As we head into a new year, the Stoecklein family is celebrating new life… in more ways than one! Of course, we are completely overwhelmed with gratefulness to our great God for sparing Dave’s life from leukemia. Amazing!! Last week we once again received the wonderful news that his blood-work shows absolutely NO sign of leukemia and he remains 99.9 percent his donor’s marrow. This is such good news. And Dr, Lopez also told us that every month that Dave remains leukemia-free strengthens his chances for long-term survival. Very encouraging.
Another amazing and wonderful reason that we are celebrating new life is Smith Andrew Stoecklein, our first grandson born on November 21st. He is a beautiful and healthy little boy that we love so much. But here’s the super cool thing that only confirms to us how much little Smith is a wonderful encouragement from God: this little boy was born one year, to the date, from Dave’s leukemia diagnosis. November 21, 2011, the doctor walks into the hospital room and says, “Dave, you have leukemia and we have to do something fast because it’s raging out of control.” And then November 21, 2012, the gift of our first grandson is born. That is NOT a coincidence! Thank you, God.
Dave continues to recover, but we are also facing some difficult things and we really need your prayers. The last couple of months have brought a tremendous amount of pain in his left hand and arm that is extremely debilitating. So sad. We have spent several days in the hospital attempting accurate diagnosis and pain control. And this last week, we spent three 12-hour days at Cedars in an infusion treatment for what has been diagnosed as CRPS, which is a very painful and rare (of course!!) chronic nerve disorder. Apparently no cure… but God’s got this, too.
How you can pray:
- Please pray that the infusion treatments from last week are successful.
- Pray that if CRPS is not an accurate diagnosis, it will become obvious.
- Pray for effective pain control and that Dave can get off of Prednisone.
- Pray for complete healing from the CRPS.
- Pray for continuing physical strength.
- Pray for clarity of thought as he is preparing his weekly messages.
We have so much to be thankful for and also so much to continue praying for! Thank you for letting us reach out to you and thank you for your continued support. We need it.
The Stoeckleins
