Mother's Day

It was a cold, rainy and wet Mother's Day in Cape Town but we had a very special time with our beautiful Moms today. We had Nikki's family, Adrian's folks and our folks over to our house for a "healthy buffet" prepared by Pete and I (putting into practice some of my newly learned skills and recipes - yum!).

Nix has still not been well enough to start with the Mabthera treatment and has had to postpone a few times now. She is booked for tomorrow but thinks that they will most likely not go ahead as she still has not recovered from the flu. The Mabthera apparently shuts down the body's immune response to things like colds and flu so wouldnt be wise to start when you have flu). We'll wait to see what the doctors say in the morning...

Only a week to go to Nikki's 35th birthday on 16th May. I pray she feels better by then. We have some lovely surprises "up our sleeves" for her special day. Should be such fun. If you remember, please send her a message to let her know what she means to you.

In the mean time, keep warm! I am going to tuck up in bed now - only place to be on a wintry evening like this. Bye!

Nix has had a rough couple of weeks. She was supposed to start on a new Chemotherapy drug (Mabthera) last week Wednesday but suddenly came down with every bug that was flying around, including conjunctivitis. She still has not recovered completely so I am sure she will not be allowed to go ahead with the Mabthera tomorrow as planned. We appreciate all of your prayers in this area. I feel so for her - she has not had a decent night's sleep in who knows how long as she struggles with so much pain, particularly at night. We are praying that when she eventually starts on the Mabthera, it brings some relief to her inflamed joints.

There are so many benefits to serving the Lord, but Psalm 103 lists some goodies...

Psalm 103:2, 3

"Praise the Lord O my soul and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases..." (check out the rest of the Psalm too - love it!)

Them Bones and Teeth

More wonderful news! After meeting with her oncologist and maxillo facial surgeon last week regarding possible necrosis in her jaw, they decided Nikki needed another bone scan. She has not had another bone scan since the initial scan done when she was diagnosed in August last year. Nikki's oncologist has been very hesitant to scan the bone again as she said that if her condition had worsened, medical aid would cut their funding immediately. So, Nikki set off tentatively for her bone scan earlier this week. The results came back showing an improvement in all areas of bone affected by the cancer. To top it all off, the area of concern (possible necrosis) in her mouth turned out to be a chip of the tooth that was extracted last year, she managed to wiggle it out yesterday - on the very same day that Hannah lost her first tooth (which she is so excited about!) How good is that?!?!? Praise God!!

We are getting there....I like this quote...

"How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?" William Shakespeare.

I know our God can do it in an instant, but that's not always the plan, so we are continuing to practice patience. There is a lot of wisdom in that.

I love this too, it sums up my sister in a nutshell...

Proverbs 31:25 - "She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come".

The horse on a soapbox

From the heading you have probably realised it's me again!

Firstly... WELL DONE! to EVE- and anyone else who ran on Saturday - you guys deserve serious respect!

As you would have read on her last update, there was far more meaning behind all the training and running she has been doing lately and I wanted to say to my sweet sister, that I appreciate YOU so much, and all the support you have shown me...Thank you! I love you so much!

