TEN Years ago today – ten years!- we were told words that no one dreams they would ever hear, words meant to kill and destroy, of death and fear, despair and hopelessness. We are rejoicing today because this same day ten years ago Jesus spoke different words to my heart, words of hope and healing, words to give life and life abundantly! “By His stripes you have been healed” Isaiah 53;5, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and life abundantly.” John 10:10. “I will never leave you nor forsake you” Hebrews 13:5.

These words are the words that we have chosen to cling to and repeat over and over when the doctors reports told us of a cancer uncurable, of a time left on this earth of 6 months to 2 years, of a life left of constant treatments, tests, pains and sufferings.

We had to choose then whose reports we would believe, and we chose the Lord’s. And we also humbly asked all of you to believe and pray and receive with us the healing miracle that only He can grant. We fell before His throne and cried out to Him and He has heard and answered our prayers and for this we are forever grateful! It has not been an easy road, and when there were times that I took my eyes off of Him I would sink, but when I kept my eyes on Him I, like Peter, could walk on water. Had it not been for your prayers, your sacrifices of love and time and meals and laundry help and babysitting and rides to all of my treatments and cards of encouragement we would not be where we are today. We could never do this journey alone, but God told us that we do not have too. He tells us to carry each others burdens, to care for one another, to pray unceasingly, and all of these things were done for us. We had to walk in His light, to drown out the sometimes negative things that come along with any cancer treatments. During the past 18 surgeries, 35 days of radiation, 160 weeks of chemotherapy, hundreds of weeks of immunotherapy, endless days of side effects and exhaustion -we had to count it all as joy and give all the glory to Him because He was with us and was carrying us through this!

No one ever asks for pain and suffering, but sometimes it is through this pain that we are brought closer to Him, that we walk alongside Him and hear Him speaking to us. It is in this pain that our character is developed, that our hearts can be made new again and we can walk closer to Him. He desires to be right there with us, and sometimes when we are going through trials and pain we can feel His presence the most. I have never felt God work so closely in my life than when I was in the thickest of the battle, and I saw Him fighting my battles for me. When I could do no more He stepped in and took over. When the doctors were amazed that there was “no more evidence of disease even though this is a terminal condition”, when there was no cancer shown in the 12 lymph nodes removed even though there was cancer there when they did the biopsy before the 12 hour surgery, when there was no more cancer in the liver even though it was certainly there before, when the doctors agreed to do a surgery on a stage 4 cancer patient that they never do and would not do 2 years before, when I could still live and hold my babies and go out and love others when doctors said I could not, that was Jesus showing up in my weakness!, “for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest of me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians, 12:9-11.

I will praise His name forever! I will sing of His goodness and mercy all the days of my life for I was sick and He healed me, I have been given life through Him and will forever give Him the glory! We do not deserve Him, but He died for sinners like you and like me so that we may be in heaven with Him one day. Let us be a light that shines for Him and gives Him all the glory and praise. I am so humbled and grateful for all of your love and prayers these past ten years and we will continue to walk in His healing power and love. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for always praying and believing with us!! May you all be blessed!. April, Chris, Faith, Savannah Grace and Isabella Hope.

7 years ago today we were told the news that I would not live to see my babies grow up. 7 years!!! Praise God for His mercy and love and healing power today! Praise God that we did not believe the report of the doctors of 6 months to 2 years but we clung to His promises of life and life abundantly. Thank you, Jesus, for giving me life and thank you all who prayed and believed with us! I praise Him each day for my healing and thank you for continuing to believe with us! We wish you all a beautiful, happy and healthy Thanksgiving! We all have so much to be thankful for! “I’ve seen miracles just happen, silent prayers get answered, broken hearts become brand new. That’s what faith can do.” – Kutless

Praise the Lord!! And thank you all truly from the bottom of my heart for all of your love, prayers, words of kindness and inspiration. I greatly appreciate it!! I was very peaceful all day Tuesday and in the waiting, knowing God has me and all clear for my scans!! We are so humbled and grateful!! Thank you Jesus!

