October 31, 2009-5:57AM

Strength and dignity are her clothing,
and she laughs at the time to come.
She opens her mouth with wisdom,
and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
She looks well to the ways of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children rise up and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
“Many women have done excellently,
but you surpass them all.”
-Proverbs 31:25-29

Heather's mom left in the morning yesterday (thank you for your help Pam!), so Heather ran the household alone and quite successfully. She is getting back into the swing of things.

The draining of her seroma went well. In fact, she often couldn't feel the needle going in, which is a common side effect of mastectomy. She had to switch to an electric razor as well because shaving with a blade when you have no feeling leads to too much blood, as you could imagine. She still tires pretty easily, but she is staying up much of the day now.

Prayer requests:

• We meet with the oncologist on November 5 to figure out where to go next.
• That God would be preparing Heather's spirit for chemotherapy.
• That our paperwork for Tessa would fly through the system so we can get our little girl home!
• That God would show His powerful hand with our dear friends, the Thuls, whose little girl Amelia is in Children's Hospital of Minneapolis with a viral encephalitis.

Thank you all for your prayers. Grace and peace. -Jason

October 29, 2009--10:00AM

Well, Tessa is officially ours. We passed court this morning and so we officially have another daughter. We will post pictures of her later. Please pray that things go well with the paperwork we now need to file.

Also, Heather is healing nicely. I think her mom is going home today. She does have a "seroma", which is a fluid accumulation that needs to be drained. Please pray for that.

Thank you all for your continued prayer, help, and encouragements.

October 27, 2009--6:24AM

Heather was up most of the night. She is suffering from the "Heebie-jeebies" as she calls them. She had a great time with God, visited with a friend who was also up in the middle of the night, and did some marching. She did sleep from 3:30 until about 6:15, though. I think going out for a walk today would be of great benefit.

Funny thing is, I got up at 4:00. Grace has a sinus headache, so perhaps we need to get a neti pot today. :-)

October 26, 2009--8:03PM

A few of the SPUDs, stopped over tonight--Laura, Emily, and Tonya. It was so good to visit with them and catch up with their lives. Heather took a shower and shaved her own legs. WooHoo!

October 26, 2009--3:55PM

Heather had her follow up with her surgeon today. He removed the drains, which Heather said felt like there was something alive moving inside her body, so it is good to get those out. Heather had kept the drain receptacles in a fuzzy sock to keep them from touching her skin. Dr Pitchford was quite impressed and commented that he could market those and stop doing surgery. :-D

Pathology was also back on her lymph nodes and only one showed cancer. Praise the Lord! Other than that, a shower is in order tonight, but I told Heather that unless she really needs me to, I am not going to shave her legs.

October 26, 2009--5:28 AM

Well, as I said, Heather didn't go to church yesterday; instead, she slept a good chunk of the day, which was good. She also switched from vicodin to tylenol, which makes her less loopy. Today we have an appointment with her surgeon to check things over and maybe have the drains out. They are still draining fluid, so I don't know if they will take them out or not. In any case, we are going to go.

I would ask that you pray that the pathology is back on her lymph nodes and that it is good news (no evidence of cancer).

I am off to work today, but Heather's mom is here.

October 25, 2009--7:22AM

Heather has a cold, so she will not be going to church with me today, but I will be there. Her parents are coming back today to "watch over her" while I am away. She awoke in the middle of the night with some significant pain--she assumes she unknowingly stretched in the middle of the night.

How does one keep from stretching awkwardly while sleeping?

October 24, 2009--5:43

We have enjoyed some really fantastic food so far that has been provided by our friends. Chili, spaghetti pie, lasagna, baked potato soup, meatballs, Snicker salad, cake, cheese, cookies, bread, and on...and on. Thank you to all of you who have been bringing food for our family. It is one less thing to worry about.

Can someone bring a larger size clothing for me?

October 24, 2009--7:58AM

Proverbs 31:27a-- "She looks well to the ways of her household"

We had a long night last night. Heather did fine, but it seems everyone was up at one time or another--including the dogs. In fact, Grace came into our room in the middle of the night. She was whiny, and much more childlike than normal. She just wants to feel better and get over her cold. I was irritated; Heather graciously offered to go sit with her in her room and slept there the rest of the night. Amidst these trials, she remains a compassionate mother. She truly is amazing.

