God is In Control

Do you truly know what it means to say God is in control? Below is a journal entry from a mother in Ft Smith, Ar who lost her 3 year old son due to a brain tumor. He passed away a couple of weeks ago. I have been keeping up with the progress of this little boy since last Christmas when our church delivered some toys to him in the children's ward. The mother was nice enough to send us a letter thanking us, and had included a website in which she posted her sons progress. This family always relied upon God. Through every chemo treatment, surgery, and hospital visit, they laid it all in God's hands. I don't think I truly understood what it meant to love God and trust God no matter what, until I read the last entry she posted in her journal. I wanted to share it with you.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 01, 2008 07:44 PM, CDT
The arrangements for Nathan's funeral service and graveside service is as listed below:
1. Funeral Service at 6:00pm on 10/2/08 (Thursday) at Edwards Funeral Home located at 201 North 12 Street Fort Smith, AR 72902. Phone 479.782.8203. www.edwardsfuneralhome.com
2. Graveside service at 10:00am on 10/3/08 (Friday) at Fort Smith National Cemetary located at 6th and Garland Ave Fort Smith, AR 72901.
Note - Graveside services at the National Cemetary are very brief. Please plan on arriving no earlier than 9:45am with the graveside service starting promptly at 10:00am. By 10:30am the graveside service MUST be concluded.
Memorials may be sent to Addi's Faith Foundation. Addi is a precious child who also fought the fight against the same type of tumor that Nathan did. Her parents have established a foundation www.addisfaithfoundation.org.
Ph. 281-361-4730 • 5602 Palisade Falls, Kingwood, TX 77345





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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2008 07:23 PM, CDT
PRAISE BE TO GOD! The angles in heaven are rejoicing, Nathan got to go HOME Monday at 10:00pm. At 10:01 he was running into the loving arms of JESUS. Thou my heart weeps, my soul is joyful because our strong, brave, sweet, warrior is no longer in pain, his new body is completely free of ANY illness or cancer. He is truly free. GOD was very merciful with Nathan, and with us. Nathan was surrounded by 2 dear friends, his mom, pops, and 3 brothers as he gently slipped in to the arms of JESUS. We were all able to say good by before he passed and remind him of how much love, joy, hope and happiness he has brought to so many. I told him he as done more for GODS glory in his almost 4 short years than some people do in a lifetime. There is a saying that "Everyman dies, but not every man really lives." Nathan really lived and loved and was (will always be) loved. One of the last words he spoke to me was "Here mama, your chocolate birthday cake." As he reached across to me with an empty, but yet very full, hand. It was the sweetest birthday cake I ever was given. Sunday morning he was telling his papa Knock-Knock jokes. He kept his good humor, and giving loving spirit to the end.

The events leading up to Monday are as follows. I believe I last told you that he had a surgery on Wednesday to move his shunt catheter from his abdomen to his pleura cavity. Well, when the surgeon made the small incision in his chest, fluid came rushing out – he had fluid in his chest that should not have been there, then when he pulled the catheter up from the abdomen fluid came rushing out thru the very very tiny hole. The surgeons took great care to close the hole to keep more fluid from invading his pleura space. Nathan seemed do well from the surgery. Thursday, however, brought problems anew. He started throwing up, his legs and feet were swelling, his heart rate was up and his oxygenation rate was down. They did a chest x-ray and ct scan of the head. These showed that there was more fluid surrounding the lungs, but the ct showed the shunt to be working great. We decided that for Nathans best interest we needed to move him to the ICU. Thursday night we started his first round of chemo. The thinking being that all the fluid in the abdomen was pushing up crowding his lungs as well as all the other organs, with the chemo killing the cancer cells lining the abdominal cavity the swelling should go down. They did continue to drain him every day, with some days hitting as high as 1000cc, with no noticeable difference. Friday, Nathan's pressures all looked soooo much better, he ate, talked, played, watched tv, and seemed to be doing so much better! Saturday, he slept a little more, but still was playful. Unfortunately Saturday night with the 3rd round of chemo "A" and the start of chemo "B", Nathan had an extreme reaction. It almost took his life that night. But GOD knew we need a little more time. Sunday morning was scary, thou he was doing better, he kept repeating memories he had for almost 5 hours. Then those stopped, he smiled and said "there's someone here" I told him I was there, but he said, 'no, mama, someone's here", then he would, eyes shut smile on his face, say "Ummm, that smells good." Or "Umm , that taste so good.", he also said "wow that sounds beautiful!" and he also asked "where are we going?" The room was unusually still. GOD sent HIS angles to Nathan. Then after about 30 mins he slept a very peaceful sleep for most of the night. We did no more chemo. Monday, it was obvious that Nathan was not going to last much longer. He had a reaction to receiving red blood. Dr. Wolff, our eternal optimist, was still giving very good hopeful ideas. We tried one, a steroid to the abdomen to help reduce swelling. We/they also gave him lots of pain med and a sedative. We were assured he was feeling NO pain. By 4 pm his breathing became so labored and his heart rate continued to soar so we called his brothers into the room, explained what was going on, and let them say their good-byes. At 10 pm he took his last breath, with all of surrounding his bed, praying, reading psalms and speaking words of love. "Will it be ok mama?" "Yes baby, it will be ok." "Because GOD is in CONTROL!", "yes, baby, because GOD IS IN CONTROL!"