Hello everyone! We hope this finds you happy and well! I am humbly asking for prayers again because I have my 6 month scans, tests, and treatment on Tuesday.

(For our newer Texas friends who don’t know our story I was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer 7 years ago with 6 months to 2 years to live.) We fell on our knees before our Lord and prayed and believed for a miracle, one that only He could give.

We have been given the greatest of miracles, for the past 4 1/2 years I have had no evidence of disease. I have claimed my healing through Jesus, the only one who can give us that miracle! Not a day goes by that I don’t praise Him and thank Him for healing me, but I am still on treatment every 3 weeks. My doctor actually just changed my treatment to every 4 weeks, for the first time since I was diagnosed. I am so grateful for that, because the less toxic medicine in my body the better. I am so grateful that the hundreds of chemos, radiations, 14 surgeries, etc. all worked for me but there are many side effects that we are dealing with now and trying to lessen. The chemo itch that makes your skin feel like it’s on fire, the hot flashes because of the chemically induced menopause, the chemo brain that is no joke and the mood swings and anxiety and depression, the lack of energy and exhaustion that all come along with a cancer diagnosis are not to be taken lightly.

I try my best not to complain and am so grateful for the time God has given me here with my family but some days are harder than others and I am only human! And October is a tough month because the Breast cancer awareness is all around us, which is a great thing yet at the same time makes me think of all the more this group I am a part of. I have met so many friends and had so many blessings from this, but also lost so many who are fighting the same battle. I sometimes ask God why? Why them and not me Lord? They all had young children too, or parents, or loved ones they left behind. Why yes to our healing and no to others? And the answer I come up with is that I am not God. I do not know His reasons or even understand them. But I do trust Him. And I am grateful. So I try not to feel guilty for being one of the survivors but focus more on being grateful, but some days are just hard.

So I am just asking for your continued prayers and believing with us that I am healed, that I continue to be healed, and that all of the side effects are lessened. I know that God has me and is with me, but I also know the power of prayer and am so very humbled and grateful to have you all continue to pray for me. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts! I will share my scan results when I hear but am continuing to stand on His promise that I am healed. Thank you for always praying and believing with us. Love and blessings to you all.

April, Chris, Faith, Savannah Grace and Bella (:

Six years ago today we were told words that no one dreams they would ever hear, words meant to kill and destroy, of death and fear, despair and hopelessness. We are rejoicing today because that same day six years ago Jesus spoke different words to my heart, words of hope and healing, words to give life and life abundantly! “By His stripes you have been healed” Isaiah 53;5, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and life abundantly.” John 10:10. “I will never leave you nor forsake you” Hebrews 13:5.
These words are the words that we have chosen to cling to and repeat over and over when the doctors reports told us of a cancer uncurable, of a time left on this earth of 6 months to 2 years, of a life left of constant treatments, tests, pain and suffering.
We had to choose then whose reports we would believe, and we chose the Lord’s. And we also humbly asked all of you to believe and pray and receive with us the healing miracle that only He can grant. We fell before His throne and cried out to Him and He has heard our prayers and for this we are forever grateful! It has not been an easy road, and when there were times that I took my eyes off of Him I would sink, but when I kept my eyes on Him, I, like Peter, could walk on water. Had it not been for your prayers, your sacrifices of love and time and meals and laundry help and donations and babysitting and rides to all of my treatments and cards of encouragement we would not be where we are today. We could never do this journey alone, but God told us that we do not have too. He tells us to carry each others burdens, to care for one another, to pray unceasingly, and all of these things were done for us. We had to walk in His light, to drown out the sometimes negative things that come along with any cancer treatments. During the 11 surgeries, 35 days of radiation, 190 weeks of chemotherapy, endless days of side effects and exhaustion we had to count it all as joy and give all the glory to Him because He was with us and was carrying us through this!
No one ever asks for pain and suffering, but sometimes it is through this pain that we are brought closer to Him, that we walk alongside Him and hear Him speaking to us. It is in this pain that our character is developed, that our hearts can be made new again and we can walk closer to Him. He desires to be right there with us, and sometimes when we are going through trials and pain we can feel His presence the most. I have never felt God work so closely in my life more than when I was in the thickness of the battle, and I saw Him fighting my battles for me. When I could do no more He stepped in and took over. When the doctors were amazed that there was “no more evidence of disease even though this is a terminal condition”, when there was no cancer shown in the 12 lymph nodes removed even though there was cancer there when they did the biopsy before the 12 hour surgery, when there was no more cancer in the liver even though it was certainly there before, when the doctors agreed to do a surgery on a stage 4 cancer patient that they never do and would not do 2 years before, when I could still live and hold my babies and go out and love others when doctors said I could not, that was Jesus showing up in my weakness, “for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest of me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians, 12:9-11.
I will praise His name forever! I will sing of His goodness and mercy all the days of my life for I was sick and He healed me, I have been given life through Him and will forever give Him the glory! We do not deserve Him, but He died for sinners like you and like me so that we may be in heaven with Him one day. Let us be a light that shines for Him and gives Him all the glory and praise. I am so humbled and grateful for all of your love and prayers these past six years and we will continue to walk in His healing power and love. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for always praying and believing with us. (:

