Susan/Hallel caring for her brother as he was undergoing his first chemo in August of 2009... he had just undergone a brain biospy with resulting ataxia to discover that he had Primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma - cancer only in the center of his brain! This was the beginning of our journey called cancer/healing. Today marks a landmark of sorts! Tomorrow is his first birthday as the stem cells - "seeds" were planted back in his body after he had the bomb dropped on him with a chemo that wiped out his bone marrow - immune system!
John was totally dependent on his dad to get to the bathroom as he had lost the coordination on the left side of his body after the biopsy... 6 months later as we faced his stem cell transplant - he had regained his ability to walk on his own, now he has a slight dysfunction and appears to have a mild case of cerebral palsy... Still a loss, but much better... he is back at college and doing well except for catching a flu bug this last week. A year ago we were overjoyed to read the Gospel on the day of his transplant as being the Sower and the Seed parable... this year it is today the day before his first birthday! "And some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit. It came up and yeilded thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold." Mark 4: 1-20
We as parents felt so helpless to watch our 20 year old son face this horrible shocking cancer of his brain! How powerful was it for us to be needed to physically help him! We were needed and we could do something to help him! It brought us closer than we ever thought we could be! Looking back at the days after the stem cell and wathching the numbers of his blood slowly rise day after day - we had to go into the hospital to have blood drawn every morning as well as look at his vitals and any issues that would come up due to him having no immune system left! He would have to wear a mask, and there was a kind of knowledge you had when you would see someone coming slowly down the hall wearing a mask with the person caring for them. I was blessed to be able to be that for my precious son! Yes, I am a nurse and that certainly was helpful, but Pat also made sure that we had a nice little yellow house that we could live in for the 5 weeks we were there... we were cozy and comfortable and watched the snow and the squirrels running from tree to tree in our back yard. 
John was considered a Rock Star in how well he made it through the whole procedure with hardly any glitches. No hospitalizations for anything... some extra antibiotics here and there but more for a precaution than an out and out infection. Now being at school with all the bugs and stuff he is exposed to there... He has done amazingly nornal there too! His health and young age are certainly to his benefit. The seeds which were harvested from him - his stem cells - which he harvested in only one day as opposed to some taking many days! The seeds were good seeds in the first place and then to put them back into him it just makes sense that his soil would be "rich soil!"
In order for John to sit up... he needed to have is family sit on his weak side so that he would not fall over - we were needed! Now let's listen to the explanation that Jesus gave to the Disciples about his parable - "Those seeds sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold." In this journey we have certainly "heard" and embraced - accepted - the word - the Cross! There was no denying it or turning from it... it was there and we had to face it and with prayers and trusting acceptance we took it all as the Lord presented it to us... we were reminded on day 1 by Susan/Hallel that this was the storm and Jesus was in control - the Gospel for Father's Day 2009 - the day we went into the ER in Marshall and were told that there was something abnormal in John's brain! How that knowledge that we could give it all to Him - He was in control... gave us immediate peace! 
We are off to the Sioux Falls farm show shortly - so I need to wrap this up for now. Tomorrow being John's first birthday of his new life... Know that I will be sharing and celebrating from the rooftops! I notice that one of my favorite Catholic writers is quoted today - Caryll Houselander (1954) "The grain of wheat, which is our Christ-life must be buried in the earth. It must be in darkness. Its growing must be in rest. It must be buried in earth, that is, in us, who are made from the earth. The seed of Christ is not buried in angels, but in men. It is to flower and bear fruit through human experience: through our loves, our work, our sorrows, our joys, our temptations. It is to be litterally our living and our dying.
"We are the soil of the divine seed; there is no other. The flowering of Christ in us does not depend upon pious exercises, or good works outside our daily life, on an amatuer practice of religion in our liesure time. It is the marrow or our bones, in the experience of our daily life.... The seed is in darkness: the darkness of sorrow, the darkness of faith." Caryll Houselander How powerful to read his thoughts about the marrow and how the seeds are Christ taking root in our very being's center and core of the part of our body that gives us our lifegiving immune system on which depends our life and our health! Christ be my life! Come through the darkness! 
Three year old John with his precious Ricky the Racoon - he took him to college and when he got cancer his faternity brother brought him to give John comfort! He also found so much peace and comfort in all the prayers that came pouring in over caringbridge - http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/johnverly
Jesus, it is a wonderful gift to have this amazing reminder today in the Gospel of the Sower and the Seed that once again - you are in control of this most amazing journey we all have been on with John called cancer/healing! WE continue to need to trust in you and are amazed to see the yielding of tremendous harvests! We are yours - use us to your honor and glory! Jesus, we trust in you! Amen and Halleluia!
Bless-bless, Barb
"God saved us and called us to a holy life, not according to our works but according to his own design and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began, but now made manifest through the appearance of our savior Christ Jesus, who destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel..." 2 Timothy 1: 9-13 St Titus and St Timothy pray for us on this your feast days!
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