About a Friend with Cancer and How You Can Help!

A few days ago, I received the following email from our dear friends Brad and Tami Williams. We met Brad and Tami in Evergreen, CO when we were on staff at a church there. They were on our praise team and, truly, they breathed life and humor into our lives during a vulnerable, difficult time in our lives. Here's what Tami wrote. The bold print is added by me for those of you who are scanning this post. Don't want anyone to miss this just in case you are the one person who can make a difference in this situation:

"Need your prayers again. Brad's cancer is back with a vengance. He was totally clear just in Mid-May, but had a lymph node on his cheek pop out about 4 weeks ago. He was having a tooth issue on that side so all drs. said it probably was just trying to help the infection and it should go away. Last week when it hadn't gone away a week and a half after dental work was done, he was checked and the cancer is back. At this time we will be talking to MDAnderson about a stem cell/bone marrow transplant. Our prayer request is to find a donor match. His two sisters are the best shots at 25%, then Katie and his dad would be a longer shot but possible. Then if none of those match it is a 1 in 10,000 chance to find a match. We have pretty good insurance for this but the out of pocket we KNOW about right now is about $30,000 That doesn't cover all since Brad will be out of work for 6 to 7 months and I will have to be gone for about 2 months to be caregiver again. We are hoping to wait until closer to next summer but we have to get the cancer back into remission and we have decided that if they call with a donor then we have to act. Sorta like you guys do when they call and say you have a baby waiting. You just go! We have set up a tax deductible dontation site but it isn't fully running until Monday. Check his blog for details.. www.bvwilliams.com Just wanted you guys to know,pray, spread the word...maybe just someone you know will be a match or have extra $$ just sitting around to donate!!! Love you guys, would love to see you too......tami

Please visit Brad's site and at the very least - PRAY!!!!! If you can help financially, please do! This family is so dear. They have had the most godly response to this cancer. They have handled it with dignity and humility and they have given God glory through it all. I pray somehow this post will reach just the right people who can breath hope and life back into this family.

Blessings,
Cindy Foote

A few photos to go with last post....

The new 5 song CD!


Libby loves to play with baby Ari and baby Ling


Libby loves the Martine girls!


Still lovin' on baby Aria (she's practicing so hard to be a good big sister!)


All girl and yet she carries a ball with her wherever she goes!


Sharing snack time with baby Aria and baby Ling


Billy and I just before going on to celebrate our dossier being shipped to Ethiopia! (funny note: the grimace on Billy's face is bc Libby hit him right in the "you know where" just before the shot. She was mad that he was touching me. Can we say jealous? She promptly was "reprimanded"!)


Daddy gets the thumbs up for being the best dad in the world! This shot was taken on Father's Day! Billy is such an awesome dad!


The new house!

Just Saying Hello

Just posting to say hello and update you on our move. We survived! We have been in our new home since Saturday and we've unpacked most of the boxes and even done some decorating. Friday - closing day - was quite a crazy day. All was fine until Libby "tinkled" on me during the closing appointment. I was soaked (so was the nice, cushion office chair - ick!). From that point on the day went down hill.... We had packed the car with some items and planned on moving some things on our own that day. When we got to the house Libby just wanted me to hold her. That is usually fine, but this was the day I really wanted to work and get some things done. As the day progressed, the painter arrived, the refrigerator was delivered and we made several trips back and forth with items we had not boxed and wanted to move on our own. Libby became more and more difficult and I just couldn't believe how little I was getting done. (also, the first color I picked for Aria's new room was the worst coral, neon pink/orange I have ever seen and I was so very sad to admit I picked it out). Anyway... by the end of the day I couldn't believe how tired I was. I was beyond exhausted. At this point, Cristie Martine had joined me and we took Libby back to the old house to put her to bed. I was brushing Lib's teeth and she said she wanted to do it herself. She took off holding the toothbrush in her mouth and fell face forward lodging the toothbrush in the back of her throat. Mommy was horrified as Libby lifted her head up and the tooth brush was obviously stuck. I gently pulled it out and she started SCREAMING! She coughed up some blood for a few minutes and sobbed on mommy's shoulder. Thank you Lord that Cristie was there because I would have been in a serious panic without her aid. We tried for the next 20 minutes to use a flash light to see the back of Libby's throat and she wouldn't let us. She was able to breath and not bleeding anymore so we put her to bed. She kept waking up ALL NIGHT because it hurt for her to swallow. As I laid down to sleep (knowing that moving day was only hours away and it would be a long one) I prayed and asked Jesus to take her pain away and allow her to wake up with no problems from her accident. The next morning.... prayers answered! She was perfectly fine and she joined the Martine Family for a pool day while mommy and daddy moved.

