Jessica has been finished with radiation for a few weeks. She has regained a good bit of her energy and has been able to return to many of her activities. Despite her remarkable recovery, evidence of radiation continues. The radiation caused Jessica to loose a good part of her hair. For several months she has sported various incredibly stylish hats both purchased and gifted to us. Jessica looked very good in her hats, but the time had come to seek a more drastic solution.

This past weekend Jessica and her friend Amy Sheen went to Pat Painters a very small, but very friendly wig shop in Austin. Jessica tried on many different styles and finally settled on a very good looking set of hair. Check out pics of her quest at the link below.

Jessica is now starting her 3rd week of radiation therapy. She is doing well. She is a bit tired but it is unclear if that is a result of her medication or a side effect of the therapy. Her mother spent the last week with us and that was very helpful.

The kiddos are doing well. A couple weeks ago Sam started in preschool on Tuesday's and Thursday's. He is in the same class as several of his friends from church and is really enjoying the opportunity to go to school. Ah, the wonderful phase in life where school is still enjoyable. May he stay there forever. Jacob is as portly as ever and is slowly learning a few words here and there. This week he started to say "button". Seems like a strange early word, but I guess when you spend 3 hours a week at church in your dads arms staring at his shirt that is what you come away with.

We hope everyone is doing well. We love you all and are extremely grateful for your prayers and support.

It has now been a year since we learned that Jessica has a brain tumor. It has been rocky at times, but we are grateful for the presence of the Lord in our lives. Our friends and family have reached out and made the year bearable.

Two weeks ago we made yet another trip over to M.D. Anderson to talk with her Oncologist who has been overseeing her treatment. Unfortunately the tumor has not really reduced in size over the past year despite attempts to do so with Chemo. (Thankfully it has not grown either.) In addition the side effects of the Chemo seemed to be increasing with each round and so the decision was made to stop Chemo and seek radiation therapy.

As scary as radiation of the brain sounds, apparently it is not nearly as dangerous or harmful as it appears. The brain is very resilient to radiation, given it comes in small doses. There are risks as with every treatment, but we have more confidence in this treatment and are hopeful that with radiation we can put the tumor into recession and we can move on with our lives.

Today we visited the Radiation Oncologist and the treatment was described. Jessica will undergo treatments for 6 weeks during which time she will be treated 5 days a week Monday through Friday. This treatment should have very minor side effects and should have a dramatic effect on the tumor.

For those curious about the particular radiation technology to be employed take a look at the web site below. Her specific treatment is call IMRT. Jessica is in our prayers and we are hopeful this is the answer.

We now bring you a bunch of new page features including videos, and the ability to add comments to pictures and videos. The page also has an RSS feed that allows you to stay up to date on our new, pictures, and videos.

We wish you all a very safe and happy Halloween. We are excited to head out and trek around the neighborhood with our little brave knight and dragon, enjoying a very fun holiday. We enjoy living in a neighborhood where Halloween is widely celebrated and look forward to the outing. We are even more excited because Grandma Stoddard will be visiting and will get to participate in the festivities.

It has been a very long time since we have posted any news. As you might imagine our lives have been a bit hectic; however, we are doing well.

Jessica's treatment continues to go pretty well. She finished her eighth round of chemo three days ago and has started to recover. Jessica has an appointment for an MRI on the 26th of this month. We are confident that this MRI will show positive improvement. We will visit M.D. Anderson at the beginning of November to discuss the findings from the MRI. We appreciate everyone's prayers and love.

Speaking of love, we are grateful for loving families. Our families have made the last months bearable. Even though we are many miles away our families they have continually reached out to us. Since finding out about Jessica's condition we have had visits from a number of our siblings, and both Neil's and Jessica's parents. This past week our families once again reached out in love and provided us with a full sized freezer. Since Jessica is not currently allowed to drive, the freezer will make our lives significantly easier and will allow us to stock up for a few weeks or months at a time.

Our siblings are planning to provide gift cards to Costco to fill the freezer. We are exceedingly blessed to have such wonderful families.

Monday is Sam's 4th birthday. We can't believe that he is already turning 4. He is very excited for his birthday party on Monday evening. It should be a pretty casual party with just a few of our close friends. Sam can't wait to open his presents.

We would love to leave our love at this time and to thank everyone for their love and support. May God bless you all.

Love,

Neil, Jessica, Sam and Jacob

It has taken quite a bit of time for treatment to actually start. The treatments were delayed while we waited for additional tests. The results indicated that the tumor has a chromosomal abnormality. This abnormality makes the tumor more sensitive to chemotherapy and radiation.

After receiving these hopeful results we discussed the various treatment options available. In addition to her very competent oncologist here in town we also have sought the opinion of doctors at MD Anderson in Houston. Doctors agreed that chemotherapy was the best course of action at this time. MD Anderson suggested using a chemotherapy drug called Temodar.

Temodar is a recently released chemotherapy drug that has fewer side effects than previous treatment options. In addition the drug is administered in pill form which allows Jessica to take the drug at home.

The complete treatment plan was developed by doctors at MD Anderson and was provided to the doctor here in Austin. The doctor in town is now administering the plan. We have been impressed and grateful for the close cooperation shown by the doctors.

Treatments will consist of 5 days taking the pills followed by a 23 day break between treatments. If blood levels stay at a healthy level the treatments will continue for up to two years. Jessica will have MRIs at least every two months to track progress.

Jessica completed her first treatment a few weeks ago and things are going pretty well. She is still tired from all the medication but in good spirits.

A week and a half ago we learned that Jessica has developed a brain tumor. The diagnosis came after Jessica had several seizures in the morning the Sunday before last. Jessica was rushed to the hospital and underwent a number of tests including a CT scan and an MRI. The tests showed that Jessica has a brain tumor on the right frontal lobe right up against the motor strip.

Thursday of last week Jessica underwent brain surgery to obtain an biopsy of the tumor. The biopsy results have shown that the tumor is a stage II oligodendroglioma. While news of a brain tumor is never good news we feel blessed that this is one of the more treatable brain tumors.

We still have much to learn about the condition but we feel at peace and know the Lord is with us. Jessica has recovered very nicely from the surgery and was able to return home yesterday morning. We are very glad to have her home with us.

On Monday, Jessica will meet with the oncologist to talk about possible treatment options. We pray that the Lord will continue to bless us as we endure this trial in our lives. We will keep our family and friends posted as we have more news.

We welcome Jacob Neil Stoddard to our family. He was born on November 4th, 2006 at 12:07 AM and weighed 7 pounds 15 ounces. He was 19 3/4 inches long. We are so excited to have Jacob in our family.

I have now pushed the newest revision to this site live. I have added a guestbook for anyone that would like to post messages. Feel free to click the Guests link at the top and visit our little guestbook.

This week Neil started his new employment with National Instruments. We also moved into a house last week. Things are going very well and we are enjoying our new life in Texas.

We think we have found our new home. We are still working out the details but it seems to have a lot of promise. We almost can't believe it. The address is 1500 Molson Lake, Leander, TX 78641

We are actively looking for a new home in the Austin Area. Likely we will be heading down the second weekend in December. We are all excited about the prospect of our first home. Neil is even excited about cutting grass.

Sam enjoyed trick-or-treating more than we would have ever expected. It is amazing how quickly children can learn how to go door-to-door when they get candy at each door. Maybe someone should implement this sort of training in the MTC.

We have accepted National Instrument's offer and are moving to Austin. We are looking forward to having a real job and to learning about a new place. We loved our Summer down there and are very excited to move back.

We can also post links in the cool links page. The whole site should be fully operational by the end of the summer.