Hello everyone! We continue to be blessed by all the support and prayers lavished on Kole and his family! This is Kole's long lost Aunt writing. Summer has a way of stealing your schedule, causing lapses in communication and the like! I for one am glad for some sense of normal living if there can be! If you ask Janni she would tell you nothing is normal in their life. They are in a sense without a house, due to the fact they sold their home . Janni and Steve are in the process of building their new one, in Sandusky! They are also blessed to have wonderful parents, on both sides mind you! But, Steve's parents live closer to their work/doctor/schools and everything. So, they are the lucky ones to get to house the very special people of the Janni and Steve household. I am reminded of "the household of faith". The church is a blessed household to belong to as well. Janni and Steve make that up as well! Today, I was blessed to be in church surrounded by people who love my family, even though blood ties does not require them to! I also love them. To be apart of a church family is an honor and I highly recommend it!! What sets Janni and Steve apart? It is their faith in Christ and the fact that they are the church and have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. The church is wherever God dwells! If you have Christ than you have God (Holy Spirit) inside of you and you yourself are the church! The building is not the church really. It is the individual believers coming together to worship the Most High God. Someday in heaven we will feel the electricity of excitement, the holiness, the power, the love. It is in the "Throne Room" where worship will be natural and so fulfilling that you will never want to cease praising the God who made us and made the earth just for us and loved us so much that He gave up His own Son for us! We only see in part now!! We are required to believe what we cannot see! We cannot see the "Throne Room of God". It exists! We can get a little idea of it when we go to church and worship together there! It means more to me now than ever in my whole life to attend and participate in worship with my church family! They help us survive this tuff world . Witnessing God's word, worship, and fellow believers keeps us believing in a the God who we cannot see and touch! We need each other just as Kole has needed all the prayers of you guys, his parents, friends and family, and the St. Jude staff to make it through this hurdle with cancer! Where would he be alone!! The same goes if we try to live in this world, attempting to stay believing God, getting attacked by the "cancers" of this world and yet attempting to keep believing alone! May I say we need each other and this trial has taught me it is about "WE" and not "ME".

I have to tell you I got to see Kole and Jaelle a few weekends back! The first thing I noticed about Jaelle was that she had on my good Sunday high heels. Anyone, who knows her will tell you there is no private property when it comes to shoes and she will even ask you to take yours off if she so happens to have a notion to! Janni has been embarrassed quite a number of times. Jaelle is blazing a trail for herself in stolen shoes! What can you say! She is a "woman" who knows what she wants and goes after it! We are lucky it is just shoes! She is to cute to prosecute! Kole grinned when he saw me and said that I should be happy that he did not want to go to a wedding with his grandpa because that meant I got the privilege of having his presence at my house! It was a privilege, but with all the action and commotion at our house the privilege flew by! We later that day went to McDonalds as an entire family minus my mom. Kole took his normal afternoon nap! He is still regaining his strength so he requires a nap, which probably aids his body in repairing and refueling! Kole is still thin though he is gaining weight! I asked if he feels bigger and he grinned at me and said in his insightful way "I feel as thin as a snake"! I thought that was a smart description for a five year-old. Anyway, later at McDonalds we all enjoyed fun and fellowship! We have a McDonalds with a playground---the kind with tunnels and slides. It was a beautiful evening and the kids got happy meals! My husband took the first round of playing tag with the kids and Steve took the second round! Kole of course still has some adjustments to being back among kids and life. He needs lots of reassurance and I am so impressed with how in tuned Steve and Janni are to his needs! They desire him to get back out there and realize physical play is good for helping him regain physical strength and coordination. It is hard for Kole because he is perceptive enough to know he is not the same yet and he feels emotional about it from time to time. He does not notice it so much when he is by himself, but it is more evident to him among his peers. Steve, noticed Kole's heartache and took him aside, placed him on his lap, and did what a good coach knows to do when his player/son is discouraged. Kole had his face buried in his father's shoulder, so not to show his tears, as Steve began taking Kole "back" to when he first had his surgery. He said something like "remember Kole when you first had your surgery and you could not walk without someone walking behind you and how you needed lots of help". You can do everything by yourself now and you have come a long way". Steve also said "you know what the doctor said, Kole? He said it will not be long and you will be able to do everything you use to do! Now this is good practice for you to work on using your body in different ways". To that, Kole jumped down, and went back to playing tag with a big grin on his face!!He had a wonderful time the rest of the evening and they probably played a good two hours, incorporating other children as well in their play! I told Steve--he was very wise in what he told Kole and how it was just what he needed. Can I say that I sometimes "get down on my luck" and I have the sense as I go to God that He puts His arm around me, comforts me, floods me with His love, reminds me where I came from, and tells me that He is faithful to complete the good work He has started in me (Philippians chapter 1). Then it is "Onward Christian Soldier"! Can I say "Onward Christian Soldier" to you as well. You are even more adored and loved by God, than Kole is loved and adored by Steve. We just need to practice running to our Heavenly Father.

Love,
Jodi