Secondly.... A little update on me:
Tuesday (2 weeks ago ) I went for a heart scan to check that the "Hercepton" I am on at the moment is not causing any problems with my heart - quite strange test - they inject you with a radio-active substance and do a scan in a strange machine to test your heart function. very interesting - All in all my heart is Great - YAY!
Wednesday (2 weeks ago) I went to see my Reumatologist: he's sent in the application forms for me to start on a new drug called "Mabthera" he also says I have cysts behind my knees from all the inflammation, which might explain some of the 'new' pain. In short, once the application has been processed, I might start on that drug - yuk, more drugs! was hoping to avoid that route, but it will be a little bit of an experiment, as the 2 drugs are not used together normally, and we'll have to see how that goes (who knows, they may make some medical breakthrough with me being the Guinea-pig - who knows?)
Tuesday (last week) went for a CT scan to monitor general state of organs, etc. was such a relief that they got a vein first time, as most of the previous times my arm has ended up looking like a pin-cushion, and once they even had to send me to the ultra-sound room for guidance to find a vein - so you can imagine my relief that they got one first time. (small pleasures :)
Wednesday (last week) Eve and I made a day of going
Firstly; to the Maxillo-Facial Surgeon. There is a small 'thing' on my jawbone which he wants to remove, but has to chat to my oncologist as (things are never simple, are they?) i am on a drug to strengthen my bones, which prevents me from having any dental procedures. so I'll go back to see him in a few weeks to see what can be done.
Secondly; we were off to Rondebosch for Chemo (after a yummy healthy lunch at the common-ground cafe) - My oncologist said that the scans were okay, and apart from one or 2 things which he was going to follow up on, everything seemed pretty much like they were last time they did the scans (Dec) he also said he would need to chat to the Maxillo-Facial Surgeon to discuss how to best sort out my mouth. He said i should not have the Zometa (bone strengthening drug) this cycle, and we'll take it from there.

So, that's a wrap on me.. my joints have been sore, but I've been sleeping better which has helped.
Been Fun to be on holiday with the sweet kids, and all in all, been having lots of fun!

Thirdly... The (main) reason I decided to write on the blog again, is because -over this weekend, being Easter and all, I have been doing a lot of thinking...

As I am writing this, my wrists are 'freezing up' and getting more and more sore while i type - which is why i don't do much typing.. but really feel I'd like to get this message across to you, so please hear me out!

For So much of my life I have carried around this massive frustration ... that I care for So many, so deeply - there are SO many people in my life, so many friends and family that I love SO much and am desperate to Share MY GOD with them - but it is because I love them so much that, ironically, it is often difficult to talk about the most important things with them, as I don't want them to think that I'm judging them (or think they need to change - because they are so lovely just as they are - and i am not judging them) I am just desperate to share THE most AMAZING part of my life with them.

...In a way it's kind of like trying to convince someone how awesome it would be for them to have children, or someone to love in their life. Until they are open to it, or it becomes real to them, they don't really understand what you mean. Then - maybe one day, they experience it for themself, and realise the richness of that new love! - well.. it's almost like that, only in the biggest form of love possible :)

One good thing that has come of all I have gone through lately, is that I find people are keen to Listen if I have something to say, so i'm taking this opportunity, if you will... to talk... unlike all those years where time has gone by and i've not explained what's really been on my heart... on this the day marking the end of easter, I'm going to share something that's (always) burning in my heart...

I'm not sure where you stand, what you may have been through, or what your experience is of Christ - or what your understanding is of what He did for us that day on the cross.

Some of you might have been hurt by people, maybe by church.. or difficult curcumstances, but I know that it would not have been God who hurt you.

The one thing I know, is that I Love and Adore and I TRUST HIM COMPLETELY! I am confident in that whatever I have to go through, I have Him to go through it with, and that is a huge comfort to me! God promises that nothing can separate us from His Love - not Life, nor Death, nor anything else. So whatever we face, we don't have to worry, if He is with us, we are safe! My Dream is that All of you will get to know Him the same way (or more) than I do..

I was recently given a beautiful book, which some of you might have been involved in putting together (for those who Ash knew and managed to contact). Included in this book is the following clip which was taken from a book (which I read recently, too) by Barbara Johnson, who has gone through the trauma of a brain tumour, the loss of 2 children and other difficult obstacles she has faced in her life - I loved this quote (from Margaret Clarkson) in her book:

"God didn't promise us days without pain, laughter without sorrow, or sun without rain, but HE DID PROMISE us strength for the day, comfort for the tears, and light for the way." ... another quote I remembered from her book was... "As we cling to God to get us through he dark times, our faith is strengthened until it becomes unshakable." ... "Remember that grapes must be crushed to make the fine wine, and wheat must be crushed to make bread. Brokenness brings wholeness to us all in a variety of ways. Broken hearts, broken bodies, broken dreams... and then, in the midst of our brokenness, we feel ourselves pressed against the unshakable presence of God, and there we find peace; there we find strength and courage for the next step."

