Coney Chronicles volume 2

As with most things I start…. Something happened…. And I skipped a year.

The last installment of the Coney Chronicles was written in January of 2008... It is now 2010. ( Well really it is 2009 still, I am getting a head start.)

Much has happened in these last 2 years. I will attempt to re-cap. 2008 started out normal enough, Evan was a Freshman in High School, Tayler finishing her last year of Junior High, and Hunter was in the First Grade. In June, Jody’s sister and her kids moved in with us. It was such a blessing to have them here. In November, my dads memory was becoming more and more of an issue, so they took him to the Dr to see what was going on. The initial diagnosis was Alzheimer’s. By Thanksgiving we knew it was brain tumors, December was his surgery, and my HORRIFIC drive to California. On Christmas Day, we knew we were dealing with Glioblastoma; life altering, cancer.

Christmas 2008 was fun. We tried our best to enjoy the time together and I think each one of us had to consciously put the thought that it might be our last Christmas with dad out of our minds. Dad was very loving and told us all often how much he loved us. January 2009, Jody went back home to Washington to work, and the kids and I stayed in California to help with the beginnings of chemotherapy. He flew down and drove us home at the end of February. Tayler started playing softball right away when we got home, and life pretty much returned to “normal”.

We snuck back down to California for a quick visit in May…The big kids and I were scheduled to go to Mexico City on a missions trip in June (that was canceled due to Swine Flu) Soon July came, and softball was over, and Tayler announced her retirement from the game. She had decided that she was spending more time on softball, than on the things she wanted to do for the Lord.

Evan and Tayler went to visit their dad in September this year. They were in Memphis for the Delta Fair. It is held at their dad’s place of work, and they really love helping out. Apparently they were well loved, and have been invited to come and help again. I think I heard that they were trying to be kidnapped so they could stay….lol…. It warms a mom’s heart to know her kids are liked by the people they interact with.
I was going to go down to California and visit mom and dad for the couple of weeks that the kids were gone. God, however, had different plans. Thing after thing kept coming up, that meant I would need to stay in Kennewick until the kids flew home.

After fighting off a nasty 24hr flu bug, we headed south. Five of us and a puppy in a Taurus. Evan was in the back between the two car seated children. Evan was quite the trooper that trip, I get to occasionally see glimpses of the man/father he will be, when he can be cooped up next to a 2 year old and a 7 year old for 14 hours, all while sitting like a pretzel.

While on our visit, at the start of the second week, dad got real sick. We thought we had brought the bug to him, and had made him ill. After calls to the Doctor and a few more scans, we knew it wasn’t the flu, it was a new tumor… and that this was going to be the hardest part of the journey, the part where we all say goodbye.

Dad graduated to Glory on October 19,2009. Although it is sad, and nothing will ever be quite the same without him around, we know he is in Heaven with his Lord, and that takes the sting out of it a little bit. Not long after dad, the puppy got sick and we had to put him to sleep. Tayler had a real hard time with that, and still can’t really talk about it, not sure if she will ever be able to.

So, after that depressing paragraph, please know that we have a hope. A hope that rests in our Lord and Savior. That He hears our cry, and He knows our sorrows, and that He always answers our prayers in His perfect understanding of how the world works. Our hope was willing to come to earth and die so that I would not have to spend my eternity apart from Him.

Our greatest joy would be that you would know the same Hope.
Thank you all for your prayers and support over this last year. We really wouldn’t have done as well without you all praying us through it. We will walk into the next year with our heads high, and looking to share with others the hope that we have.

Much love,
Jody, Julie, Evan, Tayler, Hunter &Jeremiah