Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas! 

I hope that every one of our hearts are preparing room for Jesus.  I am so grateful and happy that the God of the universe sent Himself to us - Jesus is Emmanuel, God With Us.  We are not left alone!  O come, let us adore Him!  And Jesus came to us in lowliness, in humility, in poverty and weakness.  He calls us to Himself, and not one of us is not able to come.  The more in love with Jesus that I grow, the more beautiful and precious Christmas is to me.  Merry Christmas!

This past week's highlight is the marriage of Jodi Flowers to Brian Lewis, officiated by DJ Bigelow and attended by the 5 Bigelows, the 6 Flowers'/Lewis'/Tobins, and by a handful of strangers who happened to be in proximity and invited themselves to the ceremony.  It was beautiful and tender and crazy and funny and sweet and precious and comical and fast!

It was beautiful and tender because Reese Lewis was remembered and honored and present in spirit.  It was crazy and funny because that's how this family rolls!  It was sweet and precious because I love the ways that Brian and Jodi love each other and the way that they love each other's children.  It was comical and fast because the cruise director was blaring over the loudspeaker in the middle of Jodi's reading her vows that we should all gather in the muster station for the safety presentation, and because those four children altogether plus Brian Lewis are rowdy and energetic!  It was WONDERFUL!!  I feel so honored to have been a part.

 I love the looks on DJ's face and on Jodi's face in the photo above;

and that Brian's pocket is mussy.  :-)

Yahoo!  Brooke Natalie Lewis looks very excited and happy!

 I love this family, and I am so glad that they all love each other!

This coming week's highlights include a trip for the Bigelow family to Colorado.  Even as I type, we are re-organizing and packing suitcases for a 12:28 pm flight out of San Jose.  The primary reason for the trip is that we may attend and that DJ Bigelow may officiate the wedding of his cousin Shannon's daughter Kaitlyn.  We will gather with us five, and DJ's parents Dan and Penny, and DJ's aunt Patty and cousins Shannon and Tammy and Shannon's daughter Kaitlyn and her soon-to-be husband Adam and his family.  


In chemotherapy and health news, the new drug Stivarga has finally arrived to us in the mail; although it will spend the next week sitting in a box on our kitchen counter.  DJ has decided to wait until after the week of travel is past, when we will be far away from his doctor, to begin the drug.  I think that is a wise choice.  In the meantime, his pain is present but seems to be bearable.  


Thank you for loving us!  We love you back!  I appreciate you very much - your prayers and your expressions of love and support.  We are sustained by God's grace, especially because of the ways that you administer God's grace to us.  Thank you, thank you, thank you, and Merry Christmas!


"The Word became flesh, and made His dwelling among us.  We have seen His glory, the glory of the only Son who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.  From His fullness we have all received grace upon grace."

December Already?

Dear Reader,

Happy Thanksgiving!  Happy December!  The days are flying by so quickly, and I realize that I haven't posted here for almost a month.  So sorry!  Alexandra Bigelow's drama class and Paso High Theatre Company are in the middle of showing "A Christmas Carol", and Caedmon Van Bigelow is beginning a season of community-recreational basketball, and holiday activities are aplenty, and I am blessed with a rich and full and stimulating and exciting life! 

Above: Caedmon turned into an elf.
 
Below: The play in which Alexandra is participating is "A Christmas Carol", set in London, England in a time period which calls for the girls to have very curly hair.  Here is a photo of Alex as I dropped her off last Friday for her call - hair in rollers.  :-) 

But here I am now to give you a report:

DJ Bigelow underwent a PET scan on Wednesday, November 26, as a baseline diagnostic for our local oncologist Dr. Spillane.  The good news is that  "No worrisome hypermetabolism is present" in his head, neck, abdomen and pelvis, musculoskeletal areas, extremities, or his skin.  In other words, nothing in any of these areas indicated cancer.  Hooray!  Thank You, LORD!

The other news is what we expected: in DJ's chest, there are several tumors.  There are "multiple" tumors in DJ's (only) left lung, but the largest measures only 7 mm (teeny-tiny).  There is a growth in DJ's mediastinum near to his esophagus, although the report doesn't give measurement.  And there are some growths at DJ's 8th and 10th ribs in the right, lung-less side of DJ's chest wall (you may recall that DJ had portions of his 6th and 7th ribs removed, along with a large tumor, on July 18 of this year).  The mass at DJ's 8th posterior rib measures 3 cm (slightly larger than 1 inch), and it is described as "erosive". This makes sense to me, because I can see with my eyeballs that DJ's pain is increasing; and I guess that an erosive mass on one's rib and near to one's nerves could be painful.  

DJ and Dr. Spillane decided when we visited last week that DJ will begin Stivarga, a chemotherapy administered in pill form which is specific to metastatic colorectal cancer.  The cycle is 3 weeks on and 1 week off.  Dr. Spillane told us that the primary symptom he sees with Stivarga is fatigue (although when I research the drug online, I find a laundry list of potential side affects).  I hope and pray that fatigue (and not nausea, vomitting, and/or diarrhea) will be the only symptom, and that DJ's cancer will be scared of Stivarga and run away. 

We are yet awaiting the arrival of Stivarga, which is available through a very limited number of pharmacies (I think only four in all of California).  There has been a slight delay -  the pharmacy requires pre-authorization from the doctor and from the insurance company, and there have occurred some other administrative snafus.  We are waiting.  In the meantime, DJ has continued to work light-duty for the City of Paso Robles' police department, and we are moving and grooving with the precious moments of life in the Bigelow household.  We are blessed beyond measure!

Here is a passage of Scripture that I can't get out of my head this week; and I love it!  It makes me very happy!  

"But our citizenship is in heaven.  And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power which enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body" (Philippians 3:20-21).

Yahooo!  Such hope we have!  Such good things await us!  I am so grateful for my heavenly citizenship, and I am eagerly awaiting our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ - and I am so happy that He will transform my lowly body so that it will be like His glorious body!  This makes me happy and excited!

What makes you happy and excited?  Dear Reader, please reply!  (E-mail your answer to me, if you don't want to make it public: hollybigelow@charter.net).

xoxoxo from HollyB