Many of our good friends are doing the breast cancer walk in Eau Claire today in this beautiful Fall weather. Thank you all!

October 23, 2009--9:41

I am at work today. The clinic is crazy with H1N1 pandamonium. Frequent hand sanatizing is strongly encouraged. Heather is at home with the kids and her mom. She is good spirits today, but is resting now. Her dad is coming today and will take Pam, Heather's mom, home today. Heather's mom will then come back on Sunday.

Here is a link from the American Cancer Society on how to perform a breast self exam. If you are a woman, and you don't currently do these, GET ON IT!!

Jason

October 22, 2009--7:18

Connie Cake. Yum. That is a great finish to this day. For those of you wondering what I Corinthians 16:13 is, here you go--"Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong."

I told Heather the verse and she said, "act like a man? I am half way there." ;-)

October 22, 2009--6:04PM

Heather ate some of Sara Montagna's fantastic lasagna and garlic bread and is now picking out new hair. Kids are playing Wii. I cannot wait for her to tie into Connie's cake, but I am going to try to limit myself to one...half of the cake.

October 22, 2009--3:29 PM

Heather's home. She is sleeping upstairs in our bedroom. As she laid her head on her pillow, she sighed a deep sigh of relief at the comforts of home. She asked if I was ready to have her home--how could I not be? Grace has been coughing, so please pray for her that she stays healthy.

Jason

What Heather wrote, for those who don't get her emails.

Heather wrote this on Tuesday, for those who don't get them.

Hi Everyone,

So after all that we went thru this past week I am once again crying over how awesome our God is. On Tuesday morning we recieved the following e-mail from Tessa's social worker who told us on Monday after recieving our cancer news to get healthy and to keep going with our adoption as planned....

The memo line said...court date.
The e-mail said "Oct.29th"

Our court date for Tessa is October 29th. We have giggled a lot over God's timing of this. She will be home for Christmas!!!!! Now I just need to get healthy!!!!!!!

On Tuesday afternoon we had our appointment with my oncologist Dr. Muslim. After explaining our case to us, I found myself smiling at him and thanking him. We laughed as we left as we talked about how he was like a Dr. Wilson from the TV show House but of a middle eastern descent. We found out that his MA Laura is the daughter of friends of ours from church. So God has placed us in good hands and we look forward to working with them.

As I write this, it is about 4 am so forgive me if I babble a little. I couldn't sleep go figure .

I won't go into all the technical details for you but here is the jist of our future with cancer. This morning we will need to get to the hospital at about 9. They have tests and prep and such they have to do. My surgery is at 11. My mom will be home with the kids. Jason's mom will be meeting him at the hospital. They will be doing a single mastectomy of my left breast. The oncologist said it was silly to consider doing a double. There is no risk for me to get cancer in the other breast considering my history and the cancer type. So I guess I will get to use the fake boobie that Grace made me from the ABC noodles .

The surgery will be a few hours. The big thing at this point will b how many if any lymph nodes have been affected. That will give us a better idea of long term outcome but frankly those predictions don't mean much to Jason and I since we know that God is so much bigger than whatever odds that they give us. Dr. Muslim told us that I have a less aggressive form of cancer so that was good news for us and that breast cancer is CURABLE not just treatable!

Depending on how quickly I recover I will be released on Thursday I think. Please wait for word from Jason on when to come and visit in the hospital. He will let you know as soon as we know something.

After about two weeks of recovery we will meet with Dr. Muslim again and go over the reports. I will be having chemo reguardless of what the reports say or what they find in the lymph nodes. I will start in about three weeks. I will have 8 treatments total for a total of 16 weeks. One about every two weeks. The first four will be the most difficult then it will get better and better. It goes in thru an IV and the treatment lasts about two to three hours. I will be able to drive myself there and home and should be able to care for my kids afterwards. He assured us that it won't be that bad and that he has no concerns about how I will handle it. We joked that I already know how it feels to be constantly tired and nausas with my RA and my pregnancy with Ian. He laughed and said that they have much better meds than what I took with Ian so I should be able to tolarate it fine. I will loose my hair but we found a catalog with lots of cute hats and wigs that Grace has already gone thru and marked her favorites. So don't be shocked when I come to church as a flaming red head! We are going to have fun with this but they do have one wig that actually is VERY close to my hair color and style that I have now so I am going to have a little normalcy to our lives as well.

