Newest Update on Riley

Persistent in Prayer


Posted 20 hours ago

Riley started chemo this past Monday. She was able to continue going to school and then after school each afternoon she went to the hospital for chemo. Once again we are so thankful for God’s protection. She has been without side effect thus far. She will have her last chemo dose tomorrow afternoon. Right now the plan is to repeat her CT scan on Friday 10-29, allow her counts to start recovering, and then head to NY to start immunotherapy. We pray God will keep her free from fevers, infection, and low platelets as her blood counts drop and recover from this chemo course.



We are blessed to have many who have persisted in prayer with us throughout this course. Our Gospel this weekend (Luke 18:1-8) reminded us to never give up in prayer, to be faithful to God that He will answer our prayers, and that His answer will be just for the faithful. We feel this Gospel and homily on the persistence of prayer was a lesson that could have been taken from God’s story of Riley this past 4 ½ years. We have been joined by many (family, close friends, acquaintances, and complete strangers) who have been praying diligently with us for years. We are very thankful for all of these prayers, but God is even more pleased. He rejoices in the masses calling His name in prayer because it is through prayer that we are transformed to holiness and awakened to His constant presence. Riley prays for His presence to be known by all.



We want to thank everyone for all the cards that have been sent to Riley. The support is overwhelming however we want to make sure that everyone knows that her request was never a Make-A-Wish. It was a humble request for cards over a year ago and we do not want to misrepresent Make-A-Wish as they granted us a perfect trip to Disney in 2008. We are very grateful for all the prayers and cards from all over the world - Riley enjoys seeing the many very special cards, but please make sure if you are sending a card or requesting cards to be sent that it is for the right reason. We love sharing God’s story of Riley, but we want the story to be accurate so please feel free to pass on her carepages or caringbridge site information.



As we thank you for your prayers and support we ask you also to pray for a friend. Some of you may remember praying for Dustan in the past. He was diagnosed with a Wilm’s tumor in 2000. In the fall of 2007 he had relapsed for 2nd time and he underwent stem cell transplant. He had complications following his transplant that put him near death several times, however miraculously he survived and was cancer free until scans this past Friday revealed reoccurrence in his kidney bed and his spine. Please pray with us for Dustan and his family.



As we thank you for your prayers we hold on tight to Romans 12:12 - Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, persistent in prayer.



Persistent in Prayer, Kirk and Kelly



Please also remember this Friday October 22nd is the 2nd annual Kick Childhood cancer event. Please read below and join us in an evening of fun. THANKS! We look forward to seeing you all there.



Due to weather conditions, the Kick Childhood Cancer Event was postponed until Friday, October 22nd. The ECU Pirates will go up against conference foe UTEP at 7:00 p.m. on that day.



The Kick Childhood Cancer event will start with registration for the 1-mile fun walk at 4:00 p.m. The walk will start at 5:00 p.m., followed by a kids' field day with PeeDee, ECU cheerleaders, and ECU student-athletes. The pink jersey auction will start at 5:30 p.m. The ECU pirates, their coaches and trainer will wear official Nike pink jerseys during their match-up against UTEP. Fans can bid on the jerseys during the game. The starting bid is $20 and bids can be placed in $5 increments. The bidding will end at the close of halftime. At the end of the game, winning bidders will be awarded their jersey by the player or coach who wore the jersey during the game. We hope you will join us on October 22nd for this great event.



To pre-register for the 1-mile fun walk, please visit the following link: http://www.ecupirates.com/sports/w-soccer/spec-rel/092110aac.html



We would appreciate your spreading the word about this change in plans. We are so excited about this event and hope it will be a great opportunity for us to raise awareness of childhood cancer to the community and to celebrate with our Riley's Army family.



Thank you and please feel free to call (252.355.6940) or e-mail me with any questions.