Yesterday morning, just before the Easter Service at our Church, I was getting ready to go, and thinking (as I so often do at that late moment) about who I would have liked to invite to the Easter service with us.. then I thought.. I wonder if my friends realise that (while it is a privilege to have them join us and I absolutely Love it if any of them come to our church) ... that it's not the most important thing (to me) if they come to church or not - but what is important (to me) is that they know and understand God in a new way. So my prayer and HOPE for Easter this year, is: for those who don't know Jesus, and have never had him as part of your life, that you would come to find Him and recognise the Power He has in your life through what He accomplished on the cross for you - that your life will become so rich once you find Him. For those who knew Him once, but have moved away from Him - that you would come back to Him, and know Him in a new, very real way. And for those who know Him already, that you will learn so much more about Him, that you will be changed forever.. and so ultimately, we would all know Him, and walk in the plans He has for each and every one of our lives - then my life would be as FULL as it could be, Indeed!
With Love,
Nikki

Mission Accomplished

I woke up at 4.30 this morning and set off tentatively into the drizzly dark morning to take my place with the thousands of others at the start of the Two Oceans Marathon this morning.

The race was a wonderful experience. The vibe and atmosphere of the start continued throughout the race with the horbes of spectators lining the roads as we ran. (I think some of them will be more whacked than the runners tonight judging by the effort they put into their screaming and encouragement!) Their infectious spirit literally carried us all the way to the end.

It was a picture of life really - and it just reminded me how important those special people who walk alongside you in this life are. The encouragers who stand on the sidelines supporting you and holding you up in prayer literally give you the strength to continue along the course that lies ahead. They are essential, they are gifts and I so appreciate each and every one!

I finished the race in 1 hour 54 minutes (my goal was under 2 hours so that was good).

Thank you so much for all of your encouragement. As promised, I dedicated every step to my sweet Nix and asked our Father that with every step I took, the enemy's plans would be defeated and that her hands and limbs would be strengthened. Because of this goal, I saw much of the race as quite a simple parallel to life. So as I ran, there was another little incident / life lesson which God really spoke to me through (don't laugh OK :-) It's a typical "Eve move")...

As the roads were immensely congested for the first half of the run, I decided to try to get ahead by doing some of the off road trail running I am more used to and took to running along the road shoulder to up my pace a little. It was still dark (around 6.30 am) when I found myself at the foot of Southern Cross Drive, I didnt see a cable sticking out of the ground and I managed to trip and take a spectacular tumble along the road, causing a bit of commotion amongst the runners and spectators and grazing my arms a bit (lovely!). But this little incident really spoke to me and I beleive it was a wonderful illustration of how the enemy comes along in life with the intention of tripping you up and taking you out of the race. He places obstacles in our path and there are hiccups and questions along the road of life. The amazing thing is that this little incident gave me such an adrenaline boost, I literally shot up Southern Cross Drive (3km uphill) after that (no Powerade needed!), so what the enemy intended for harm, God used for good. I accomplished my goal and I beleive there was a heavenly victory for my sister today too. Dont look at the obstacles but keep your eyes firmly set on the goal that lies ahead.

Phillipians 3:13:

"...But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

The Alabaster Jar Fund & The Blistered Sister

As you can see from her post uploaded on the blog while I was away, Nikki has not lost her sense of humour and continues to have us all in fits of laughter with her incredibly entertaining perspective on life. As she mentioned, she has really been battling to sleep, and had a migraine headache for most of last week, poor thing. She also had an appointment with the Cardiologist and met with her Rheumatologist again last week. Nothing new to report there other than the fact that her heart is fine. This week she has a CT scan scheduled, an appointment with a Maxillo Facial surgeon and more Chemo on Wednesday! Busy week!!

