We know one of the biggest updates is regarding Richard’s health and the next steps in this journey with cancer. As of yesterday, it is officially the end of the 4 round of chemotherapy that started back in January. It was only 12 weeks, but the 100+ hours connected to the IVs were truly brutal. At the beginning of chemo, Richard thought that it would be difficult and painful, but didn’t imagine all of the side effects after each treatment and just how debilitating it would be. Even the last day of infusions, everyone was so excited and ready for that day, but it took him shutting off emotions and thoughts to even get in the car that day for the final treatment.
Now, we are in the season of healing! The oncologist shared that he is very hopeful for complete recovery. The last CT scan showed that the lymph nodes are now clear, where they had previously detected cancer. The cancer marker levels have come down and are now at a normal level. We go back for another CT scan and blood tests at the end of April to make sure that the chemotherapy worked and we are in the clear. The oncologist also shared that Richard should have his immune system back by the end of April as well. Life has changed forever now, as Richard will need to go back for regular testing every few months and then regularly for many years to come. But we are extremely hopeful that the chemotherapy was successful and the cancer won’t return.
Ximena was a rockstar throughout these past few months. She continued to doing the bookkeeping for all of the missionaries and orphan ministries at the Orphanos office while also taking care of many of the things that Richard couldn’t do. She became the chauffeur of the family: taking the kids to soccer, Julian to daycare, grocery runs, airport pick-ups, and so many places that took her out of her usual comfort zone. Then, if you add on cooking breakfast and dinner for our kids and all of the cleaning, you can imagine just how busy she was! At the same time, she still took the time to care for Richard when he couldn’t get out of bed and was dealing with nausea, fatigue, and pain.
February was the birthday month! Leilani turned 12, Clau* and Naty* turned 16, and Inti turned 21. We had to have different celebrations than we usually do, since we couldn’t have too many people in our home. But we were able to have a great family BBQ to celebrate everyone with steaks, home-made tortillas, and so much more great food. It was also the month that we were able to have both grandmas (Mumu and Ñeñe) and Tia Ruth come for different chemo weeks. In the middle of some of it, we had an ice storm that kept the kids home for 3 days, so it was nice to have people to drive Richard to chemo and have fun with the kids.
This has also continued to be a time for legal paperwork and custody steps. In March, we were scheduled for juvenile court, as Julian’s mom is requesting to have custody. It just happened to be during chemotherapy, so we connected to virtual court with Richard connected to his IV. Julian has now been living with us for 2 years and the court system is moving so slow! We are proponents of family reunification, so we are hopeful that his mom will be able to take the necessary steps to provide him with a safe home to have custody of him. If not, we have also been in conversations with his grandmother to see how he could be back with family full-time.
We have also been working with an immigration lawyer and the DCS social workers on behalf of Clau and Naty. It has gone by extremely fast, but they have now lived with us for a year! After sitting through many difficult conversations, their lawyer is about to submit their applications for a visa for trafficked victims. The process for us to become their guardians through DCS had stalled for a long time, but it just started to pick up this week. So we are hopeful to be able to complete that process over the next 6 months.
Over these past three months, we have been so blessed by the number of people who have committed to pray for us and love on us. We have had people who have made meals for us, brought us groceries, and gave us gift cards to feed our large family. We have had people who have been willing to take care of our kids and even take them on vacation during spring break. (They were spoiled by 4 different families and even went to different states from Kentucky to Georgia!) We had people who were willing to take a week off to help out during the full-time chemotherapy weeks (Special thanks to Mumu, Ñeñe, Tia Ruth, and Meme!). We had people set aside time to sit, listen, and give us the ability to debrief on everything we were going through. We have received letters, cards, and even a sweet video from Richard’s students in Ecuador. We are so grateful to everyone who has loved on us and made this journey so much easier.
We are now starting to see warmer weather as summer approaches, which has brought with it beautiful sunshine. It does feel kind of like we are starting to wake up from a dark, strange dream that matched the winter weather, although we still are holding our breath that we don't have to go back into the dream. We do ask that you will join us in prayer for a few things:
Health and Good News: Richard goes in for the CT scan/bloodwork on April 24th and then the follow up with the oncologist is on April 27th. With the spring allergy season, Ximena has been out for the past 5 days with severe asthma. Please pray for our bodies to heal and for good news this month.
Legal Paperwork: In some ways, we would love to blink and be done with court, case workers, and documents, but we also know this is a huge part in advocating for kids that can't advocate for themselves. Please pray that process would move forward, that there would be due diligence by those in charge, and that each one of our kids would be able to grow up in a healthy environment.
Rest: We are really exhausted! Not only physically as we both dealt with insomnia and our bodies breaking down during this season, but emotionally and spiritually as well.
Thank you for the love each of you have showed!!!
~Richard and Ximena
P.S. It has been 4 years since our last Texas Tour, due to COVID and then starting to foster here in Tennessee. We have started planning to do some sort of tour, depending on the news that we receive from the oncologist. But tentatively it will be the first few weeks of July. We will share more information once we know!
P.S.S. Here's the video from some of Richard's students from Ecuador for his birthday. It was so special.
We are so grateful to each person who reads our update and loves on us in so many ways. We are always needing new supporters, so if God places it on your heart, here are the links:
Family Support: CLICK HERE!
Ministry Expenses Support: CLICK HERE!
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