Update...

Well I have to begin by saying the last 6 weeks have been very very hard emotionally for us in our house. And  we could not have gotten threw this with out everyones prayers. We are so ever thankful for each one, for we know God heard them. I feel so blessed to have a great church family and community and my friends that delivered meals after surgery, a pie, cards, and the visits and most of all your prayers. I believe God has us all go through things in life to change us, to make us stronger. I believe in weak times he makes us strong and gets us threw-to lean on him. I have to say there was days that I just cried and was so sad and freightened not knowing the future or outcome and days where I rejoiced because I know I am in Gods arms and his plan. A mix of emotions for sure.  One of my favorite verses And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him who have been called according to his purpose. See I went threw this because God as a purpose for me-I just cant wait to find out what... I also discovered during this journey the amazing things that we put in our bodys make a huge impact. The foods, the pills, our lotions, shampoos-everything. Its amazing what they do to our bodies- and not for the good. My poor family is enduring our new lifestyle-with many complaints, but hey we will be healthier in the end. My life has forever been changed and awakened by this experience. But for the best. So with thanksgiving we will rejoice that they got all the bad tissue and all pathology reports came back good!!! We all danced when we got the call and celebrated last night! I am still sore, bruised and swollen but managed to get out of the house today(to get grocerys-these snow days with 4 boys are killing my cupboards)and am not sure that was a smart thing since it made me more sore, but hey I need a reason to shower-right? I go for my post op appt tomorrow morning, so hoping for good things there. I seriously could not have gone threw this and with such great news with out you and your prayers to our almighty and wonderful God. We all have been singing- our God is so great- so big and so mighty theres nothing our God can not do- with you!  And man are those words true.. So any updates that come up I will post and will keep you in the loop, but again and cant say it enough THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for all the prayers and support! We love you all and are so grateful and thankful God put you in our lives!!!!

Surgery date set

So I will be having surgery on Thursday in the afternoon. Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers Thursday and the few days after. We will post the results when we know. Thank you for the support already given. It's so great to know we have all of you praying, it gives us great comfort. The last few days have been very rough and emotional. For the unknown is not easy for me. Please also pray for my recovery. When I had the biopsy the 26th, it still hurts, getting better, but sore yet. So fast recovery to take care of the 6 of us would be so appreciated. Thank you all for everything. We are so blessed that God gave us a great church family and community to live in and be supported by and prayed for. We love you all and a big thanks to all!!!

Update from todays Dr. Appt

I want to start out and thank you all for your emails, prayers, and support. You all are like a huge family and my support team. I thank God for each one of you and your love.
We meet with Dr. today. I really do love her, shes so gentle and caring. We found out I have a radial scar/star. People usually over 60 get them. 6 out of every 15,000 people are diagnosed with them. 15% are cancer and as Mike says and Dr. Hoberman 85% are not. Which I even told her and most of you that know my health history is that unfortunatley I am always that 1 in a million literaly. With my pregnancys with this weird tumor bone disease, Literally its always me-bad genes I guess. You can tell probably that Im so optimistic. Not really! So please pray for me in that area of being positive through this and that Gods will will be done. So we are waiting for the surgery dept to call for our surgery date for a lumpectomy-hopefully sooner then later. So we can find out and start sleeping at night. And we will go from there on the results. We should hear in about 24-48 hours for the results to come in after surgery. So I will keep you all posted. I want to say again thanks so much for the support and please keep up the prayers.
Love you all!