"Way Maker
Miracle Worker
Promise Keeper
Light in the Darkness
My God,
That is who you are, that is who you are!!" (Way Maker)

Thank you all for your love and prayers! Tests and scans came back great, praise the Lord!! We are so humbled and grateful and will continue giving Him all of the glory, for by His grace I am saved and through His blood I am healed! Thank you for always believing with us! We serve an awesome God, a mighty God, a miracle-working, promise keeping, light in the darkness
God!!
Treatments every 3 weeks and scans in 6 more months but we will take it!

~April

Hi everyone! We hope everyone is happy and well! I am having my 6 month scans with my heart tests and treatment in Dallas on Tuesday and am humbly asking for your prayers once again! We appreciate it from the bottom of our hearts and we thank you for continuing to believe with us for our miracle to continue!! Love and blessings to you and we miss you! April and Chris (: We will post when we hear our good news, but it seems to take longer here for me to find out, so no news is good news!

Praise the Lord for His goodness and healing! Just got the call saying all is well!! There is a small shadow that has appeared in the past that was from scar tissue but since I am a new patient to her she just wants to double check to be safe! (And I can’t blame her!) So I will go for the MRI but believing and receiving that I am already healed through Him! Thank you all for your love and prayers, they mean the world to us! We are forever grateful! And thank you, Jesus, for your miracles in us each and every day!! Still treatment every 3 weeks but we will take it! Thank you, Lord! (:

Hello everyone! We are humbly asking for your prayers for tomorrow. I have my 6 month pet scan, heart tests, and treatment in Dallas so we are believing I am healed but if you could please pray and believe with us we are so grateful! I am continuing to walk in His peace and I will update you when we hear the hopefully amazing news once again, all for His glory!! Thank you thank you! We serve a mighty and awesome God!! (:

Five years ago today we were told words that no one dreams they would ever hear, words meant to kill and destroy, of death and fear, despair and hopelessness. We are rejoicing today because that same day five years ago Jesus spoke different words to my heart, words of hope and healing, words to give life and life abundantly! “By His stripes you have been healed” Isaiah 53;5, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;I have come that they may have life and life abundantly.” John 10:10. “I will never leave you nor forsake you” Hebrews 13:5.
These words are the words that we have chosen to cling to and repeat over and over when the doctors reports told us of a cancer uncurable, of a time left on this earth of 6 months to 2 years, of a life left of constant treatments, tests, pains and sufferings.
We had to choose then whose reports we would believe, and we chose the Lord’s. And we also humbly asked all of you to believe and pray and receive with us the healing miracle that only He can grant. We fell before His throne and cried out to Him and He has heard our prayers and for this we are forever grateful! It has not been an easy road, and when there were times that I took my eyes off of Him I would sink, but when I kept my eyes on Him I, like Peter, could walk on water. Had it not been for your prayers, your sacrifices of love and time and meals and laundry help and babysitting and rides to all of my treatments and cards of encouragement we would not be where we are today. We could never do this journey alone, but God told us that we do not have too. He tells us to carry each others burdens, to care for one another, to pray unceasingly, and all of these things were done for us. We had to walk in His light, to drown out the sometimes negative things that come along with any cancer treatments. During the 10 surgeries, 35 days of radiation, 160 weeks of chemotherapy, endless days of side effects and exhaustion we had to count it all as joy and give all the glory to Him because He was with us and was carrying us through this!
No one ever asks for pain and suffering, but sometimes it is through this pain that we are brought closer to Him, that we walk alongside Him and hear Him speaking to us. It is in this pain that our character is developed, that our hearts can be made new again and we can walk closer to Him. He desires to be right there with us, and sometimes when we are going through trials and pain we can feel His presence the most. I have never felt God work so closely in my life than when I was in the thickness of the battle, and I saw Him fighting my battles for me. When I could do no more He stepped in and took over. When the doctors were amazed that there was “no more evidence of disease even though this is a terminal condition”, when there was no cancer shown in the 12 lymph nodes removed even though there was cancer there when they did the biopsy before the 12 hour surgery, when there was no more cancer in the liver even though it was certainly there before, when the doctors agreed to do a surgery on a stage 4 cancer patient that they never do and would not do 2 years before, when I could still live and hold my babies and go out and love others when doctors said I could not, that was Jesus showing up in my weakness, “for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest of me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” 2 Corinthians, 12:9-11.
I will praise His name forever! I will sing of His goodness and mercy all the days of my life for I was sick and He healed me, I have been given life through Him and will forever give Him the glory! We do not deserve Him, but He died for sinners like you and like me so that we may be in heaven with Him one day. Let us be a light that shines for Him and gives Him all the glory and praise. I am so humbled and grateful for all of your love and prayers these past five years and we will continue to walk in His healing power and love. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for always praying and believing with us.

May God bless you always. Love April, Chris, Faith, Savannah Grace and Isabella Hope (:

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our family and friends!! We have so very much to be thankful for! Let us give thanks with glad and grateful hearts! We love you and wish you a beautiful day! 

(: “They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts.” Acts 2:46

Hi everyone! I hope this finds you all happy and well! We are humbly asking for prayers again as my 6- month scans, heart tests and regular treatment are this Tuesday. If you could please pray that I continue to be healed through God’s amazing love and grace I truly appreciate it! I am not sure when I will have my results as this is my first time doing everything here in Texas but as soon as I know I will share. Thanks so much for always praying and believing with us! We serve an awesome and mighty God! (:
Love and blessings to all of you! April, Chris, Faith, Savannah Grace and Bella xo

Thank you all for your love and prayers for my scans and tests last week! Praise God all looks well and she has a small concern but we are believing these are just shadows as we have seen that in the past and keep clinging to His promises that I am healed! So thank you for praying and believing with us! We serve an awesome God, a mighty, healing and loving Father! Thank you Jesus!

Last July we went from a family of 5 to a family of 6. Yesterday we went back to a family of 5 and it was one of the hardest things we have ever had to do. Yet we are humbled and grateful that God chose us to be Jemmie’s family for this past year. She brought us so much joy, love and laughter (and challenges too!) We could not have imagined how much this journey with foster care could change us, make us grow, allow us to be stretched some days beyond our limits and other days fill our hearts to exploding. God’s timing is always perfect, and it is Him who we trust in now even when our hearts are aching as we know this was the right time for her to move on to hopefully her forever home. Looking back one year ago and seeing how much she has grown and learned to love and trust again is a truly wonderful thing. She has taught my girls to love freely, to give more, to laugh and be silly and she has shown Chris and I how to stretch and love even more. We prayed that we could show our girls love in action, to be the hands and feet of Jesus by loving those who have no one to love them and I think they understand it better now. She has blessed us, our church, our families, our school with her presence. She will forever have a piece of our hearts and I pray that we will always have a piece of hers. Please pray for us as we adapt back to a family of 5, for our girls that they handle this loss with love and acceptance and for Jemmie that she transitions smoothly to her new family and blesses them with all the life and love she did for us. Thank you always for your prayers and love for us. Love is an amazing thing, it is truly one of the only things we can give away and get more from back. If anyone has ever thought about foster care or adoption and God has put that inkling in your heart, go with it. It won’t be easy, but you will be blessed beyond measure, and He will give you all that you need every step of the way.

