Following The Call » Our lives as we join the mission field in Tanzania

Welcome to our blog! This is our story about following the call of Christ. This call led us to Ethiopia to adopt our youngest daughter. While there our eyes were opened to the need of others around the world. We returned to the states and started to figure out what we could do to help. 3 years later after much planning and praying we boarded a plane with our family to be missionaries in Tanzania where we planned to serve the orphan and poor. A very short 5 months later we were forced to return home due to our oldest daughter becoming ill. Valentines day 2011, three days after returning to the states, our daughter Lola received a Leukemia diagnosis. And this is our story....

Do you cook??

01.10.12

Since moving into our new home, Matt and I have been working like crazy people to remove the 1990’s wallpaper on every wall. Now… poor matt had to do a bit more work than me since I was SO SICK for the first 4 months of this pregnancy. It was all good when we started fixing things up and I wasn’t pregnant…. and now…. well…. matt will probably never let me start another project again for the rest of my life.

I’ve been waiting until our house was nice and clean to get pictures of all the rooms, and well…. they just never seem to be clean at the same time. So, i’m just going to start with pictures of the kitchen, and we’ll go from there. And we’re still not done, but we are done enough for now. I really LOVE our new kitchen and feel a little like I could run a cooking show out of it. Well, if I cooked I could. ;) I am pretty spoiled to have some fabulous help picking things out for our house. If you are ever doing some remodeling or redecorating check out Mindi Freng Designs. She has been a HUGE help in finding fun stuff for the house (she even had my fab new orange table legs just chillen in her garage waiting for a new home!!) and with helping me to know where to put things that I already owned and make it look like it belongs there, not like I just took it out of storage and stuck it somewhere. The black cabinet in my kitchen used to be in my photography studio, but with a new paint job it was ready for the kitchen!! Check out Mindi’s website or facebook page to see some more of her amazing work!!

This is a picture that I posted back in August of the work we had done up to that point.and these are pics I took today!!

We took cupboards down and added open shelves to put my colorful dishes on, did a crazy lot of painting, refinished the floor to be a fabulous black, got a new light fixture and a new kitchen faucet.

Oh… and who are these cute children in jammies at 3pm?? Why they are my children doing their school work of course. Clothes are totally overrated.

Well. Theres the kitchen. You are all invited over for dinner tonight. Hopefully none of you know where I live since I only have 2 lbs of meat…..

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January 10, 2012 - 1:51 pm

laura - where is that table they are sitting at in relation to the kitchen?

January 10, 2012 - 3:39 pm

arlene - I could not wait to see your kitchen, just because I just loved your school room and living room, decor and colors. They are so wonderful, so you and so fun for all the fam. Looks like you have been very busy, baby in tow and all. Great job, to you and Matt.

To my darling Lola,

12.31.11

Dearest Lola,

Today is such a special day. Birthdays are always wonderful, but this is the most celebrated birthday you have ever had. You have had such a tough year, and you are such a tough little girl.

6 years ago when the Dr. put you into my arms I fell into love with you in a way I never thought possible. You were PERFECT. Your big beautiful eyes looked up at me and I knew what it meant to be a parent. I instantly knew the love that parents have for their children. I didn’t worry about what the future had in store for you, for I knew that God had given you to me to care for, and that you would be taken care of forever.

The next 5 years we’re so fun!! You were such an amazing little girl. You started to crawl around 6 months, and then you started to walk around 9 months and then you started to talk!!! And you haven’t stopped talking since! I have a video of you just past your 1st birthday saying ‘I’m 13 months old.’ You we’re and still are a brilliant child.

Right before your 2nd birthday we brought home your baby sister form Ethiopia. We had been gone for 2 weeks to pick up Kia and we missed you so much!!! When we got to the airport you ran up to us, looked at your new sister and said ‘Can I pet her?’ You became such a good big sister, and it didn’t take long for you two to become best friends. You have a truly caring spirit, not just for your family but for ALL people. You really are such a sweet, sweet little girl.

We did so many fun things together as a family. Our lives we’re nearly perfect. Last year you even got to celebrate your 5th birthday in Africa!!! You loved living in Tanzania. Everyday you would play outside in the warm sunlight running around and making up some pretend game. It was so fun to be a family in Tanzania. Life was easier, the pace was slower, and we got to spend a lot more time together as a family!!! There was no hustle and bustle like there is here in the US. You LOVED it there.

