Scans are CLEAR and PORTS COMING OUT!

 Just giving a quick update here. So happy to report that life at the Castle house seems incredibly normal. I love normal!  The kids are busy playing baseball, volleyball, cheer leading, dance squad and school...it's busy and puts many miles on the car, but I'm so thankful they are ALL healthy enough to do their thing!

   A couple of weeks ago, Clayton had a brain MRI which came back perfectly normal! Praise the Lord! He has no evidence of disease and his bloodwork was normal. HUGE thanksgiving! He will continue to have these scans every 3 months for 5 years. His oncologist says his chance of reoccurrence is slim based on the staging and location of his cancer, but it's still a possibility. Also, Rhabdo is a cancer that does sometimes show up again several years after remission...So, the black cloud looms over us, but we are thankful for the bright light of the Lord that shines over that black cloud. Today I am blessed with four healthy kids, and that is absolutely enough for me.

     One of my children recently asked me why I say "Isn't God so good"  after Clayton got cancer. To him.. this just didn't add up.  Why did Clayton get cancer?  Why do you say God is good when Clayton got cancer?  Shouldn't we be kinda mad that this happened to us? Why didn't God just heal Clayton before we even knew he was sick. Where was God when the tumor was forming?  Wow!  Hard Hard questions to answer.  Many of those things, I don't understand myself, but I know that God continues to stand with Clayton and all of us and gives us a promise of a GREAT hope and future.  For me.. that makes our God AMAZING! Some things we just don't understand and I believe we may never understand.  But what I will do is insist that our testimony remain firm that the Lord is our rock and our fortress AND our healer!

    On Friday, May 3rd, Clayton will have his port removed from his chest. It's an outpatient surgical procedure that should take 10 minutes. We are having it done in Waco, so we are hopeful that it will be uneventful, and put the final exclamation point on this journey. We rest in the hope that Clayton is cancer free forever and will never need a port a cath again!  May we never, ever forget the goodness of the Lord!

Class Field Trip