8-30-06

Dear Friends and Family,

Praise and thanks to God!! We have had a whirlwind of events this past week, all with a of hint of His graces! Matt started off last week with a CT scan on Wednesday and finished off the week with Chemo #3 on Friday afternoon. We received very uplifting results on Friday as his scans came back in. Lungster has decreased by 1 cm in each direction after only 2 treatments, what a blessing! All of his blood work again came back positive and healthy, his weight was consistent and no allergic reactions this time around. When mentioning to his doctor his efforts to maintain and not gain weight this time, he was told not to stop eating and continue to try to gain because he may gradually lose his desire to eat (he was very happy to hear this because our Heavenly Homemade Ice Creams make his tummy happy:) )

Matt started back school this week with a full load of classes, luckily he only has one class on MTR, though he has already found them intense- we are thankful he will have the opportunity to continue to study. The side effects have been consistent with previous treatments (except he has found a way to keep his taste buds the whole time now:) ) still tired and achy this first week. Even through all of this he has still managed to beat me in tennis... By chance my dad had a last minute meeting up here in DC, so he has been able to spend time and make us laugh this week as we relax:) We are filled with a since of gratitude that we pray we will continue to have with all God has given us. It is easy, even during this time to get caught up in the little nit picky things that aren't as important as loving one another and others, thank you to all who have been encouraging and truly shown us the importance of love. I was taken aback this week when talking to a close friend; I asked for her prayer requests and she responded that she didn't know and it caught her off guard. I asked her why and she said because her automatic response to that question is always "Matt and Lucy"- how selfless and loving. Thank you for all of your prayers.

Among our other good news for the week, we found out that we will have a new niece or nephew in the next nine months (and one next month too:) )

Blessed be the Lord!
May we continually be drawn to the love of Christ,
Matt and Lucy