Amos Ross Updates

Dear friends and family,

The end of the year is coming up fast, for which I think everyone is grateful for many reasons. It has been a few months since we posted last and plenty has happened.

We’re thankful to report that Amos is doing very well over all and has had no issues since the tonsillectomy in August. It’s hard to know whether the procedure totally eliminated any sleep apnea issues, but it does seem to be the case that Amos is getting more uninterrupted nights. No doubt that in 2020, that is a serious gift!

On to Christmas! (And a Request)

Long-time blog followers will remember that Christmas is a special time for the Ross clan. That isn’t just for the obvious reasons on the Church calendar. It’s also because of the many memories and milestones embedded in Amos’s medical journey around this time of year. For example, two weeks from today — Christmas eve — will be the five year anniversary of Amos finishing chemotherapy. Two years after that (2017), Amos (and I) wound up in an isolation unit in Cambridge for eight days due to a nasty respiratory infection straight over Christmas week. So each year we reflect on how we are grateful for all the Lord has done for us, regardless of the circumstances.

With this year marking 5 years since completing treatment, we’ve mulled over different ways to mark this milestone for Amos and ourselves. We talked more about that back in this post in June. If you feel led, we’d love your help in collecting reflections for Amos to assemble into a book for him to remember these last many years. We’ve received several already and are grateful!! Here are some ideas to help you get started if you’d like to add something:

• Reflect on your own interactions with Amos and memories of him during these last five years.
• Reflect on your own interactions with our family and memories or stories that would encourage or amuse.
• Your own reflections of how Amos’s journey has impacted your life.
• Words of encouragement for the next five years.

Please send any encouragement to amosrossupdates@gmail.com or you can email us at the same address to request a physical address. Thank you so much!

Hospital Toy Drive

Additionally, ever since 2015, we have made a point of rounding up some toys and gifts as a family and donating them to our local children’s hospital. Last year was our second in Charlotte and it was a major success thanks to the generosity of the boys’ homeschool community here in Charlotte, and you, our prayer family. We love to do this as a way to remember the blessings we were given in the hospital by others as well as the Lord’s faithfulness to allow us to be on the other side of the gift giving these last many years. If you’d like to contribute, here are some simple steps:

1. Go to this Amazon Wishlist, which has loads of ideas, including some of Amos’s favorites.
2. Pick something out. It doesn’t matter how many of what we get.
3. Buy it and send it to our house for delivery to Levine Children’s Hospital.

We’d like to take the gifts on the 20th, so please try to get them to us by then. The Wishlist should have our address built-in already. But if you need it for some reason, just email us (amosrossupdates@gmail.com) and we’ll provide that for you!

Looking Ahead

Amos’s next routine MRI is in mid-January. He remains on a six-month interval at this point, which will remain the case for the foreseeable future. We will post again before the scan, but please do be in prayer in the meantime for good results.

We’d also like to ask you to join us in praying for two young friends who are facing significant challenges this Christmas season. Our hearts resonate so much with what they and their families are enduring right now:

• Jennings Palmer, 5 years old and a friend from church, is battling Leukemia for the second time. Please pray for him to go into full remission as a result of the treatment he’s receiving.
• Jacob, 5 years old, is starting chemotherapy for his battle with brain cancer on December 18th. Please pray for a good response to treatment.

For the Lord is our judge,
    the Lord is our lawgiver,
the Lord is our king;
    it is he who will save us. (Isa. 33:22)

Thank you! Love,

The Rosses

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