Shortly after your 5th birthday you started to get sick, and we ended up coming back to Michigan. We found out that you had Leukemia and I felt like the world had stopped spinning. I just kept thinking about how you were to sweet of a little girl to have to go through that. But you know what Lola?? You have survived this past year and made it to another birthday!! You have done SO good, and I am SO proud of you!! I know that it has been hard, and I know that you haven’t been able to play as much this past year, and I know that you have a lot of days when you don’t feel good, but you are AMAZING!!! When we were at clinic last week and it was time for you to get poked you we’re so strong!! And when you asked to have a minute before the poke, and you then prayed out loud that God would make it not hurt, and you thanked God for the sunshine that day and for all the people at the hospital, I just thought about how strong of a little girl you are. I have learned so much from you, so much about happiness, and faith in the Lord. I wish you didn’t have to go through this, but I am thankful that you are still here on your 6th birthday.

My dear Lola, we have another hard year in front of us, but I KNOW we can do it!!! There will be a lot of hard days, but there will be even more good days. Days where you smile and run and play. Days where our family is together and days where I feed you pancakes for breakfast, lunch and dinner….. just like you like. I love you with all my heart and then some. Keep smiling and loving God. Happy 6th birthday!!!

Love always, Mommy

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January 1, 2012 - 6:25 am

Lynn Caraway - Great letter for Lola. She is a very special young woman. We are praying for a great year ahead with great test results everytime. We love you and Matt so much – what great parents you have been to Lola and Kia. We miss you out here in Tanzania, but look foward to seeing you all in April. Praying big time that Luka will be with us, too! Hugs all around – Lynn

January 6, 2012 - 1:32 pm

Tammy - Well, now htat I have just smiled a lot and balled my eyes out I am off to work Thank you for sharing that. You are an awesome mother. Love you.
-Tammy

January 11, 2012 - 10:14 am

Laura Crandle - I pray daily for your family..it was so sweet to meet you and Lola …i still think of the song she sung us. I tell everyone about it. She melted my heart!!!

When 16 miles is just far enough.

10.31.11

WOW!!! I can not believe it has been over a month since I posted to the blog. I am considering getting rid of the blog because A- I barely post to it and B- I’m not sure if anyone really reads it?? Hello?? Is anybody out there reading this?? I know most people probably find out whats going on in our life through facebook… so maybe the blog is not necessary??

Moving on. Last time I posted I was asking for prayers about Lola’s treatment. We were really hoping and praying that Lola would be put into a certain treatment and as it turns out… she was not put into that one. I took the news pretty hard and needed some time to adjust to the thought of what this was going to mean for our lives for the next 2 years. Lola will be on a TON of medication for the next two years, and every four weeks she will be on one chemo for 5 days that really effects her. It takes almost a week for it to wear off, so that leaves us with about 2 rough weeks out of ever 4 weeks. Not exactly something we were hoping for…. But at the same time we fully believe that God put Lola into the treatment that she needs, and if this is what she needs to stay alive then we will do it, and we will do our best to do it with a smile on our face. Lola did have her port removed about a month ago, and we are just thrilled with that. She is SO HAPPY to have it gone. Lola goes back to clinic on friday for IV chemo and she will also be starting up on that nasty chemo again , so please pray for Lola as it will be a couple rough weeks.

Good news about Lola- She made a change in her make a wish. The mini horse was getting a bit complicated and a vacation was sounding pretty good so she decided to go to Disney instead!!! We will be in the market for a friendly mini horse in the spring though, so if you happen to have one just lying around let us know So… in December we will be going to Disney and we are pumped!!!! I’m crazy excited and have been keeping myself busy planning out our amazing trip. I have never in my life felt the need for a vacation like I do now. It will be wonderful to just escape for a week with my family and have some fun and not have to worry about all the junk that we have to worry about all the time.

Next up… Ultimate hike!!! The Hike was this past weekend and it was AMAZING!!! The trail was slightly horrid. It was full of HUGE hills and a really tough trail. We had to get up at 2am to get to the trail and started hiking at 4 am. It was pitch black and I was pretty sure there was either a hungry bear or a murderer waiting for us in the dark. Luckily there wasn’t. We hiked for over 3 hours in the pitch black and then the sun slowly started to peek out exposing just some amazing beauty around us. I hiked 16 miles along and then had to stop (I knew ahead of time that I wasn’t going to be able to do the full 30) due to the reason pictured to the right. yup. its true.

