This past weekend was our first fundraising garage sale for Justin.  And all I can say is Wow!  God continues to amaze me!   As you know we have been raising money for Justin's treatment that he starts in the next couple weeks.  It will be a  years worth of treatment and the doctor said its pretty much guaranteed that he won't be able to work the first 2 months and than it depends on each person situation if he'll be able to work the last 10 months.  God has provided a huge support for the medical bills but as you know its not just the medical bills that we are worried about but also since Justin is the primary income of the family and runs his own business if he doesn't work than we don't get paid.  And than the gas we'll be spending driving back and forth to Moffit and so on.  So financially its been a little scary and that's why my sweet family decided to plan this garage sale for us to help try to take some of the burden off of us.  My family worked so incredibly hard passing the word out to get donations for the garage sale, picking items up from peoples houses, hours and hours of pricing all the items, advertising, putting up large tarps, getting set up and running it.  I know some of you  may think putting this together was easy but it was FAR from that.  My family spent so much time selflessly doing this for us and we appreciate it so much! You will see below in the pictures the large tarp that my step dad and brother in law spent hours putting up so that we could stay out of the sun during the sale.

 

And than look at how much stuff we had!!!  Thank you to each and every one of you who donated stuff for us.  We appreciate it so much and are so grateful for it.

My parents stored all this stuff in their house.  Could you imagine living for weeks with all this STUFF in your house!  That in itself would be enough to put me over the edge! lol

God continues to amaze us.  He sent so so so many special people to the sale.  Some friends I haven't seen in years or hardly even knew came by to support us.  People who I don't even know but know our families came by to show their support to us.  Strangers read the ad in the paper and saw that it was a charity garage sale for a Melanoma patient so they came by to support us.  One lady who was a stranger came by not to buy anything but to give us $100 dollars!  I spoke to many special people that day all sharing their love and support and stories about their loved ones who dealt with cancer.  I only had one lady who told me that Melanoma was the #1 cancer that causes deaths.  I wanted to say a few not so kind words back to her but I held it together and politely thanked her for coming by.  Does she not realize I already knew that! 

My family and I had a goal in mind of what we wanted to make at the garage sale.  Yes it was a pretty high goal but we knew God was faithful and could help us reach our goal.  Let me tell you that God not only gave us our goal by the end of the first day but by the end of the second day he DOUBLED our goal!  Isn't he awesome!  And it was all "Him" because when we went to pick up the garage sale signs at the end of the day on Saturday we noticed that 5 out of the 7 signs had been purposefully taken out of the ground and laid upside down so that no one could see them.  Satan wanted the sale to be unsuccessful and didn't want us to be able to give God the glory that day but our Almighty God shined through once again!!!  So all of you who supported us we thank you from the bottom of our hearts!  And a special thanks to my family because this wouldnt' have been possible without you.  And lastly our Heavenly Father who blessed it beyond our highest expectations!  And those who couldn't support us this past time but still want to we are taking donations still for the next sale which will be August 26th and 27th.  Most likely this will be our last sale.  So clean out your houses and support my sweet husband.  And if you have nothing to donate we'd love for you to come by.  We had so many cool stuff at the last sale! 

On another note some of you have asked about last weeks appointments to the holistic doctor and than at Moffit.  Last Tuesday we meant with Doctor John Young who is a holistic MD and a friend of Justin's.  He took a trip with him years ago to Peru.  He is a strong believer and Justin really respects this man.   We explained to him Justin's situation.  His first response was "I don't know if you will be able to handle the Interferon, its a beast!"  And than he told us that he could give Justin a more natural treatment without all the harsh side effects and Justin would feel great and still be able to work.  He also explained to us how important our diet is and what we put into our bodies.  This wasn't the first time we heard this.  We've been reading and doing research ourselves about diets and eating clean.  If I only followed through with the way my mom raised us we'd be fine. lol  I was raised on all organic vegan foods.  But life gets ahead of us and I HATE cooking so I typically went for what was fast and easy to feed my family.  We are trying really hard as a whole family to change those habits not only in ourselves but also our kids.  But anyhow we left Dr. Young's appointment feeling great.  For once we had a positive outlook on Justin's situation and instead of leaving the appointment all down and depressed, (which is typically how we leave Moffits appointments) we were encouraged and felt that we were going to go with Dr. Young's treatment instead. 

Than on Thursday of last week Justin had a full day of appointments over at Moffit.  He had MRI's, labs, CT Scans and than an appointment with the Oncologist.  Praise report is that all of Justin's scans came back clear.  No cancer is shown right now in his brain or internal organs.  Another huge praise report!  But the Oncologist still Strongly encourages us to still do the years worth of Interferon.  I asked her what his prognosis is if he doesn't do it.  She said well if he chose to not do Interferon or no treatment at all, and if another Melanoma spot popped back up (which is pretty much guaranteed, its just a matter of when),  he would automatically be considered stage 4 and with no treatment would be given about 5 months!  Okay, well that wasn't quite the answer I was looking to hear.  So with that being said we WILL be doing the Interferon treatment over at Moffit and we WILL be getting routine check ups, and we WILL be doing treatment every single time another spot comes up because 5 months is NOT an option!!!

So with that being said we told the Oncologist we have chosen to move forward with the years worth of Interferon.  Now there are 2 types of Interferon.  Option A: would be to have injections 5 days a week over at Moffit for 4 hours a day for the first 2 months and than 3 times a week for the last 10 months.  All insurance companies cover this one.  Option B: would be to have an injection ONCE a week for the full 12 months and can be given at home yourself and only visiting Moffit once a week for labs or checkups. But not all insurance companies cover that one.  They both have the same side effects and do the same thing.  So the next prayer request is that insurance will cover the Option B plan.  Because driving over there once a week sounds much more appealing than 5 days a week.  We are waiting to hear back from Moffit which one they cover and when the medicine comes in.  Once it comes in he will start the treatment.  We are thinking about August 31st possibly.  But we will keep you updated once we hear.

Lots of information that I'm trying to explain in a Cliff note way.  But I know many of you have been asking so I wanted to share.  Sorry for not getting this out sooner.  In all honestly I don't like talking about it.  It takes a lot to even write it all out because it brings up uneasy feelings.  Its easier to just ignore it, not talk about it, and hope that it doesn't happen.  But it is happening and we have to move forward with it.  Some of you are asking how Justin is doing.  He is doing good.  He feels good and is having a hard time accepting that he'll be feeling like crap for the next year, but he knows it has to be done. His mind though right now is swamped with what he has to get done with his business before he starts treatment.  He has worked so incredibly hard at building JB Lawns to be very successful and support his family so that I can stay home with the kids.  I know its scary to think that it could possibly fall apart this next year.  But we are trusting that God will not let that happen and that his customers will be understanding. 

Thank you again for all the prayers and support.  You all mean so much to us and have touched our lives.  If theres one thing I've been learning through this all is to not be so selfish.  I never thought of myself as a selfish person but to see peoples selfless actions and doings these last few months has really made me think that I could do a better job.  Many of you we hardly know and than many of you we know so well but all of you have touched our lives because of your unselfish giving and support.  I hope that I can do the same in return to someone elses life. 

XOXOXOXO