So we have some pretty exciting news to share with our family and friends and also humbly ask for prayer on this new chapter in our lives. I have wanted to move South for many years now, have had a longing in my heart which I believe is from God and have always hoped it would be to the Carolina’s. We have tried many times to go and each time major things have happened to stop us. We would not make a move without praying about it for a long time as we always want to do God’s will in our lives, even if it is not necessarily our will. An opportunity came up last year which we pushed aside because it was not our will, and just hoped we could ignore it and keep praying for our own will to be answered, selfishly not necessarily His will. This past year many signs have pointed us back in this direction which came up last year with Chris’ job and we can no longer deny that it is definitely from Him. He has given us so many signs and a peace on our hearts that cannot be explained except through Him. He has even placed a joy in our hearts about going somewhere that we never dreamed or hoped to go! So with this faith and hope in Him we have decided to step out in faith and follow His leading in our lives and we will be moving to Texas with Chris’ job! Having grown up in Rhode island and living in Connecticut these past 13 years this is a huge transition for us! We are moving away from our families who we love so much and our church family and school and friends who have loved, taken care of us, and prayed for us during the hardest times of our lives. For this we are forever grateful. But we have always placed Him first and try to live on His word and will for us, so even though this change comes with sadness and hurt at leaving,our hearts are so full of hope for the joy that He has set before us and for what He has in store for us.
So we thank you for your continued love and prayers, as I will be continuing my every 3 week cancer treatments there but trust that God will continue to hold us. Please pray for a smooth transition for our girls and for our family that we are leaving behind, and that we continue to hear God’s will for all parts of our lives.
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts, love and blessings to all of you! (:

April 3, 2018:

Thank you all for your love and prayers again! We are on our way home now from my tests and scans and we already have our great news! All is well praise God and though they cannot explain it we just keep giving all the praise and glory to Him!! Scan free for 6 more months and treatment every 3 weeks still but we will take that!! We are so humbled and grateful for His unfailing love and mercy on us and we are so grateful to all of you for always praying and believing with us. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Love and blessings to you, love us. Xo

Hi everyone! I am humbly asking everyone for your prayers again for Tuesday. I have my scans, tests and treatment again and am believing that I continue to be healed but would love you to pray that along with us! I thank you all for your love and prayers through all of these years, but praise God it has been 4 1/2 years and God has been so good! Thank you thank you and we appreciate it from the bottom of our hearts!

All on her own out of the blue, (she did ask me how to spell some words). “Train a child the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it”. Proverbs 22: 6. This is my prayer for all of them.

Beautiful Christmas play at church today! Thank you VBC and Dana Steninger and all those who worked so hard on this! – “Oh Come let us adore Him! Jesus Christ is born!”

Thank you all once again for your love and prayers! God is so good! There is that same spot there again but they are just going to watch it and re-scan again in 4 months. I believe I am healed and it is just scar tissue, (it is in an area that is too difficult to biopsy so we are not) but we are going to keep praising and keep believing and keep living life, even during the waiting! Sometimes it is hard when the fear and worry creeps in but Jesus tells us not to worry about anything so I will keep reminding myself that I am healed when that worry sets in. Thank you all for praying and believing with us!!  You have no idea how much it truly means to us!

Xo love and blessings, April, Chris, Faith, Savannah Grace, Isabella Hope and Jemmie