They are so blessed to have medical aid in place to cover many of these costs (although getting all the expenses and papers in order is like a full time job, as I am sure you can imagine!) Apart from allopathic medicine, Nikki is using a number of excellent supplements, vitamins and natural remedies to help her cope with the onslaught of chemicals in her body. None of these natural supplements and therapies are covered by medical aid.

It is with all of this in mind that I would like to introduce you to….

… THE ALABASTER JAR FUND…

A number of Nikki's friends have been approached over the last few months by people asking whether they could contribute financially in any way. So, we have collaborated and have now set up a fund to help towards all the added extra costs. This is completely OUR initiative and does not come from Nikki or Adrian’s side at all. In fact, it has taken us quite some time and coaxing to get them to finally agree to this.

For some time now, I have had it in my heart to open a fund in order to just bless Nikki and her family as they walk this very challenging time. To lavish our love upon them, to give them something that is simply a gift – to use in whatever way they see fit or wherever there may be a need in their lives. I was challenged by the scripture in Matt 26:7 where the woman came to Jesus in His darkest hour (he was facing his betrayal and crucifixion) and poured out the alabaster jar filled with very expensive perfume over his head. She washed His feet with her tears and her hair. This was the most lavish gift she could bestow on Him. I felt there were many who were possibly moved in a similar way, just to bless this family financially in a time of incredible need – if only to demonstrate our love and the love of God to them. It is important that you know that this fund is not set up because the Boyd’s are struggling to get by in life – we also realise that they live a very comfortable lifestyle and there are others in the world who are suffering through incredible poverty and financial difficulties in their lives. But that is not really the point, as I have explained…

Adrian and Nikki have been so incredibly moved by generosity shown to them through meals, shopping, lifts, babysitting etc. over last while. They have been blessed by the way that people have been obedient to God’s leading and many times a meal or an offer has come in just at the right time. So thank you for showing your love and support to them in that way. They were very much against us starting this fund as they felt that people had done / already were doing so much.

...THE BLISTERED SISTER...

In October last year, I was challenged to start running and interceding for Nikki as I ran. The process of running and training has been very important to me personally in this process. The time taken to train has given me time to think, worship God, pray and intercede on Nikki’s behalf. I have felt that my training has paralleled the process that Nikki is going through in her healing. With every step I take, I pray that the enemy’s plans in Nikki’s life be defeated. I pray healing over her body and speak the scripture in Isaiah 35:3 over her – “Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees”. I believe God that she will be running with me one day and continue to thank God that she will see her dream of horse riding together with her precious Hannah one day fulfilled. This focus has helped me through the toughest of times out on the road and on the road to healing in Nikki’s body.

SO - I will be running the Two Oceans Half Marathon (21 km) on 3 April (this Saturday) so please pray and believe with me for Nikki’s healing as I run. I had hoped to run the race for sponsorship for the fund but Nikki and Adrian are have said that they would rather I don’t raise money through sponsorship (they feel people may then feel pushed into giving something) but rather leave it so that if God leads someone to give financially, they have an avenue to do so. They would also very much like for donations to be anonymous if possible - to keep things simple and uncomplicated.

The bank account details are:








Please don’t feel pressurised in any way to give towards the fund. It is simply a tool for those who feel they would like to contribute in this way to do so. I would like to re-iterate that NONE of this has been suggested or brought about by Nikki or Adrian. In the same way that a gift is given simply to bless a friend, without any strings attached, this fund is intended to bless our precious friends and show them our love and support.

Thank you all so much!
Eve

From the Horse's mouth!

Well, It's kind of weird to be writing on my own blog, but here i go...
Hello, firstly to all of you! (and thanks for being interested enough in me to be reading this blog, by the way)
I thought I'd update the blog for Eve this time, since she's been running around a bit lately, doing what she does best - Everything for everyone else!