We do not know about radiation at this point. That will depend on the lymph node thing I think.

So you may be wondering about Tessa coming home...
Once we pass court next week she is legally ours. We have a power of attorney that is working on our behalf. After next week Jason (I can no longer go obviously) and most likely his mom will travel anywhere from 3-6 weeks later. So Tessa will be coming home to a bald mama in the middle of chemo. The doctor didn't think that would be a problem but I am sure that I will need some help. I am guessing I won't have to beg people to come help take care of our new addition :)

*Huge thank-you to the huge group of Cedarcreekers who volunteered to take care of our yard. If you are able to help them out I'm sure they could use it!

I know there will be more needs as we learn more but that is all I can immediately think of.

Please don't send flowers since I am allergic to them. I would love cards and e-mails but please don't call unless you need something. Our phone has been ringing off of the hook unless of coarse you are family or part of our close church family! We check our e-mail almost constantly so if we are able to respond we will.

Here is the lastest set of prayer requests for Tessa to come home and our cancer jouney...

*Please pray for our friends and family who are struggling with this diagnosis. Some are reliving their own experiences of their own cancer or a loved ones cancer. I have also become aware of three others that may be facing breast cancer. Those closest to us are scared and don't know what to say or do. Give them the peace that they need and pray that EVERYONE uses this time to draw closer to God and to make a changes in their lives so they can look back on their lives with no regrets.

*Please pray for our surgeon and all of the medical team that will be working with my case. Pray that I am able to share my faith with them and that God can use me to work in their hearts to someday come to know HIM.

*Please pray for Jason, Grace, Ian, my mom, and Jason's mom as they sit by my bedside and watch me lay in pain. That will be difficult for them I am sure and they need God's strength to get thru this.

*FAST RECOVERY!!!!

*Please pray for good health for Tessa and her caregivers.

*Please pray we pass court!

*Please pray for us as we prepare our hearts and home for our daughter Tessa and work out travel details for Jason!

As our prayers are answered I put them at the bottom of the letter so you can keep track of how awesome God is!

Thank-you again for your prayers today.
Your family in Christ,Heather, Jason, Grace, Ian, and Tessa Kanz Answered Prayers!

*Recieved clear direction to do a single mastectomy 10/20/09
*Recieved our court date of October 29th. 10/20/09
*Cedarcreekers volunteered to take care of our yard! 10/20/09
*Found out that flights were not nearly as expensive as we thought. 10/3/09
*Wyneens raised over $700 for us! 10/3/09
*Wynveens volunteered to have a garage sale fundraiser for us! 9/25/09
*We recieved confirmation that Tessa is living in Addis and won't need to change homes and caregivers in her last few months in Ethiopia 9/24/09
*We recieved 12 new pictures of Tessa 9/24/09
*We recieved word that our dossier was translated, authenticated and submitted to court this week 9/21/09
*Our USCIS paperwork arrived 9/15/09
*Frequent flier miles donated 9/14/09
*Three new pictures arrived of Tessa 9/14/09
*Dossier arrived safely to Ethiopia 9/12/09
*Garage Sale success! Raised $1500 9/12/09
*Assistant Stork was able to process our dossier quickly and get it sent to CCI 9/4/09
*Reese's Rainbow profile is on the website 9/4/09
*Our passports came in the mail today and fun news about Tessa. 9/3/09
*Fingerprints were easy to do and Kelley survived her day with the children 9/2/09
*We recieved our dossier back from the state today, made copies and had sent it to the Assistant Stork to send it to the US department of State and the Ethiopian Embassy! 9/1/09
*We recieved a new video of Tessa today! 8/31/09
*We made over $1000 in two days of garage sales and have enough for a second sale!!! 8/29/09
*The girls had a great first day of selling and made $99! 8/28/09
*We had lots of brave helpers for our Friday sale and volunteers for tommorrow as well! 8/28/09
*Our documents arrived from CCI and our dossier has been sent to recieve the Great Seal of WI in Madison . 8/28/2009
*Our letter from CCI to include with our dossier is in the mail and on our way to us so we can add that last piece of paperwork before mailing it off to get the Great Seal! 8/25/09
*Beth Crammond volunteered to make some jewerly for our sale! 8/25/09
*CCI and Catholic Charities were able to communicate today and add the missing information to our homestudy and everything is approved! 8/25/09
*Melissa approved our homestudy 8/09
*Cynthia was able to get our changes made to the homestudy quickly. 8/16/09
*We recieved our fingerprinting appointment sooner than we expected and Jason was able to get approval for getting off of work for our fingerprinting appointment in MN plus we have a babysitter! 8/13/09
*Our last homestudy meeting went well! Answered prayer 8/13/09