At the end of moving day (which was incredibly productive without a toddler hanging on my leg) Libby came home telling me about her day at the pool. I told her it was time to get ready for bed and she said, "I want to go home now." I said, "This is our home now, Libby." And she said, "No. This is our new house. I want to go home." She didn't sleep so well that night.

We are now happily sleeping well and wonderfully adjusted. We have tomorrow to rest. Thursday we pack. And Friday we fly to TN for our first camp of the summer. We'll be leading worship for a Student Life Camp near Chattanooga.

OH! - Our new CD is finished and we've worked out all the problems we previously had with the digi info encoded on the CD. Independent bands should have the new CD posted in the next few days and it will be available to the public at that time. It will take another few weeks, probably, before it's up on iTunes and other digi music stores. It's called "All The World To Me" so look it up when you get the chance (www.independentbands.com). We are having our website updated right now and when it's done I'll send a newsletter out to let everyone know about the new CD, the updated site, the adoption news and our new address.

Talk with ya later! - C

In The Zone

Our Olympic Swimmer! She does look like she's in the zone - studying the waters before diving in... but in reality she is completely dependent on her floaties and only kicks her feet once in a while. She is floating around independent of mommy's hand which mommy will take any time over last summer's long pool days of holding baby while baby tries to get away bc baby doesn't understand the concept of drowning.... I digress...

We've been "in the zone" as a family. Last week we began some intense days of packing as we have decided to move to a house about 5 minutes up the road. It's a better floor plan for our family and we're excited. So we've been packing and cleaning and all the things that moving and selling a home entails. (Secretly, I really enjoy all the packing and organizing... I'm a little crazy like that).

Around the same time we started packing we made the less-than-desirable discovery that our new CD was encoded with the wrong info.... long, complicated story short.... we've printed 1500 copies of our new CD only to find out that the digital info (which pulls up when you put the CD in a CD Rom) is all wrong - in fact - it is the digital info of another band called "Ten Pound Handle" and all 5 songs have "Ten Pound Handle's" song titles. Our songs are playing and they sound great (in my humble opinion) but anyone who purchases the physical CD will not be able to find "All Praise to God" or one of our other 4 songs by the song title. As you can imagine, we were not exactly happy about that. We've talked with our mastering guy and our printing company. Basically we've had to download software that is licensed by Gracenotes and submit our entire CD and supposedly it will give our songs their appropriate identity so that anyone who puts their CD into their CD Rom and has Internet access will have the correct info. Not exactly sure how that works and we still have to fix the problem before we print more CDs, but - just know it's been a major hassle for our non-techno-minds.

At the same time we found out that the stroller our house church purchased for some friends ministering in an Asian country arrived (by the hand delivery of this couple's family) without half the parts it was supposed to have. It was a doubles stroller and the doubles kit was not in the box. On top of that, the brakes on the stroller do not work. Okay - so imagine me (Cindy) on the phone with PishPoshBaby's northern, male employee trying to convince him that there really is a stroller in Thailand (where the couple went to have their baby) without parts and now PishPosh should ship them another one - ALL THE WAY TO Thailand- AND FAST, bc the couple is only in Thailand until June 12. Well, PishPosh doesn't ship out of country (supposedly) so, not too far into the conversation I realized I was waisting my time. The doubles kit is coming to our house now and we will have to ship it out - and there's no way I can get it to Thailand by the 12th. So... while I didn't/don't mind AT ALL trying to work that out for our friends (it's my honor and pleasure to do so!) I do want to take a moment to shout out to the world: DO NOT SHOP AT PISHPOSHBABY.COM and DO NOT PURCHASE THE PHIL AND TED'S SPORTS STROLLER WITH DOUBLES KIT! They stink - both companies just stink!

