctor ruled that out and
said it was a virus that needed to run its course. I took her back after
about 4 days because I felt like she wasn't getting better and was concerned.
I also noticed that she was sweating at night (if any of you follow our blog
then you know that each night I go into her room to turn her light off before I
go to bed) and each night her head would be wet with sweat. That upset me
so when I went the second time to the doctor, I mentioned that. At that
point he said it had turned into a sinus infection so she was put on
antibiotics. We left that day praying that she would get over
this quickly and didn't think much of it. On Tuesday I noticed some
bruising on her arms and legs and I knew that she had not had any bad falls or
anything that would have caused those so I really started to feel concerned.
I called the doctor on Wednesday morning and asked to be seen immediately.
They took us right in and I explained the night sweats in more detail and showed
the doctors the bruises. He ordered blood work on her which was done on
Wednesday. Thursday our pediatrician called to let us know that we needed
to take her immediately to Rainbow Babies & Childrens Hospital in Cleveland due
to an abnormal platelet count.
Since then, a lot has happened. Our precious baby girl has leukemia.
We are on the hemeotology/oncology floor of the hospital with a lot of children
that have cancer. Tomorrow they will be running more tests and starting chemo.
They are going to look at her bone marrow to see what is going on there and also
look at the fluid in her spine to see if it has gone there yet. The
doctors and nurses have been amazing already and we feel confident that they
know what they are doing. There is a lot that we don' t know and we have
been overwhelmed with a lot of information today, but the best way that I know
right now how to explain this to you is by saying that she has the best form of
leukemia possible. It is more treatable than others. We know without
a shadow of a doubt that God is in control of ALL things and that He loves Abbey
even more than we do. We know this didn't accidentally slip through His
fingers and He has made Himself very real to us already as we have gone through
this difficult day. He has a plan and purpose for Abbey and our family and we
are so thankful that we know Him. He has given us bits and pieces of what
is happening and we can only praise Him for not giving us more than we can
handle today. Please pray with us as we have a long road ahead of us.
Pray please for Abbey, that she will not have a lot of pain. Pray that she
would sleep good at night and not get too homesick (she kept asking us to take
her home today). Pray that they would find no cancer in her bone marrow
(they already said that they have never seen it not spread there with what her
numbers are looking like), but we know God can make there be no cancer there.
Pray that it would not be in her spine. Pray that we could be creative in
keeping her happy, comfortable and occupied. Pray for lots of good talks
with her about God and His care for us. Pray that she would be able to
really experience God's love for her. Pray that her little body would
handle all of these medications o.k. and that she would be able to bounce back
quickly. Pray for strenght for Jim and I ... that Satan would not be
attacking our thoughts. Pray for our relationship, that it would be
strengthened. Pray for sleep for us at night. Please pray for Jacob
and Micah as they will be away from Jim, myself and Abbey a lot. Pray that
Micah would switch to formula easily. Pray that we would be a light on this
hospital floor. That people would see Jesus through our family. Pray
for my mom and step-dad as they are traveling through the night to get home
from their vacation. Pray for Jim's parents as they come into town
tomorrow. Pray for strengh for our parents as they care for our boys.
Please pray for her to completely beat this.
We will need your prayers and support and are thankful that we have an amazing
support system. I would really like to decorate Abbey's room with colorful
pictures and scripture verses that we can learn as a family. If you live close,
could you please pick a verse and write it on poster board in bright colors to
decorate her room... Thank you those of you who have already been amazing to us.
We so love our Jesus and all of you too. Please feel free to send this to
anyone who will join us in praying. I will be sending out e-mails
as things change and will try to start posting updates on our blog too. Thank
you guys... we love you.
Jim, Shelley Jacob, Abigail :) & Micah
www.colbert-family.blogspot.com
|
