Amos Ross Updates

Dear Friends, 

Thank you for your prayers and support this past week, and to those who donated. We are very grateful!

Amos had a fairly uneventful and successful start to radiation therapy last Thursday and Friday. We are pleased with how things have gone so far. He and Will drove to Durham and back both days because they wanted to come home Thursday night to see the other three kids sing in their spring choir concert. What a gift that they are close enough to be able to do that!  Nevertheless, it was a lot of time in the car for those guys. We had a good weekend together enjoying some fun and getting ready for the first full week of radiation, starting today!

Amos and Will left early this morning to head to Duke for a long day of appointments and to get settled in for the next six weeks. Today is an unusual day for Amos in that he will receive a drug infusion called Avastin. Avastin is a chemo drug that has apparently gained wide acceptance in its use to mitigate side effects from radiation (reducing inflammation). So while it seems counter-intuitive to give chemo as a protective measure, everyone near and far agrees that this is a good thing for Amos. The infusion has many steps to it and will likely take most of the day, so please pray for a smooth and successful process.

Going forward, radiation will be a short ~10-minute process each day, and Amos will fill the rest of his time with school work, physical therapy, acupuncture therapy to work on facial nerves, and some fun with Dad and others. Hopefully some phone calls home as well! These past weeks have been a whirlwind and we cannot thank you enough for your prayers. I forgot the time it takes to arrange medical logistics, field phone calls, insurance, etc. Not to mention packing Amos up for an extended stay away from home…

We are very grateful for the ways this second experience of pediatric cancer is unfolding in such a different way than the first time. It doesn’t feel real some days and other days the disappointment that we are here, again, feels very weighty. And yet, looking at the last six weeks or so, the Lord has been so near and so present with us. His goodness and faithfulness hasn’t changed, even though our circumstances have. Many things come to mind to share with you all here — too many!! — but especially the way that the Lord has gone before Amos and us in so many very clear and comforting ways. Even as we have walked, again, through painful paths his ordering of circumstances, granting favor, and preserving Amos shines through.

One of my seminary professors, Ed Welch, used to say often during lectures that when we see the Lord at work in our own life or in the lives of others, we ought to (figuratively) “take off our shoes,” referencing Moses at the burning bush in the presence of God. That funny little phrase comes to mind often as I see the Lord walking with us. His presence with us isn’t just a Christian expression, but rather it’s the reality that the God of all creation really and truly is with us. It’s a holy reality. An awesome reality. One that should cause us to be still and know that He is Emmanuel, God with us. And as we celebrated last weekend, he is also our Risen and Living Lord who cheated death so that we might have the hope of heaven. There is no greater gift. Nothing is more stirring as we sit in the bleak and broken reality of pediatric cancer. We do not sit here alone and we do not walk through suffering without the presence and power of our loving savior.

Speaking of Easter, here’s a picture from Easter Sunday. Christ is Risen!

Prayer Requests:

• Please pray for no negative side effects from today’s infusion of Avastin or from radiation, ever.
• Please pray for smooth appointments and safety as Will and Amos get to know their way around the Durham area.
• Please pray for Will and Amos to have sweet time together and that the Lord would bless their conversations.
• Please pray for no recurrence of cancer.
• Please pray for our family as we are apart during these weeks. May we persevere and find new morning mercies each day.

I could say more but I’ll close by saying thank you to so many of you who read, pray, send messages, meals, and give of your time and resources to encourage us. You are such a gift to us!

“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:21-22