So within the same 5 days of packing, CD encoding, and stroller drama we ended up with a little adoption paperwork drama that you can read about on Aria's blog. It got solved, but not without shortening the length of my life by at least 2 days due to the stress it caused (haha). Anyway - our adoption paperwork is DONE (which is truly a miracle and I praise the Lord for his provision!) and off to our agency for it's final processes before being shipped to Ethiopia.

And in the middle of that... we received an envelope with some tax info. When we read it, it seemed to us that it was listed as a Billy Foote Music tax thing when it was supposed to be a personal Billy Foote tax thing... It's hard to explain, but it was another moment that took some days off our lifespan. After discovering that it's all written out correctly we started breathing again.

Okay... so in the middle of that - we've also been working with the Somali people and the Karen people. Tuesday night at ClubRising we had a record number of volunteers - 32 to be exact! And God really displayed his faithfulness to me that night. Today, we started a new summer program for the Somali's called "Reading Picnics" in which we read to the kids and have unstructured conversation/playtime. Have I mentioned how much I love those kids. I LOVE THOSE KIDS!!!

So, there you have it. Blessings, busy-ness and now - a confession - In the zone of hectic activity it is easy to forget about my dependence on the Lord. I focus on the stress and feel the burden of getting tasks done and before I know it, I'm trying to do it all on my own, without resting in my Savior. So tomorrow - I rest! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.... long sigh of relief.... I am going to rest....I'm so happy - I'm back in the zone of enjoying my dependence on Jesus.

Enjoy 2 more photos and thanks for reading along.
Love ya - C


Libby and Maliah rest by the pool together.

Libby's new (and much more real - and much more loud) drum kit! Billy told her that the ear protectors are "in-ear monitors" so she wears it while she plays. But really - we want her to wear them because these drums are SO LOUD!!! Seriously, I must really love that girl bc those drums are going to be the death of me - or at least my ear drums and sanity.

Xuwen Sisters, Vacation, Marathons and Bridging Cultures! Whew!

Above: Libby and Maliah had a fun playdate at Liberty Kingdom!

On Thursday, May 15, Billy, Libby and I drove down to Corpus Christi, TX to join our friends Doug and Cristie (and the whole Martine/Gill Clan) for a weekend vacation. After arriving on Thursday we chilled out on the beach and met up with the Martine Fam and then went out for dinner where we had the delightful surprise of meeting up with Kristie and Shawn Martinez (Kristie was Libby's nanny for summer camps last year!) On Friday morning the skies were gray and the wind was chilly so we took Libby to the Aquarium. She LOVES fish so that was an easy distraction from the beach.

Friday afternoon - more beach and pool! Friday night - "Family Ties" team meeting for Beach To Bay. Then Saturday morning - RUN RUN RUN! Saturday afternoon and evening - more beach, pool and more Martine/Gill FOOD! Mrs. Billie Gill and Cristie can COOK! YUM! Sunday morning - more beach, pool and a quick drive home (boo hoo).

Doug and Cristie are the dearest friends. They are AMAZING parents! Billy and I are always learning from them. We are so grateful the Lord allowed us to meet them through our adoption journey to Libby (and theirs to Maliah!). It struck me in a fresh way, over the weekend, that Libby and Maliah have known each other longer than they've known us. What an incredible bond they have. I cherish that so much. I believe it is an extra special, intentional gift from Jesus. His ways are so AWE-INSPIRING PERFECT!

Cristie - I enjoyed our time together, friend - and the run!! You are one of the most precious, kind, gifted, loving, thoughtful people I know. You have a heart of gold. You are genuine. You work SO HARD! AND your heart for adoption and missions is greatly admired! Love you, friend! Can't wait to train some more and run next year's race as fast as the Kenyans! HAHA!

