Hello all!  Beth here (praise Jesus!).  I read through Ian’s last update to acquaint myself with where we left off, and boy has a lot happened since then!  Let me start off by saying I am so thankful for all of the updates that Ian gave throughout this whole journey.  My husband is so talented and has blessed many with his writing.  He has understandably become burnt out by everything that we have been through so I will do my best to follow such an act and keep y’all up to date.  Many of you have asked about the clinical trial that we were hoping to participate in on the 10th of September.  Unfortunately we had to prove that I would be strong enough to participate in the trial, and two of the doctors on my team were not confidant that I would even live to see the 10th, let alone be able to walk into the room with no assistance or medication, so we were forced to remove my name from that list.  It was a disappointing decision for sure, but I am so thankful to have physicians who are honest with me about the realities we are facing, and looking for every possible treatment option that fits my current state.  I know how hard it must have been for them to make that decision and have to break that news.  I pray that God blesses them and truly shows them how much they are doing to care for their patients.  That being said we moved on to plan “C”.  Another clinical trial from foundation one that aligned specifically with my diagnosis.  This chemotherapy is a pill made for lung cancer patients, and the goal is to stabilize the growth.  We have been forced to switch gears and realize that instead of a treatment made to kill and cure...we are now moving towards something to stop the growth and simply buy us time.  So....I stabilized enough to be released from the hospital and have been at home taking this new chemotherapy pill twice a day.  My family and friends have stepped up so tremendously in taking care of me and my family.  I have to take this opportunity to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart!  We truly would never have made it this far without you all.  Fast forward 30 days...30 days where I have felt great, spending time playing games with my kids, finding joy in helping with regular household chores, trying to rebuild strength and be up out of bed.  All the while my pain has been completely under control.  So after 30 days we went in and repeated the CT scan.  The plan is to compare this scan with the last one done in the ER at the end of August.  We got the amazing news just this last Friday that the tumors have responded tremendously well!  The two scans side by side don’t even look like they came from the same person.  In fact they are roughly HALF the size that they were just 30 days ago!  There is no more obstruction to my bladder or bowel, and all of the tumors individually are significantly smaller.  The doctors and their staff were cheering and dancing....we had random nurses poking their heads in our room just to congratulate us and celebrate the amazing response.  It felt incredible.  A moment I will never forget.  I am so blessed by God’s work in my body, and feel so privileged and honored to be the front runner in this new medical discovery.  We are obviously not out of the woods yet, but we went from having weeks to live, to the possibility that I could survive this cancer just as much as it could be the thing that takes me home.  We have nothing to go on.  There are no previous cases to study, no data, we are literally the first case to ride this out and we will take it day by day praying to and praising God for everything that he has done.  So moving forward the plan is to continue on with two more cycles.  Two more months proceeding just as we have been...living life, finding joy in the everyday things, loving on my kids, making memories whenever we can.  Then around Thanksgiving time we will repeat the CT scan and see where we are.  The good news is that we can be on these meds indefinitely.  As long as they keep working.  And then we even have one more option for treatment should this stop working.  I am sooooo encouraged about the future!  However, I have to be honest though that while everything with my recovery is going so well, the family dynamic has been hit pretty hard.  I know we have been blessed with an army of prayer warriors and we could really use some prayer for our marriage.  We hit our 15 year anniversary this last June, and Ian and I have been through more in 15 years than most experience in a lifetime, and I’m afraid it is finally taking its toll.  Please pray for us.  Thank you all so much for all of the support.  I will never be able to express how much y’all mean to me and have changed my life for the better.  I am eternally grateful.  Much love, Beth