Settling in.

On Kike's last day of radiation in August he got to put his orange hand print on the wall in the recovery room in the radiation department. I hadn't really taken notice of all the handprints prior to this day, but looking around the room I was instantly hit with the realization that hundreds of children had passed through this room by special invitation from our Creator. I am thankful that I don't need it all to make sense and that I know God has plans for these children and these families far beyond what we can see.

They give one of these to everyone who completes radiation, children and adults alike. I visited with a man who has 3 of these hanging on his wall the day he received his 4th. He said they will keep piling up until he dies as his cancer isn't curable.

With the end of radiation and the start of school, we have settled into a routine here in Aurora, CO. Enrique has Chemotherapy the end of each month as well as an eye surgery for evaluation/treatment. He just had his 3rd round of Chemo and his 5th eye surgery since coming to the US. He has handled this round of chemotherapy exceptionally well. He has not been very sick, nor has he lost his hair this time around. The surgeries show the main tumor is shrinking with the chemotherapy, but last month the surgeon spotted many "seeds" in his right eye that had come together to form a new tumor. He decided at that point to inject another much more toxic chemo drug directly into his eye. We went in for a checkup yesterday and he said that the "seeds had all melted, which simply doesn't happen", and his sight is still excellent, so the drug did not do damage to his retina. He was going to do another injection next week, but will now wait and evaluate his eye at the next scheduled surgery the end of October. This is very good news!!

The picture on bottom is from last month and the picture on top was from his latest surgery. Much of the spotting in the upper part of the eye are the seeds that the dr. was talking about. In the bottom picture, much of the cloudy looking part is blood that was eventually resorbed and is not so apparent in the top pic.

There isn't anyone we meet that doesn't instantly fall for Kike. Through him we have been able to share his story, Casa de Fe, and the gospel to the many folks in the Hospital and in our area. I'm sad when I think that we could have been doing for others in special ways for the last 20+ years, but were "too busy" to even think about it. If you are waiting for something in the future to happen before you start serving others you will never start serving others!! Good to have had this realization a couple years ago rather than 15 years from now.

Kike was accepted to the Anchor School for the Blind here in Aurora. It is a non-profit corporation that is funded mostly through business and private donations. Enrique was evaluated and will receive speech therapy, some physical therapy, and they also will be working with him in preemptively to provide him skills if he should lose his vision. They charge tuition as people are able to pay, and by God's grace, through the fundraising activity of a teen who visited Casa de Fe, we paid his tuition and a little bit extra. Emily, you are a great example of the person I would like to become!