5 people from team Lola continued on for the full 30!!! I can not even tell you how much it means to me to have so many people doing something as crazy as this to help find a cure for childrens cancer. There were even a couple people that joined team Lola that I had never met before!!! AMAZING!! I worked hard to make it 16 miles. Well… the 30 mile hikers worked like crazy. It would be one thing if the trail was flat and easy. But it was not. Basically you were always either going up or down a huge hill. Team Lola still needs to raise a bit more money, so if you are willing to sacrifice a small amount to help we would appreciate it!! CLICK HERE to make a donation.

Here we are ready to go at 4am!!!

Well. I think that’s about all I have for now. I need to get my little bunny and poodle ready to go for the festivities of the night!!

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October 31, 2011 - 4:15 pm

Dawn Wright - I am still here reading

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! WOW!!!!!

Praying for God’s HEALING on Lola…..chemo is sooo hard!!!! I had radiation when I was 8, but my roomie had chemo. Tough Stuff!

October 31, 2011 - 7:28 pm

Katie Parker - Hey! I read your blog! I know I could rely on information from Matt to Ben and then from Ben to me but lets be honest I would get no updates on the DeYoung’s then! I’m so excited for you guys to have another baby on the way. And I’m pretty sure Matt needs to teach classes in how to take the most amazing pictures with your phone, Love it!!!

Well anyway, I love you guys, I love your blog, I really love Lola and Kia and we pray for you guys every night! AMEN!

October 31, 2011 - 10:21 pm

Linda - I ALWAYS read your site! And, when we heard about Ike, we were REALLY bummed too. We kind of took it like you, and knew that He had something else in mind! But, what I didn’t know, is that if it IS too much for her body, they cut it back! Not the steroids unfortunately….those never stop. But, they cut back the 6mp and the methotrexate, and Ike has been doing TONS better! So, I will be praying that Lola gets only what she needs, and for God to take care of those details!

October 31, 2011 - 10:39 pm

Lynn Caraway - I read it…keep posting!

November 1, 2011 - 7:27 am

Brenda - I have never met you or know you personally, but I faithfully read your blog and appreciate the updates.

November 1, 2011 - 1:40 pm

Jenna - I read it!!!

November 3, 2011 - 10:22 am

brooke keeler - I read your blog! I am a friend of Matt’s from high school. In fact, I was the one who had you guys come and speak about your adoption experience at Bethany Chr. Services a few years back! I have an (almost) 4 year old daughter and a 2 year old son and my heart has been touched by your testimony as you walk through such a difficult season. We pray for your family often!

November 5, 2011 - 12:34 pm

kathryn - I read it too! Congrats on the new little one! Your family is in my prayers always. =}

November 5, 2011 - 9:09 pm

Chris and Michelle Fisher - What’s facebook?? We love reading your blog. Congratulations on the bun in the oven! Our journeys are so full of twists and turns. Thank God we are given enough strength for each day. Lifting your family to Him today tonight with an extra special Lola hug. Thanks Matt for taking the time to meet with me and share your heart and wisdom about a continent an ocean away. Your brother in Him, Chris.

November 19, 2011 - 12:06 pm

Marcia - Love the updates and prayer requests. Pleeze continue !

November 29, 2011 - 6:25 pm

Laura Crandle - Just found out my 8 week old grand daughter has cancer…nureoblastoma..sp? Read your blog…ty for shareing!!!!

What is to come??

09.26.11

I went to clinic with Lola last week armed with a list of questions that would make any one nauseous. Every now and then I do that, I just like to make sure everyone knows that I am a completely crazy mom who will do whatever it takes for my child. So… as a result of my crazy mom moment that day Lola is now scheduled for Surgery next week (Oct 7) to have her port-a-cath removed. This is BIG for Lola at this point. The port is meant to be a helpful piece of medical equipment, that helps both the medical staff and the child, making it easier on them so that they don’t always need to have IV’s in their arms etc. But…. Lola’s port went a bit hay wire a few months ago and it started not working as it was supposed to and she kept having to have dye studies done on it, and it would be difficult to get blood draws, and her poor nurse would really have to wiggle the needle around in Lola to get things to work. It was AWFUL. As a result of that, even though the port has been fine lately Lola has some HUGE issues with it. She greatly prefers to be poked in the arm over her port and she is really just scared of having her port accessed. She really wants it gone. So… for the sake of Lola, we are glad she is finally reaching a point in her treatment where she does not need the port and it will soon be gone!!