We returned last week from a GORGEOUS week away with our family at Shelley Point - I must mention that it has to be one of the most beautiful spots on the planet! I have made a little comp of pictures of our holiday, so hopefully I can get the pictures uploaded okay. Anyway, when we came home Eve hit the ground RUNNING... more on that in a minute. She and Pete went camping for the weekend, so I mentioned to her that I might update the blog for her while she's away.

So, it's now 3 in the morning and i couldn't sleep. We started off getting to bed a bit late after having my folks around for a yummy dinner, so I thought it would be easy to fall asleep (trying to not rely on sleeping tablets) I tried getting all comfy, and that didn't work, we even killed mossies to ensure a good night, so the mossies were dead... and i was wide awake. I thought maybe 3 pages of my book might do the trick, so Adrian kindly agreed to me keeping my light on for a wee bit... but the 3 pages didn't do a thing ... now the light was out... but no.. still wide awake... so i had a brainwave - i used my ipod for a light for reading a couple more chapters under the duvet... which worked for about 20 minutes, but I have this thing about breathing stale air... so that got a bit claustrophobic. In hindsight, i should have thought of getting a snorkel out of the garage, to breathe fresh air from under the duvet, but that would have meant getting out of bed, and waking up even more. I'm glad I didn't do that, because, knowing me i would have probably stumped my toe on something lying around on the garage floor, and causing trouble than it was worth, and then, if i had got one, i would have probably been suspicious of spiders or something... Then... (and this is where you come in)... I had the idea of updating the BLOG.. so here I am.. (OOPS Dan's awake... see you in 10) - I'm back he was having 'silly dreams' poor little chap!

I'm sorry, I know I get really silly when I'm tired, so I'll try to be a bit more helpful with information.
Our time away... WOW what a lovely time we had! It is always such a treat to go to Shelley Point... we absolutely LOVE it there, and it has all the comforts one could hope for, which made my stay this time, particularly comfortable. (A big thanks to the van 't Hof's - who generously let us stay at their beautiful holiday home) The house is right on the beach, so we could watch Daniel fishing (95% of the time we were there) from the balcony (notice him telling a 'fishing story' with his hands to a new friend on the beach in one of the pics). Anyway, all was going well up until the day before we were due to leave. Adrian was diving for something interesting to put in a nearby rock pool (smallish shark or something) for the kids to look at. He had just found a really big star fish, and 'Queenie' (my mom) came leaping accross the rocks to show Megan what Adrian had found. From where I was standing, I could just see that my mom was not going to make it accross to the other rock from where she was - and then I saw her jump - oops! She fell really badly, and broke her arm. She couldn't feel her arm at all and when my dad got to her, he had to bend it back to face the right direction (gulp!). So ... Queenie ended up staying 2 nights in a nearby (very nice) hospital to have a long pin and 2 screws put into her badly fractured arm.
The up side of this little ordeal was that we got to extend our stay by an extra 2 days. (thanks again to Leen and Mies) on the last day (Sunday) as we were about to start packing up, the kids walked down to the beach with their buckets and nets, and we noticed that there were dolphins jumping out of the water just in front of the house, close to where the kiddies were - Adrian took the opportunity to gear up and go for a swim with them - pretty awesome! (managed to snap a pic with the kids and the dolphins - so that's why i put that pic in, too.. it just tells such a story, and summed up our time away beautifully).

Since we've been back, my folks have had their work cut out for them with big groups coming back to back for dinner, bed and breakfast. Since my dad's (right) shoulder was operated on a few weeks back - and is still very painful, and now my mom has her (left) shoulder in a sling and is in loads of pain - Eve has picked up the ball at Afton Grove. She should run for President. She's just too cute!

Okay, now seriously, I am still not in the slightest bit sleepy, but I am rather sore, and we're due to get up in a few hours, to visit friends up the line, so I should really TRY to sleep again.

Catch up again Soon...

Nikki

ps. in the pictures: Bianca dropped in for a day to visit us with her gorgeous 3 children, (our kids 2nd cousins) - that's them all in the pool