october 29, 2009--11:58

She sleeps now. I think she got a little worn out this morning, though she still looks good. I think she is excited to go home, but we will need to keep her sitting and resting when we are there. Thankfully, Pam will be there to manage the ins and outs.

Jason

October 22, 2009-10:02

Heather washed her hair and feels so much better. Pam, Laurel, Grace, and Ian are here at the hospital with me. Roman and Lisa are next door. Party time!

October 22, 2009--830 AM

Heather's going home today. Pain is still great. She is eating breakfast, though her omelette was greasy. She wants her hair washed.

Jason

I am at the hospital. Roman's here. He actually spent the night next door with a client. So we are all visiting. Heather said she is feeling well and still not much pain secondary to Tordol and not nauseous secondary to Zofran. We are still waiting for the surgeon to come in and talk.

Later, Ian and Grace will be in. Heather said she will be up for visitors.

Much love,
Jason and Heather

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S-KdxH848I

October 22, 2009--5:59

Heather tried instant messaging me in the middle of the night. I was asleep; she wasn't, claiming a good nap. I am going to the hospital this morning hopefully to catch Dr Pitchford and get an update on what her status is, and so forth.

I also didn't eat all of the cookies Nikki sent or the bars that Sandy sent. Praise God for restraint!

October 21, 2009-8:30 PM

Well, we are home from the hospital. Heather should sleep well tonight. When we had left, her pain was still 1/10 and she'd had no pain meds. She is taking some this evening, probably to help with her sleep.

With much encouragement, she also got up with the intention to walk to the door of her room and back. She walked to the end of the hall, then the other end, then back again. We couldn't get her back in her room.

We met a nurse, Kathryn, who is friends with our dear friend Gen. It is interesting to make these connections with people.

We'll continue to pray for healing, trusting God that He knows exactly what He is doing!

October 21, 2009-6:15PM

Grace is here now along with Pam and I. She brought along the fake boobie she made out of alphabet noodles. So that has led to a conversation about fake boobs. Heather is about to fall asleep--but we need her to get up and walk and for her to pee.

Ian apparently wants stickers out of this deal.

Will keep you posted.

Keep speaking upward.

10/21/09--5:24PM

She is really tired, but pretty lucid. Heather's mom is here now too. They are going to get her up and walk her around in a little bit, which should wipe her out, but she is a real trooper. No Connie cake yet, but she has had grape juice.

October 21, 2009-4:13 PM

I am sitting next to Heather. She is conversing with me, but is a bit loopy and very tired. She is slowly sitting up because she needs to be sitting up before she is allowed to drink anything. She isn't allowed to eat anything tonight, but she can have water and later fruit juice. I am sure she wishes for some Connie cake, but she will have to wait for tomorrow.

Please pray for comfort as the fog lifts. Pray for our kids as they are with their grandparents at our house. I asked her about visitors and she said, "let's just see" so we will keep you posted.

Peace and love,
Jason and Heather

October 21, 2009--2:35 PM

Heather's out of surgery. As I mentioned, the surgeon did dissect the lymph nodes and he is pretty sure at least some of them are affected, but we probably won't know until next week how many. He said that one he found was large and quite hard, which is a good indication that there is cancer in it.

So please keep praying for Heather for healing. God works in miracles not odds, so lift her up please. I will post more once I meet with her.

Jason

October 21, 2009-10:21

Heather has been in surgery for about 1 hour. I just got a call from the OR nurse and they are going to remove her lymph nodes because the sentinel node biopsy injection didn't take up into the lymph nodes. Therefore, they are taking them all and will send them to pathology. She should be in surgery for about another hour, but things are going well so far.