For those thinking, "I've never known Cindy to be a runner".... you are sooooooo right! So here's what happened: The race we ran was the Beach to Bay 6 Man Marathon in North Padre (truly the highlight of my vacation!). We had 6 runners on our team. I've been training for 2 months with Cristie. She started me out running one mile and lifting weights. Then we worked up to 4 miles. I ran my first 4 mile run just 2 weeks before the race. Once we arrived in Corpus we realized my leg was actually 4.7 miles and I got a wee bit nervous about the extra distance - having only run 4 miles in an air conditioned gym with no wind! I had to pee at least 3 times before the run due to my nerves and still when I started my leg I felt like I had to go again. For the first two miles I felt like I had a full bladder and it was all I could think about! UGH! Also - there were supposed to be mile markers. I kept looking for the one mile mark and was probably well into my second mile feeling quite discouraged that my first mile was taking FOREVER! Finally at the second water station I ran by a volunteer and asked what mile we were at and he said 2! Boy was I glad to hear that. My first mile wasn't a 20 minute run after all! HAHA! My leg was 4.7 miles and I ran it in 48 minutes! I was totally proud of myself! During the race I learned that running outside is truly different than a treadmill (much harder on your body!). I'm a little soar today. Anyway - I DID IT!! And I didn't die! YEAH! There could be no greater moment than finishing up my leg and seeing Cristie dancing at the end ready to take the baton.

Below are some FABULOUS photos from the beach!

Enjoy the pics! Chow!

Just had to include this photo - affectionately titled "Shapely Head". After returning home this evening I started working on the computer. I turned around to check on Libby and she was wearing a shape sorter on her head, playing guitar and watching TV. I just had to giggle! So cute!

Three Cups of Tea

Since that fun day our family has been busy - maybe too busy. Over the last week my body told me it was through! I crashed this week and finally on Thursday I intentionally slowed down, stopped answering the phone, left my computer behind and picked up a good book. And wouldn't you know it - the Lord had a plan to show me something in those sweet pages.

I've been reading a book called "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. The book is about one of the author's - Mortenson - who was a mountain climber that ended up in a remote Muslim "town" of Pakistan, called Korphe, due to a failed attempt to climb K2. Mortenson promises the native, Muslim people who took such great care of him that he would come back and build a school. He indeed does that and so much more, but not without tremendous effort and time. I do not know if Mortenson is a believer (though I haven't finished the book, so maybe I'll be surprised by the end). But God has used so much of Mortenson's story to speak to my heart about our time with the Somali people.

As I read this book I was gently reminded by Jesus to stop making my own plans and follow his lead in simply building relationships with people.

In "Three Cups of Tea" it takes Mortenson several years to get the first school built. There are many reasons, but mainly the people were slow by American standards in getting the project done. When Mortenson tries to control the situation and push the people to finish the school, the main elder (Haji Ali) pulls Mortenson aside and says, "If you want to thrive in Baltistan, you must respect our ways. ... The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family, and for our family, we are prepared to do anything, even die. Doctor Greg, you must make time to share three cups of tea. We may be uneducated. But we are not stupid. We have lived and survived here for a long time."

Greg Mortenson goes on to say, "That day, Haji Ali taught me the most important lesson I've ever learned in my life. We Americans think you have to accomplish everything quickly. We're the country of thirty-minute power lunches and two-minute football drills...Haji Ali taught me to share three cups of tea, to slow down and make building relationships as important as building projects. He taught me that I had more to learn from the people I work with than I could ever hope to teach them."

Mortenson HAD spent time getting to know the people. The project to build the school was taking years longer than expected. He probably had hundreds of cups of tea. But somehow, the community still wanted more relationship from him than service.

Mortenson came to the people of Korphe and won their hearts because he loved them and let them teach him. Obviously, in the end, they need more than our love, but I believe our love will lead to the "more". Let love lead! When questions about Jesus or our faith come up we don't hesitate to answer and teach - but we need to remember that when the questions do not come it is okay to let them teach us. I think if we're all honest with ourselves - that takes more humility and change of thinking than we want to admit.

