The Hall Family News!

Hello again!! Well everyone it's going to be a big weekend here in the little city of Asbury!! This weekend is the big Asbury garage sales!! It may not sound very intriguing to you, but around here it's a big thing!! It all starts tonight and goes into tomorrow morning! It gets kind of crazy around here some people get up at 5 in the morning tomorrow to go out garage saleing!! I assure you I will not be one them! I do not believe in the time 5 in the morning!!!! Mom and I may go out later just to see what people are doing this year because like I said this is no ordinary garage sale weekend! You have people cooking you breakfast and lunch on there lawn just to get you to go and look at there stuff! Oh and did I mention that there was even a guy with a bouncy house for kids last year!!! Anyways I'm probably boring you so I'll move onto something else now! :) Well other than that it's been a quiet week at house! Dad went to get his tux fitted for Justin's wedding last night, so he was happy to be able to get that done. We were able to go over to Cory and Jamie's house for a cook out on Wednesday night and we had a lot of fun seeing them and watching little Hayden running all around!! That was about the extent of our week! Dad has been very tired the last few days I think between working and getting used to his new medicine it's just starting to catch up with him a little bit. Hopefully he will start feeling better soon! One interesting thing about his medicine that we have noticed is that it makes his skin turn red! Mom noticed this last night and commented to dad that his skin was red and asked, do you feel red! Dad responded to this saying, no but I do feel a little orange! I guess he hasn't lost his sense of humor! He is going into the doctor this morning to get his platelet count checked to make sure it is not to high so if you could pray that they stay in the normal range that would be awesome! Well that's about all from the Hall house! Have a good day everyone! Elisabeth

The really big thing this weekend in my opinion is that tomorrow May 1st is Elisabeth's 17th birthday!! All her big brothers and their families are able to come over so she is happy that is just what she wanted!! Happy 17th Birthday Elisabeth, We love you!! Mom and Dad

The Voice of Truth

Oh the "Voice of Truth", God's word..... Went to bible study this morning and as usual it was just what I needed. Being in God's word puts things back into perspective. Monday was a long day physically and emotionally for Lance and I, there was a man there who had cancer for 9 years and was very negative, won't go into all the details but between what he had to say and somethings from the doctors it wasn't easy. On the way home Lance reminded me that we do have good doctors but ultimately God not the doctors or the medicine is going to decide our future. This morning as we studied in Hebrews on faith, just being reminded that our faith is based on God's faithfulness (not mine or the doctors) and He keeps his promises was such an encouragement. When we base our faith on what we see it is not always encouraging , but God is faithful and has promised to never leave us or forsake us. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Heb.11:1) A line from a song keeps going around in my head.... The Voice of Truth tells me a different story, The Voice of Truth says," Do not be afraid" The Voice of Truth says, "This is for My Glory" Out of all the voices calling out to me, "I will choose to listen and believe the Voice of Truth! -Penny

Monday's appointment

Hi all; it is pretty late and we just got home 9:30 pm. pretty full day of tests in Iowa City they changed and added lots of medicines, it took a long time as my pick line wasn't working again, they ended up just putting in new IV lines and pulling it out. Guess I'll get a new one on the next trip or soon anyway. I had my last scheduled Retuxin infusion today and met with several people, my platlets are still quite high so I will need to get them checked again this week. All in all a very busy day, Linda (Penny's mom) really out did herself making me treats and good meals I shared cookies and cupcakes with everyone in the Chemo room. Thank you to Lisa and Todd who with Troys help got me a new Iowa Hawkeye shirt to wear to the hospital. They thought I should be supporting the place thats taking such good care of me. Thanks everyone, we are going to bed.
Lance

Grandma and Grandpa's

Good morning everyone! Well we have had a pretty uneventful weekend here at our house! We went for a nice walk yesterday, and it was so nice to get out and enjoy the fresh air! Nothing new on dad, he will go to the doctor in Iowa City tomorrow but we probably won't find out anything new, this is just basically so they can adjust his medicine. We'll be going to my grandparents house later today so that we can spend the night there because dad's appointment is early in the morning. Oh, and grandma if your reading this dad told me to tell you that lemon cake and cookies are totally out of the question because he's getting to fat!!! He also told me that I couldn't say anything about your world famous potato salad! Well that's all from our house!

Elisabeth

P.S. Oh, and grandma you really don't have to make food for us!

Its a Hat Trick!

After no matches elsewhere the Hall boys shoot, they score! Can you believe Justin came back as a match today for me. The Drs. are all very happy we don't know what they will do now probably just more testing to see which is the the closest match. I must say when Nathan came back as a match I was thinking I wish another of the kids would match just so it would be more obvious Gods hand in all this to people who doubt. And then Cory matched. I thought to myself just think if all of them did. And they did, now after Justin match I am reminded of Gods word in Jeremiah 33:3 where he says: Call to me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know. I was given that verse years ago by my friend Louis Jensen when I was going through some things and it has always been a comfort to me but never more real than now when he abundantly answers our prayers and exceeds my expectations. I am so happy and humbled the way things are playing out, I told my Dr today that I'm thinking I will be healed, and there are much bigger things going on here than medicine. Before I go on I want to again thank Julie, Kelly, Troy, Chris, Nathan, Cory, Justin, and Elisabeth (who is quite put out by the way that they didn't test her) and most of all Penny for all they have done for me. Its not that they were tested its for the love they showed me wanting so bad to help, I could die a happy man tomorrow (but lets not hurry) I love you all. I will be going back to Iowa City early Monday morning they want to run a lot of tests on me. I have some infections they are concerned about getting cleared up before I can have the transplant and they want to check that out more closely, they have also decided to put me on another chemo drug starting Monday that I can only get from them. It is not intended to cure anything just slow down the Leukemia a little until they can get started. And I will get another infusion of retuxin that day (should be the last of those and I'm glad I don't like the way they make me feel) I have a big day at work tomorrow we are being recertified by the ISO that is the certification we carry that tells customers we are a high quality organization, lots of work, lots of reports to write and hoops to jump through but I really like it its very challenging. Work has continued to be very therapeutic to me. I have to go Elisabeth is playing the piano for me and begging for Culvers Frozen Custard so off we go to do my duty.
Love to all. Lance

We Defy the Odds!