Disappointing News on the home front

It all started a while ago when I was doing my breast exam and found 2 lumps. Called my doctor and got refered to a breast doctor, Dr. Hoberman. She was fantastic when I met her and the first time I met her, her and her nurse prayed for me-so sweet!!! Anyways they couldnt do a MRI because I was pregnant so I went in every trimester to check on the lumps. Delivered Melina and had a mammogram when Melina was 3 weeks old-they found the dense spot and would like an MRI, but you cant do one until your done breast feeding for 3 months. We talked about pros and cons and I decided to continue to nurse Melina. Well I stopped in September and MRI was schedueled for Dec. We had it done at Holland hospital and the Dr. said 48-72 hours for results. Unfortunatley the phone rang not even 24 hours later and said we have some bad news we found one lump that doesnt look good. Were sending you to Betty Ford Wednesday the 26th for a biopsy. We were there all day between ultrasounds, MRI's, mammograms and Biopsys. Told the same thing 48-72 hours the doctor should call. Well the next day they called- have some not so good news they said. The doctor just signed off on the report and sent it to Dr. Hoberman. It needs to come out. All of the biopsys came back not good and Dr. Hoberman will be calling you soon. Well her office did call and we meet with her Tuesday. Day to day right now its touchy-one hour were fine the next we all cry together. Both sides of my family have dealt or passed away from breast cancer so right now were just a little scared. We wonder obviously Im having a lumpectomy, but how much will they take since all the biopsy's came back bad? Mastectomy? Chemo? Radiation? Our minds are racing. So please be with my family and I as we deal with something that we have no control over and pray for miracles. Weve seen them with Melina so Im hoping for another one. I know God is in control, and Im glad I have faith in knowing that. I could'nt imagine going through life struggles not knowing him. So please keep us in your prayers! We love you all...And will keep you posted.

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Melina-1 year old!!!

Our little miracle is 1 year old already!!! I can not believe how fast time flys when you get no sleep. Yes she still gets up 3-5 times to nurse yet. She is a stinker but sure is cute! She is starting to talk she yells Daaaad! Mom was her first word, she can say num num and the boys from playing Life yesterday taught her Bob, she has been saying it all the time. It did sound like she said Brody like 5 times today. She is a whooping 17 pounds and 28 inches long as of yesterday. 5 shots too:( Tiny thing-size 2 sometime s 3 diapers and most 3-6 month clothes well pants-built like her daddy. Shirts 12 month. Everyone that sees us says brody and Bailey look like me and Micah and Melina look like Mike. Her hair is still orange with streaks of blonde. I got a pony tail in 2 days ago until she pulled it out-she hates things in her hair!!!She is walking everywhere, but shes been doing that for a while-now trying to run-its so cute! 2 teeth-eats everything-fuzzys,garbage,etc...Puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. She has a temper already, she has a meltdown I think everytime we go to Meijers. She had the cutest party on Sunday, I spent 2 days making decorations, thank you pintrest. You know 1st girl, 1st birthday!!! She got her 1st pair of crocs-so cute! Sand toys,food,bath toy, 3 outfits, money, and the boys got her a ladybug pillow pet.
The boys are doing great-Brody is doing golf league again and in drivers training-YIKES!!! Im getting old.. Micah is in Tennis and guitar right now and is such a huge help with Melina. Bailey is in T ball and Tennis right now-him and Brody hang out the most-best buddies. They are all healthy and enjoying break so far-not too bored yet with everything going on-July will be less busy and I cant wait.
Now to the big news, now when I tell people that they assume we are pregnant again...So NO we are not, still working on fixing that. We bought a new old house. We sold ours in Febuary and have been renting from Mikes mom and dad and a few weeks ago we bought my grandpa and grandma Brink's original farm house. It was definately a God thing-29 offers and we got it. So demo began last week-some spots to studs,drywall, basically everything ripped out. It was the original 1960 everything. It has been alot of work,surprises, and stress! But I think in the end and I hope it will be worth it. Kitchen is almost in and bathroom-thats exciting. New plumbing and cement and windows coming soon. Roof went on last week. Have you ever seen the movie the Money Pit? I think thats my house!!! I believe we will be there for a while,its funny we sold our house to build a bigger one and then we buy one half the size of our last one. I think since we moved into the rental we have all loved somedays being so close. In our last house some would be down stairs some people on the main floor and some up stairs-I believe we have grown closer living in such close quarters. 3 boys in an office!! Ill have to post a picture-Its hewey dewey and louie. We will go where ever God wants us to go and I feel that everything happens for a reason and am excited about where hes taking us-its an adventure...
So I will try to keep this updated..I know its been a long time, so sorry! 4 kiddos has put me on overtime all the time.

4 months...... Where did it go?