Here are some other family fun details in pics:

Libby and Daddy on Fiesta Parade Day: Libby is turning into a jokester - every time I counted to 3 to take this picture she would do a funny face. I was lucky to get this smile rather than eyes rolled back into her head with gaping mouth!

Libby with her class at the parade with crazy hats and shakers (turned into drums for Libby).

A few of Libby's Chinese friends met for breakfast. The moms behind me must have been making some crazy noises and faces bc each of the girls' faces is saying, (with teenage sass and a valley girl accent, of course) "Oh-My-Gosh... that is NOT my mom acting that way in public. How embarassing."

Foote and Martine girls are so cute together!

So - I'll have to explain this one: Libby loves to get into mommy's bathroom drawer. She gets spanked every time, but still she plunders. The other day I noticed it was quiet so I went to my bathroom to see if she was there. Sure enough, she was. But I could hide my laughter. Libby discovered mascara in my drawer (which I didn't know was there!) and she even knew where to put it - well, kinda.

Libby picked out one of her Chinese dresses to wear to a dinner party. Isn't she a doll!!

The other thing Libby finds in momma's bathroom drawer is floss - and she loves to suck on it. Is that weird?

We had a family day at the zoo last week. Libby discovered butterflies in the rare butterfly exhibit. She enjoyed blowing on them to see them fly.

In adoption news - no news. Just waiting on the I-171H. Visit www.adoptingaria.blogspot.com to follow the journey.

Love and Blessings,

Cindy

Liberty Kingdom and God's Kingdom

Libby has a new kingdom - one made of wood, sand and swings! Her daddy spent all day Tuesday building the new swing set with a friend - Steve the Fireman! After a little heat exhaustion and a day's rest we added sand, a chalk board, a Dora chair and a play sword (for Princess Libby to defend her kingdom, of course! - see above pic: Libby wards off bad bald man with her terrible swift sword!). She is smitten, let me tell you! We will be spending some hot afternoons in the backyard from now on! Hopefully some neighborhood kids like Mridula and Mahira can come over for some swing set fun! Grammy and Papa Boots gave us a significant gift card to help pay for "Libby's World". Thank you Grammy and Papa Boots!!!! You're the best!! Oh, and we hung the red swing for little Aria. Can't wait to see both the girls defending their fort and laughing as they swing side by side!





In other news... Daddy and Libby have begun a REAL garage band! Look how serious Libby is about it! Attention mommy and daddy - this may not be a fad.... this may be a real life-time hobby/career!


Libby and her friend, Taylor, had a blast at the San Antonio Children's Museum recently. They could have stayed all day! But truly - it was mommy Cindy and mommy Jenny (a.k.a. Sassy Puppeteers) who were having the most fun!

Libby's way into talking on the phone these days. Yesterday she was wearing a cute sundress with her hair up in one ponytail on top of her head. She was chewing gum (which she LOVES to do) while I tried on some clothes in the Old Navy dressing room. Billy called my cell and Libby wanted to talk. So when it was time to leave the dressing area - out comes cute Libby smacking away as she tells daddy about her day at school and asks him if he's been fishing. Everyone in the store was enjoying that sweet moment.
Libby also loves dogs. Libby's new friend, Lily has two dogs and Libby (not understanding the concept of dogs "fetching" the ball) kept pelting the poor things with the rubber toy. Libby may look all girl - but there is a serious tom-boy in there with a great throwing arm, I might add.

We are finishing up work on a 5 song worship CD. Next week, Kevin will begin the final stages of mixing and then it's off for mastering, printing, etc. We'll let you know when it's ready!



There is a Kingdom that will never pass away. Liberty Kingdom will rot and fall. But the Kingdom of God is victorious and eternal. Picture Jesus in Libby's place (from the top photo in this post). There he stands firm fighting for you and every other helpless soul. What will you do... ignore his authority and commands? That would not be the right response of an otherwise dead person being defended by the highest authority in the land. And now picture eternity - in that eternity there will be some who were the least but have been made the greatest. And some who were the greatest who have been made the least. It is a Kingdom that turns our own upside down, isn't it? May all our own kingdoms fall as we raise the banner high for the only One that fights for us and gives life!


Love,
Cindy