Ava hit the neuro-surgeons office at 9:30 and went straight through to MRI before getting home about 3:00. That's a full work day for a 5 year old. Heck, that's a full work day for most of America. She was tired tonight. She was responsive and talked in "1/2 voice", but you could tell she was just flat whooped.
We won't know the results of the full MRI until tomorrow, but we got a snapshot 4 days ago, so we aren't expecting anything different. It sure would be awesome if God somehow took the tumor out of there in the last few days, but we are planning to keep the path ahead regardless. However, you can keep praying that the tumor will just flat out go away. We are.
Now that she is medically cleared to travel we just need to get her a little bit stronger before the journey. We don't want to put more stress on her already weak body, so we are praying she gets feeling better in the next couple of days. You can pray that with us if you wouldn't mind.
Hunter Vision's open house was tonight and we had somewhere between 100 and 150 people come through at best guess. It was awesome and I got to talk to a bunch of you. I can't tell you how grateful I am that you are behind us and cheering us on...both with Ava and Hunter Vision. Our family is incredibly blessed to have such a wide support system. You were all so encouraging tonight. Thank you.
Tomorrow is another day. Pray for Ava, that she would be stronger. Pray for Lisa that her focus and energy would be beyond what she needs. Pray for Noah that he would continue to walk through this becoming the man God wants him to be...and pray for me that I would be what I need to be for my family and my work during this time, especially.
Your prayers are worth more than you know. We are living on them right now. The capacity we have to deal with this tragedy is because of God's extra measure of grace for us. I choose to believe that it is in large part due to your faithfulness in holding us up.
Thank you. G'night.
As always, you are in our prayers, Hunter family!
ReplyDeleteGod bless you!
Rick, Mindy, Lexi & Nick
praying for Ava and your family-thank you for keeping the posting updated. God is using your blog to remind me of His love and mercy and grace everyday.
ReplyDeleteAlways a pleasure to catch up with you and the family! We are with you step by step, praying without ceasing like most you are in our minds quite frankly more than anything I think about! God is good and he is working in all of us through this! So Glad Ava got the clear to go to NJ and we are praying for all good results from here on out. Very happy the Open House went well too knew it would! You are both wonderful parents and friends stand tall, be strong as you are and march forward and know your army is behind you! Noah we are so proud of the young man you are and what God is doing and how he is helping you be the Big Brother and helper in your family keep up the good work! We love all of you and will keep lifting you up every second, minute and hour you are always on our minds! God Bless you and keep faithful to the cause! Ava is worth it all and so is our Lord!
ReplyDeleteLisa & Jim Hughes, Marissa Crismon
Glad tonight went well. Praying for "the call" tomorrow. Praying He holds you no matter what. Praying for rest and strength for everyone. He is carrying you and that is flat out evident and amazing. Asking for all this in His name.
ReplyDeleteJosh, I am continuing to pray for your entire family . . . and trusting God to lovingly hold Ava in the palm of his healing hands!
ReplyDeleteam wondering - if she flies, is this interrupting her energy/strength renewal? I just want you guys there...have great hopes of this trip...I feel like God is waiting on the other end of the journey...can she get there by air ambulance? are funds needed? Sorry, this is the logical side of me I inherited from my Dad...I pray to God with my whole being that He will strengthen Ava to begin this journey northward - He is always faithful, He will bring us all through this passageway...I lift her up and praise Him
ReplyDeleteI believe in prayer, too, that our great God hears, listens, and answers in remarkable ways. My salvation is owed in part to people faithfully praying for me, so I know that God's people praying is effective. It avails much!
ReplyDeleteIt is a blessing to be able to pray for you and your family.
M.
So glad that you were able to meet some new faces at the Hunter Vision open house. Some of the people who lift your family up in praying and are standing strong for Ava. So cool! Lord, bless little Ava tonight. Help here get well soon and regain strength to go fly up north and have this opportunity for another opinion or more help to make her well. And Lord everyday I pray that you would just make the tumor go away! You are a miracle working God that is bigger than any tumor. May it be gone in Jesus' name!
ReplyDeleteLove you guys!
Praying in Tucson.
ReplyDeleteWe've never met but as a part of the Northland and Summit community as well as the RDV community we are lifting you up in prayer daily. We live in Okinawa and have reached out to our military family to also support you all in prayer. Please know that you have people across the world lifting you up. Koza Baptist in Okinawa, Japan is continuing to pray for strength, comfort, mercy, grace, and healing.
ReplyDeleteWith love and in Christ, Andrew and Sarah Tice
We're praying for a miracle of healing and for your entire family as you go through this.
ReplyDeleteDear Jesus,,Please touch Ava!
ReplyDeletePraying for Ava to wake up feeling stronger today. Praying for you, Lisa and Noah as you take this next step in this journey. Praying GOD has HIS hands on Ava right now taking this nasty tumor away! Thank you for posting each day...your faith continues to be amazing! GOD is so proud of the work you are doing to spread HIS word to so many people around the world! Remember...WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!!! GOD is bigger than this tumor and is just waiting to perform HIS miracle! It's coming...keep the faith! FAITH-HOPE-COURAGE!!
ReplyDeleteI just love your specific prayer requests. They make praying for your family much more meaningful for me. Thank you for providing them.
ReplyDeleteI hope last night was a good night and that Ava wakes up this morning in good spirits. I really don't think anything more awesome could happen at this moment in time than hearing the tumor was removed by God. We know He can do it and I pray that is His will!
Always praying...always believing...
Praying today Ava is stronger so she can go to N.J. Praying for the doctors on the other end. Praying for you , Lisa and Noah... what a brave young man. And Blessed to be a part of your support system...what an example....
