My Christmas greeting!

Janz Family Christmas Letter 2007
Well, this has been a year to remember and in some ways one I’d prefer to forget. Thankfully there were many shining moments that I’ll cherish forever that happened this year in the midst of our chaos. Through it all, God’s faithful hand has Guided, protected and blessed us, right into this Christmas season.
Our year began like any other, the New Year bringing new hope for our future as Chris and I respectively turned 30 and 35 years old. I thought hitting my mid 30’s was hard on me as I didn’t quite feel myself and was lacking the energy level I was use to. Little did we know, but I grew to suspect that I in fact was fighting a spreading and aggressive disease. After much ado, I was diagnosed with advanced Her2 positive Breast Cancer on March 16th. (We didn’t get the full diagnosis until after my Mastectomy on April 5th.)
I came home from the hospital on Easter Sunday afternoon and I shared a lovely Easter celebration with my family in the midst of many flowers and cards that had been sent by so many. The support never stopped pouring in through the year, through meals, gardening, childcare, housework, financial support, words of encouragement and most importantly prayer. We had three very successful fundraisers to help us with devastating loses and expenses; loss of income, childcare, housekeeping, prescriptions and other medical related costs. We first had “Tea Time for a Cure” on April 24th at abc restaurant, then “Friends for Feather” at Northview Church on June 24th and “The Janz Family Benefit concert”, featuring Kelsey, Colin and Chris Janz on Sept 21st. Through these events we were able to raised $20,000 for our family! Thank-you all for your support and willingness to be generous, you kept us a float during a very difficult time.Myfundraising for The Run for the Cure this year was very successful, $5,415 was my final total!
We had many prayers answered this year, some we didn’t even really know we had. Like the fact that we prayed we wouldn’t lose our house in the midst of my health crisis and now we find our selves owning and living in our dream house with a full recording studio for Chris to work from home in, that will save us so much in the long run. We are so grateful that we were contacted by caring friends who wanted us to have this house. They wanted to bless us and they have. We were also so happy to know that we could make over a $100,000 on the sale of our home that we’d only been in just over 2 years. We were even more excited when the house sold before we even listed it and saved us on real estate fees. Everything fell into place and we were assured that it was all meant to be!
We now call 34451 Thoreau Ave, Abbotsford BC, V2S 7H6, HOME! (As of Dec 1st, the snowiest day of the year, that’s a whole other story!!)The basement has a suite for Lizzy, my best friend who has been living with us since the beginning of Sept, and has been helping us with childcare and housekeeping and is just being a really great friend. Chris is excited to start working out of his own recording studio in the New Year. The girls, Carmelle (4 ½) and Cadence (2 ½) are growing, exploring and use to having more hair than Mommy. I’ve recovered from Mastectomy and lymph node dissection surgery, I’ve over come 6 months of chemo therapy treatments, I’ve just begun 6 weeks of 30 radiation treatments (each day traveling to Surrey cancer clinic) and I continue on with herceptin IV treatment, once every 21 days at the Vancouver Cancer Clinic, until August ’08. I’m over half way done my 18 month ordeal and I feel strong, healthy and healed. If you are interested in keeping up to date with our journey you can log on to my blog that I write regularly, through my website :www.featherjanz.comGod Bless you and your family this Christmas season, He has certainly blessed us!