Our family is very unusual! Now before you start commenting on that statement let me explain. Dad went to the doctor yesterday and we were told by the bone marrow doctor that in the last twenty years of her doing her job she had only seen four cases of children matching the parents! Four times! We were like this is so cool, we're the fifth family for this ever to happen to! God is so in control! We were reassured of this even more today! Today we found out that not only does Nathan match but Cory does to!! We were so excited! So in the last twenty years our family has had two out of the six matches! God is good! They were not even going to test my brothers because they said that they would never match but God has definetly had a plan all along! They are still continuing the testing on Justin and we should find out about his test in a couple days. Dad was e-mailing Cory today jokingly telling him that if he had any extra time on his hands would he mind saving his life! Cory responded that he didn't mind too much and that if dad was lucky he would get some of his good looks and charm! Mom was telling dad later that he already had the good looks but theres allways a little more room for charm! They are still not sure who they will choose to be dad's donor and we still won't know for awhile because Cory and Nathan will have to go through a lot of testing to make sure that they are healthy enough to safely be a donor but we are thankful to have not one but at least two donors! Thanks again for all the thoughts and prayers! Elisabeth

Iowa City

Well thanks to Cory (he let us borrow his laptop) we can update everyone from the infusion room at the hospital in Iowa City. It has been a long day! We came this morning at 9:30 and it is now 5:30 and they think we might be done in an hour. Everyone here is so nice so that helps. We really didn't find out much new today. The doctors are continuing the testing on the boys to see who is the closest match. Lance's platelets stayed about the same as last Thursday so maybe they will start to stabilize and go back to the normal range. The doctors SEEM to be thinking that they will continue to try and get Lance as healthy as they can and do the transplant right after Justin and Ashleys wedding in June. They want Lance to be able to go if he can, but will be ready to do it sooner if they need to. He will have another infusion treatment next week in Dubuque then we meet with the transplant doctors on May 5 for a consultation, and lots of info. I'm sure......

So I'm going to finish this blog for mom because she just had to run down to the pharmacy and there was a lot of problems with his medicine's getting switched up and now she's to tired to finish. So basically we didn't learn anything new today just continuing on the normal path of treatment except for cutting down on the steroids. Nothing really exciting has happened today except that mom got over charged at the pharmacy and she was not very happy! It started out that they undercharged us and mom was arguing we owe more, by the time they were done it was more than we thought. Long Day. Needless to say, the insurance company will be getting a call tomorrow from a very unhappy customer! Will update soon! Elisabeth

Oh and by the way we are closing down the infusion room tonight again and dad got the remote! Can anyone guess what were watching! ;)

Me and my Secretary:

We had a busy Saturday, I went to work to get some things caught up and took my secretary Elisabeth with. I am trying to get things caught up for when I will be in the hospital. Elisabeth ran the copy machine for me, she made about 3000 copies of different documents and than coalated them and stapled. She set up banquet tables in our big conference room and laid out all the packets that needed to be done. She worked very hard and was really a huge help to me, it seemed a little funny in the office its usually quite hectic we were the only ones there, it was really a very pleasant time for us and I know who I'm hiring when we get an opening. Elisabeth worked her tail off and is really good with all the detailed things I needed. Best of all she got paid off with a Turkey Sub and was happy. She definately got the raw end of that deal! We may have been a little excited in the last blog when we quoted the Drs. as a million to one chance that one of the kids would be a match for me in Bone Marrow (we have had a few people ask) but suffice to say it was a huge long shot and very steep odds. I had so much fun calling my Parents, Rex and Linda, Brothers, and Sisters, and Kids, as well as many of you with good news. Justin said it just seemed like for a while everything kept getting worse, so good news felt good. I'm kind of tired now, I think all the steroids do that so I'm hoping tomorrow the Drs. will start cutting them back. We go to Iowa City early Monday morning and it should be a pretty full day. My Parents are coming this afternoon on the way through to see Troy in Georgia and I'm really glad they are getting away a break will be good for them and Troy will be glad to have them around. Moms a good cook. Hope everyone has a good Sunday.
Lance

Good News!

Nothing absolutly nothing is impossible with God!! Well the doctor called back a little while ago and they have the results back from Nathan's bone marrow test, and guess what, he's a match!! Were so excited! They will continue the testing for Cory and Justin but now we know no matter what dad has a match! This is so cool, dad just keeps saying this is totally God! What are the odds that one of us would be a match, the doctors told us that this was a one in a million chance and that we should never match but it happend! God is so good! Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers!!!!
Elisabeth

"NOTHING"

Hi, Well I went back to the Dr. today to have my platelet count done and it is still rising, today it was 678000, (I think that number means I win, Penny says quit trying to win!) sure could have used a few of those a couple of weeks ago. The Drs. in Iowa City seem to be okay with the numbers for now, just said to come in Monday morning for my appointment. I am supposed to have another transfusion then and some other tests. The results from the kids tests are not expected until at least late next week. Penny and Elisabeth are downstairs watching Facing The Giants and it talks a lot about whats impossible for God, "NOTHING!" So we are just waiting to see what he has in store for us and are perfectly content with his plan. Its pretty interesting watching all of this going on with your health and yet really being only a bystander. Thanks again to everyone for all the support we have received. Lifes good!
Lance