We meant to add this update from December 9, 2016 to this page ages ago, but somehow that got lost in the mists of time! Here it is now! Enjoy – if you take the time to read it.

We are thankful and blessed by this great news… Journal entry by Meryl Dawes — 12/9/2016

“Great is Thy Faithfulness, Great is Thy Faithfulness, morning by morning new mercies we see.”

It’s over 5 and a half years since we were told Noel had a rare bone marrow cancer and would need a Stem Cell Transplant to have any chance of survival and now 4 and a half years since Ryan, seen here with Noel, an unrelated donor made the life saving gift of his stem cells. Since then we have seen some ups and downs in the journey to put it mildly. With many, many trips to Boston to see the doctors at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, who have been so brilliant, we moved from weekly visits, biweekly, triweekly, monthly through to 3 months. On this week’s visit both Noel’s doctors independently were so pleased with his health that they don’t want or expect to see him for 6 Months!!!

So we won’t be back here in Boston until June 2017. Noel will stay on his present medications and we hope and pray he will have no relapses to bring us back earlier. It will continue to be a journey for the rest of Noel’s life, a very, very long journey we hope as the doctors have said they will always need to have him check in with them.

But we give thanks and rejoice at this latest progress as we move forward. Every day grateful to God, the doctors in Glens Falls and Boston and of course Ryan.

 

Thank you all for all your prayers, love and support over the years. Please rejoice with us and give thanks. Please continue to pray for Noel’s health to continue to be good, for no regression and for the GVHD that Noel has from the transplant to disappear all together or at very least stay as manageable as it is now.

Noel and I celebrate our 46th Wedding Anniversary on December 20th. We aren’t ones for big celebrations but we are so grateful that we have been blessed with so much. Like all partnerships we have had our ups and downs and some stormy seas. But we give thanks for our lasting love for each other, our friendship, our family and our friends.

Christmas as is coming and we wish you much JOY. He is the real reason for the season and the greatest gift we will ever receive. And best of all it’s free. ❤ Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and all those you love and pray for. Watch this his space for more updates of our family and ministry and please do keep in touch with us.

Then added the latest photo of Noel and myself. Taken this past summer. We need a better one as Noel being off steroids since the end of August has lost that chubby face and looks more like himself again.

Merry Christmas, from a snowy Glens Falls, Meryl and Noel