Hello everyone. Can you believe it's been 4 months today that Melina was born? The past 4 months have been crazy busy. The boys were all in sports this summer- golf,tennis,soccer, and band. A lot of running around. Melina has not been a good baby. Shes getting better, but week 5-12 yikes!!! I don't know if it's colic or if it's just a female thing. She still gets up an average of 4 times a night to nurse. I've tried cereal,doesn't help. I don't know what to do for her. She goes tomorrow for her check up but I did weigh her a week and a half ago and she was just shy of 12 lbs. Small peanut,still in 0-3 and 3 month clothes. She's built like her daddy- long torso and short legs. At 2 months she was 9% for height. Hardly any hair yet, but orange so far. Her orange brother Micah loves that she has orange too. The boys are adjusting well. Brody holds her and Micah just loves her so much and prays for her and worries about her so. Bailey try a lot to help,sometimes too much! But he loves her a lot too. The first 2 months was rough for Bailey,as he was the baby for 6 years. Baby talk,we moved him to his bed-big transition but now great!!! He had the hardest time. Sunday we had Melina baptized. She smiled as the water went down her face. She did so great! What a great gift! The sermon fit perfectly with my pregnancy,speed bumps in life as Gods way of slowing you down sometimes. Amen to that. Life was way easy last year. Maybe to easy... I believe everything happens for a reason, and I needed to get back to depending on God for everything, and I think that when life gets easy you tend to feel like you don't need God. But when it's rough he's at the center, number 1. I felt so close to him when I was pregnant, it was my speed bump. I hope he doesn't allow that again..lol... We had our brother in law Alex sing, he has such an amazing voice. He sang at our wedding to. Love to hear him sing-what a gift God gave him. My family showed up almost all of it- that was amazing itself. Anyways Brodys birthday is tomorrow, he is 14!!! Hokey smokey! When did that happen. Friday was homecoming and I was at school all day getting it ready and I just kept thinking I was just here. Seriously where does the time go? It doesn't help that he has like 3 out of 5 teachers I had. Weird! And they all look the same... He is such a great kid! Loves to be himself, I love that about him,he doesn't care who likes him. I wish I was like that in high school. That's all I wanted in high school,to be cool and liked by all. I hope it lasts a long time. Great quality!!! Needs to study more though....
Micah is in 4 th grade now. Doing great. He's my book worm. Always reading,studying,trying to find out something he doesn't know already. He was devastated that Steve Jobs died last Wednesday. He wants to be him so bad. He cried himself to sleep saying I just wanted to meet him. Poor guy, just that morning he was listening to his pod cast about the iphone5. He listened to him every time he spoke. He's doing good this week. He's starting to like girls, which is fun and different, because not even Brody care about them yet. Trouble in the making. His new thing is he's saving for college. He wants to go to Calvin. Boy save your money!!!
Bailey well kindergarten is going good all green lights so far. Loves recess and plays with girls mainly. He is in a stage with yogurt and pb and j. Last week we got a call from the doctor after blood work was done that Micah and Bailey have high cholesterol. The doctor called me herself there BMI is at like 10 and normal is 19, they are both underweight. And went threw there diets and we got referred to a specialist. The doctor thinks it's heredity. Well Mike has had high high cholesterol for the last like 8 years and probably longer. It scares me that my just 6 year old has very high cholesterol and I can't do anything about it. Very scary!!! I've gotten Micah to exercise- go treadmill. He's my indoor kid, so were working on the exercise part. Poor guy! But he's doing great as long as he has his iPod. Of course..
Me well trying to survive and not be too busy, but hard. The older 2 I'm on the road with just running here there and then the younger 2 want/need time. Just a lot of different stages in this house right now. Tired as my baby is seriously attached at the nipple every hour and a half to 2 hours!!! So very busy with that! She will not take a bottle- I've boughten 7 different kinds or take a paci. I sense a strong willed child.... Been thinking about going back to school in January but it all depends how Melina does as she gets older. She such a high maintenance baby, my boys were never like this... So my days are Filled with busyness but filled with such fulfillment. 4 kids at all different stages is amazing. It's like you know what's to come and it's so good. Brody is at such a fun stage. All of them are, but you can start to see who they mature into as people and know you did good. God did good!! He is so good! I just feel so blessed right now. God has given me a beautiful family of 6.
Thank you to all who has prayed for us and thought of us and taken care of us in the last year. The meals,cards,everything. You all are our family. And we appreciate and love you all. I will try to keep up on the blog, as I have slacked in the last few months. I hope you all have a great week and God bless you all:)