As for Lola’s treatment….. She is now ready to move into the section of treatment called ‘maintenance.’ She will be on Maintenance for about 2 years. Lola is currently on a trial, and prior to beginning maintenance she will be randomized into 1 of 4 different treatment options. Here is where you all come in. We REALLY need your prayers for this. This is another time where we are completely helpless in our daughters care. We have to rely on a computer that will randomly put her into a treatment plan. But… I think we all know our amazing father God is in the ultimate control of this. Of the 4 treatment options, two of them Lola will have to take a steroid chemo for one week every 4 weeks. The other 2 options she will need the steroid chemo for one week ever 12 weeks. Now. Here’s the thing about the steroid. It ruins Lola’s life. It makes her so depressed. Back at the beginning of our adventure with Leukemia it was the steroid that caused Lola to stop talking. When she is on it is a struggle for our whole family. Lola will find a patch of sunlight on the floor, and lay on the floor all day long under a blanket doing nothing. It is nearly impossible for me to engage her in anything. It is awful. And I do not know that I can endure that for 24 weeks in the next 2 years.

So it is our prayer that God will have Lola placed into whatever arm of the treatment she needs to be in. And it is also our prayer that where she needs to be is in Arm C or D, where she will have steroids every 12 weeks. We are asking you to come along side us for the next week in prayer for Lola. We can find out what arm she is in 72 hours before she begins treatment, which puts us at next tuesday. So please pray hard specifically about this until then!! I know that there are people all over the place praying for our family and I can not tell you how much that means to us.

And on to our next ‘issue.’ I have been sick as a dog since friday. I’m OK being sick… life goes on, BUT Lola CAN NOT get sick. For one thing, if she gets a fever its an automatic trip to the hospital and…. it is not good if she is sick when she is scheduled for surgery and for her treatment to start. So please also be praying for that. Thankfully I seem to be on the upswing of whatever it is that I have, and I only had a fever for a few hours on saturday. My kids have runny noses, but no other symptoms. Pray that they just stay with runny noses and don’t catch what I have!!! Thankfully I have the world’s greatest husband who has been playing super dad/house keeper/ food cooker/ take care of Lindsey person. He is home from work today holding down the fort while I am in seclusion in my bedroom for the 3rd day. Oh… and if your considering living without a TV I would like to encourage you to think long and hard about what you will do if you ever get sick. I am BORED out of my mind!!! I thought the ‘no TV’ thing was a great idea…. until this happened!!! Thankfully Super Matt to the rescue!! He dug out an old TV and an antenna for me this morning so I could watch the today show and whatever other junk is on during the day

Here’s a picture of me. If I had blond hair. And if I wore pig-tails. And if I had a teddy bear. Well… I guess this really looks nothing like me.

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September 27, 2011 - 1:26 pm

angie becerra - Praying so much for Lola and now with her treatment starting.God is in control like you said. I will also be praying that you start feeling more better and that your kids do not get sick.I do not know little lola personally but she seems like a wonderful little girl.I pray for her often

8 years later…

09.11.11

Wow. Eight years ago if you had told me that this is where my life would be, I don’t think I would have believed you. BUT… if someone had told me that this would be my life, and I had a choice to make a decision and NOT marry Matt, so that this would not be the path of my life, I STILL would have married him.

September 12,2003 was an amazing day in my life. 8 years later I STILL have guests from our wedding come up to us and say how fun our wedding was. We were SO excited to be getting married. We were young. (I was just a baby at 21 yrs old!!) We were completely crazy (and still are) and we were in LOVE!!!! I loved matt so much, and the good news is that I still do. I would say that the first 7 years of our marriage were completely ‘normal,’ we had a baby and then another through adoption (maybe adoption isn’t normal to you… but it is to me ) We bought a house, and then another when we needed a bigger home. Matt got a real job, I realized how much I hated having a job so stopped working I later decided having my own business was more suited to me, and that worked out pretty good. And so on and so forth was our first 7 years.