ReplyDeletePraying for the Hunter family.
ReplyDeleteHeard this song in the car today and immediately thought of Ava. This video brings me to tears every time I see and hear it, but it's WONDERFUL!!!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knm492yxMfo
Praying and believing! YOU ARE NOT ALONE, as the body of Christ we are in this with you for the long run.
ReplyDeleteLike the shuttle goes full throttle up to space on its mission, today I pray that our great Healer blasts away that crappy monster in Ava's brain. Speedy healing for travel to NJ for Ava and godly wisdom and strength for Lisa,too! Prayers of strength to make it through tough days for all of you, but especially the Hunter men! May all of your family rest in God's grace and peace as you continue this journey and know that so many of us are with you. In Jesus' mighty name, I pray!
ReplyDeleteJosh-
ReplyDeleteStill praying, ALWAYS praying what ever it is you want us to pray.
God is awesome. He gives us strength and carries us when we most need it. He's with you, I know it, and you've said you feel His presence. You and Lisa are incredible parents, never doubt that.
God's blessings.
Jody
Praying for that sweet girl and praying for a miracle!!!!
ReplyDeleteThis is part of an email from my cousin, Dr. Craig DeLisi. They had a daughter healed from cancer 11 years ago and now have another baby on the way (their 8th) who has a terminal malformation that will take her life before or after her birth. I thought it might minister to you a bit . . . praying for your family constantly, Kyra Emerson
ReplyDeleteShadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up." Daniel 3:16-18
I love this story from Scripture. You may remember that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up an idol to be worshiped by everyone in Babylon. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were faithful Jews, serving in his palace. Their faith and trust in Yahweh prevented them from worshiping a false God, even in the face of the penalty of death. I've read this story to the kids many times, always as a story of great faith and how to stand up for righteousness even in dire situations. But when I read it this time, something else stood out about it to me.
When they told King Nebuchadnezzar that their God would rescue them, they quickly followed up with "But even if He does not, we...will not serve your gods". This is profound to me. I really think that they truly believed that their God could rescue them from their danger and eminent death. But standing there next to the furnace, they also realized there was a really good chance that they wouldn't be delivered and would perish in flames. And they wanted the heathen king to know that even if they weren't saved, their God was still good and true and worthy of all of their worship. Beautiful faith...not presumption in what God was GOING to do, but what He COULD do. We know the rest of the story, God the Son shows up in the fire, delivers them miraculously, and the king made a decree in Babylon that they or anyone else could worship the God of Israel.
We feel the same way. Our "blazing furnace", anencephaly, isn't threatening our lives, but that of our daughter. And even though it doesn't threaten to kill the rest of us, it does threaten to consume us. We believe deeply that God CAN heal and deliver us FROM this. But we also know that even if He doesn't, He will deliver us THROUGH it. Either way, we expect our Jesus to be walking with us in the flames. But regardless of what He chooses, we trust that He is good and worthy of our praise and worship...NO MATTER WHAT.
Hey kids, just want you to know, let soo many others, im praying for you.... i was at a customers house last night and she was a 78 year black lady, who had the holy spirit all over her and i was sharing the ava story, so that she could pray for her, and she said, that ava well be healed and i started crying and she reminded me, that we serve a BIG good how heals all the time.. so, as she believes, i believe,, AVA well be healed!! and it well give the entire would hope, that as we lean onto him ,and remember, that he is the healer... we will see the works of god threw ava!! love you brother
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw you say that you pray the tumor will just flat go away, it reminded me of a story where this very thing did happen before.
About 20 years ago, I was at a meeting for a bank, and there was a young twenty-something girl who was attending the meeting from another bank. I'd never met her before. Before the meeting, we had to do that goofy "introdue yourself and tell us something amazing about yourself" hullabulla. This young woman introduced herself, and almost as soon as she said her name she got teary eyed. Then she proceeded to tell the rest of us what was so amazing about herself. She had recently been diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease ( or Non-Hodgkins...can't recall which one ). The doctors and surgeons told her she had a tumor the size of a football in her chest. As soon as she was diagnosed, her friends and family began praying for healing. The day she was scheduled for radiation to shrink the tumor before it could be removed with surgery, and then chemo, they discovered the tumor...overnight....had completely disappeared! It was gone.
This young woman wanted the whole world to know about her miracle. I can still picture her sitting there telling the roomfull of people her story and the emotion she had in her voice. I also remember just mere moments after she told her story, I felt God nudge me and say, "You need to always remember this."
I couldn't get that girl off my mind for years and years.
So,it CAN happen. I don't think it's impossible at all.
Hey Josh and Lisa,
ReplyDeleteJust so burdened for you and your family. I heard a sermon by a guy who's 6 year old is fighting cancer. It is powerful. Just thought it might bring you some comfort. The site is http://prayfordaisy.com/ The sermon I listened to was "Struck Down but not Destroyed."
Praying constantly for a miracle.
Maggie Jobson
Keep strong sweet family just being able o share this journey with you has been a Blessing and I pray that the Cancer will be gone and Ava will just get stronger.I think of you all day long.Love you Grace.
ReplyDeletewe are praying...
ReplyDeleteDear Hunters:
ReplyDeleteAs a practicing nurse for over 30 years, I've been around all kinds of "situations" like yours. Likewise, as a Christ believing oldtimer I'm very familiar with your pain. Jesus is too and He has it all worked out and He keeps His promises. He will use this...ALL of it for your good no matter what. You're in my prayers and my heart aches for all of you. Keep your eyes on Him and believe. Much love in Jesus.
Pam