Dear
Friends and Family,
This
year has been packed with blessings, people, and medical issues. But God has
been with us every moment.
Emily
has visited us in Kentucky in January, May, November, and will be arriving
again on December 16 to stay the rest of the year. She has enjoyed being lead
teacher in the Red Bird class at Happy Hands
Education Center (a Christian deaf preschool in Broken Arrow, OK). This is her 3rd
year of teaching there. This school year she has eight babies, none of whom are
deaf, but who have deaf parents or siblings, or parents who are staff. She and
her helpers care for them and teach them beginning ASL along the way. Also this
year, Emily has completed five classes at Tulsa Community College, giving her
an added certificate she was required to obtain for her work.
Jason
and Karen have continued to work at God’s Bible School and College, teaching,
advising, and doing bunches of other work. Jason also works three shifts/week
at Christ Hospital restocking surgery supplies in the evenings. We have enjoyed
every time they are able to come and visit us.
Elizabeth
has been a blessing to have living with us. She does so many things to help
with Janet’s physical needs and the laundry. She continues to work for Shepherds Global Classroom online. This year, she helped
with the church’s bus ministry quite a bit. She had a mission trip to West
Africa August 23-September 6, and did VBS for the children at Hope4Liberia
orphanage. She made herself some new skirts and a dress. She also went on our
trips to Ohio, Missouri and Arkansas this summer.
Jeffrey
and Lesa still live in Houston, Texas and love the heat there! They both work
for Shepherds Global Classroom online. They visited us in June, September
(bringing a couple of their Houston SGC co-workers for the SGC Vision Dinner),
and December 8-12. We also saw them in
Missouri in August.
Tim
and Brenda, Charissa, Felix, and Piper keep very busy in Joplin, Missouri. Tim
is always busy with his ABE Paint
Team
and has been remodeling their kitchen, along with making other home
improvements. We saw them in July when we went for an Albertson nephew wedding
in Arkansas, in August when we went for a funeral of a friend in Joplin, and
Labor Day weekend, when they came up to Columbia, Missouri where we were. Then they came here for Thanksgiving week,
allowing Emily to also be able to come. What blessed times we have had together
this year!
Randy
and Joy, James, Micah, Jonathan, Jewelyn, Mishael, Mandylyn, and Josiah have
seen us several times this year. They came for a few days in April on their way
to Tennessee for Interchurch Holiness Convention. We saw most of them in May at
Joanna Johnston’s (Joy’s sister) graduation in Salem, Ohio. We met them in New
Haven, Indiana in July as they were traveling for a family reunion in
Pennsylvania, for breakfast and a short visiting time. Randy surprised us by
flying in for Saturday evening through Monday morning in November! It is such a
long trip from Mitchell, South Dakota where they live to come to Kentucky and
see us, but they are planning to make that drive on December 15 and be with us
next week. Randy keeps very busy with his responsibilities at Faith Ministries (church
and school), and his ABE Paint Team. Joy homeschools and works in children’s
ministries.
Janet
was blessed to have her other cataract surgery and other knee replacement done,
both in March. Then August 29, on vacation in Missouri, playing a little “stand
in one place while I hit the ball right to you” pickleball, she fell and broke
her left wrist pretty badly, requiring a plate and many screws on September 3.
In April, her cancer scans showed the bone metastasis was advancing again. She
has been on two regiments of treatment since then that ended up not helping.
The last scans showed more cancer spots in back, ribs, sternum, shoulder,
clavicle, and pelvis, plus several lymph nodes. With more cancer areas has come
more pain. Since November, her left shoulder has had a great deal of pain and
dysfunction, not allowing her to raise her arm or do a lot of self care. Maybe
the MRI scheduled for December 17 will shed light on why this has happened. The
week of December 15, she will have five radiation treatments for palliative
pain control in several targeted areas. She has had to resort to taking a pain
pill every six hours to be able to be in less pain. She is now on a new
regiment of pills and shots, which caused a rash over most of her body the
second week. So the pill schedule is on hold for an extra week of recovery to
allow the rash to recede. At the end of the time of the last non-effective
treatment, her calcium level was very high (because cancer in the bone
dismantles the bone structure, sending calcium into the blood from the bones).
We learned that this is a life-threatening situation, to which the oncologist immediately
responded with IV fluids and medicine that sent the calcium back to the bones.
Her calcium level is checked every visit to keep tabs on what is happening, and
we are thankful the last two blood tests have been in normal levels. (We hope
that means the new medicines are working to slow the cancer.)
This
year, Janet has been blessed to get to make nine large (twin or queen) quilts
and six baby blankets. She is hoping to make two more baby blankets as God
strengthens her before the year ends. She also made two costumes for the GBS
Christmas play. When she wasn’t able to quilt, she proofread for friends who
are authors.
Rowen
has become the main shopper, cleaner, and cook at our house. He keeps very busy
taking care of Janet. In May, he was honored to be a groomsman in the wedding
of a former co-worker. We got our driveway enlarged and new front sidewalk put
in, and Rowen did a lot of work in our flower beds and yard because of that. He
did all the gardening and helped put up corn (given us by our pastors) and
tomato catsup this summer. He drove us on several trips to Missouri, Ohio,
Indiana, Arkansas, and many doctor appointments! For our 42nd
wedding anniversary in October, we went on a riverboat lunch and two hour
cruise. This was a very special time together, before Janet’s health began to
decline.
We
are thankful to be together, doing life together, loving each other, and
knowing God is with us. We are also grateful for the ones who have visited us,
showing us how much we are valued and loved by the miles and the time spent
with us. So many have given money and meals, and we are blessed by a very
caring and praying church. We are encouraged every day knowing there are so
many who pray for us, and we feel those prayers holding us.
God
is always good, and we feel it more in the harder times—what would we do
without Him? We don’t want to even try. He is faithful. He is taking us all the
way to Heaven. We are not meant for this earthly life—we are meant for the
heavenly, eternal one that was begun when we surrendered to Christ, gave Him
our lives, and He came to live in us by His Spirit.
Thank you for praying for us. We
also pray for so many who have heavier loads than we do.
Have a blessed Christmas!
Love
and Prayers,
Rowen, Janet, and Elizabeth Albertson