And then there is this last year. My life in the last year consisted of moving your family across the world, learning a new language and culture, being robbed, having a forest fire invade our yard, and having to put that fire out by hand because there was no ‘911,’ (truth be told… Matt and a couple other guys put the fire out, while I stood in the house deciding what I needed to toss in the car in case the fire engulfed our home.) living without electricity or clean water, caring for a very sick orphan newborn who only slept 30 minutes at a time and screamed in pain the rest of the time, we were forced to leave our new home on the other side of the world to come back to the states to find out our daughter has cancer. We realized we had no home, no car, no job, no nothing, to have to rely on others to care and provide for us, we had our very sick child stop talking and stop walking, we bought a new home 5 months later, and moved into our home and realized that EVERYTHING was broken in it. You guys can relate to that right?? No? anybody?? no. hmmm…. But you know who can relate to all that stuff with me?? My amazing wonderful husband. If I had not had him along on this crazy life journey with me, I don’t know what I would have done. Now, I have a huge faith and find great comfort in the Lord, but there are days when the good Lord would use Matt’s amazing patience to just be there for me when i’m freaking out about medications and side effects, and things left in Tanzania and dishwashers that don’t work. And yes, I am real good at freaken out. Our life is hard. I mean really hard. But together Matt and I have become better people through it all and I really wouldn’t trade it for a normal un-eventful life. I’m sure that you all have issues in your life, struggles that stink. And it is my prayer that not only do you find strength in the Lord to get through those hard days, but also that you have someone that can hold your hand through it all. Some times we just have to reach out for help, but getting through all that ’stuff’ will be so much better with someone who cares.

On Anniversary this year is not going to be fun. It won’t be exciting. We will do nothing special. But we will be together, and again I am thankful for that. Lola has a big appt at clinic tomorrow. I’m thankful that Matt is taking the morning off work to help me out with Lola. She has to be sedated in order to have chemo put into her spine. While I have gotten used to her being put under, it is never an easy thing to watch my baby go life-less on the table in the basement of the hospital. And it is never easy to watch her wake up confused, tired and hungry. So I am thankful that matt will be there to help me with our sweet baby girl. Lola will also be getting a number of other Chemos, and they will be upping her doses. The night after clinic is never real fun for Lola. She generally doesn’t feel real great and ends up with bad diarrhea during the night. And I am always so emotionally drained that it takes everything I have to take care of my sweet babe. Clinic days are not fun. So that will be our 8th anniversary. A prime example of what marriage should be. Caring for each other, loving our family, and helping each other when we need it most. So Matthew, the Love of my life. Here’s to our 9th year. We survived the 8th year so we now know we can get through anything together, and i’m pretty sure it can only go up from here.

Please keep praying for our family, as we continue to survive the best we can. Pray for Lola at clinic in the morning. Pray that her blood counts look good, so she can get the treatment she needs. Pray that as they up the doses of chemo once again that the side effects are minimal. Pray for NO long term side effects for Lola. Did you know that 3 out 5 children with cancer live with long term side effects for the rest of their lives?!! I’m not real interested in that for Lola. She still has a lot to do with her life. We don’t want side effects slowing her down. Wanna know something cute about Lola? Well… if you said no, I can’t hear you so I’m still going to tell you.

A few nights ago I had tucked the girls in for bed and I was listening them discuss the star they could see out the window, and they decided to ‘wish’ on the star. Lola says the whole star light, start bright etc… and do you know what she wished for??? A ‘double blessing of the Holy Spirit.’ My 5 year old. She is 5 yrs old and THAT is what she wishes for!!! And then last night… stars out again and this time she wished for ‘Grace, Peace and Mercy for people around the world.’ Did I mention that she is 5 yrs old?? This child is AMAZING. God has big plans for this little angle. She is going to take her double blessing and do amazing things.

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September 11, 2011 - 5:52 pm

Tara Zornow - You’re right Lindsay…your life isn’t easy. You have gone through so much as a family in the past year…and you are taking everything in stride and doing everything…everything you need, to make sure you all get through it. Your family’s strength and love for one another is amazing and inspirational. Lola is inspirational and you are raising her just perfectly right. Happy Anniversary to you & Matt…and may you have so many more years together…happy and healthy. <3

September 11, 2011 - 7:56 pm

Angela Johnson - Happy Anniversary!! And even if the actual day will be focused on Lola’s comfort and just “getting through” – your 8 years together and the promise of more is, like you said, the biggest comfort you have on this earth. I love being around you two. You are playful and fun and caring and beautiful. We LOVE your family! I hope that you have multiple moments to remember your wedding day and smile at each other, that you get good sleep, that you eventually get to at bring home Indian takeout , and that Lola’s treatment is uneventful. We pray for her – and all of you – always. And now we know to pray for a double blessing of the Holy Spirit for her, too. Love that girl!

September 13, 2011 - 1:16 pm

Linda - Beautiful! Jacob and I were also married in 2003! And your little Lola, I would not be surprised that God has great things for her! And I can’t wait to see the manifestation of that double portion of the holy spirit! God has something great for both of our families, and mostly for our little heroes! Praying this phase goes quickly for you and your hike is great!

*old news.