BOEY WAS HEAVEN ON EARTH AND IS NOW IN HEAVEN WITH HER KING

On Dec 28th 2007, our beautiful radiant warrior princess went home to be with her King. Boey heard the words "well done my good and faithful servant" while he placed all the glorious heavenly crowns of life, righteousness, glory, rejoicing and incorruptible rewards on top of her beautiful head. Boey fought the good fight of faith until the very end and cancer NEVER took her radiant exuberant Christ loving spirit. Christ's love radiated through her and all she did. We pray that the extraordinary way she chose to live and believe will be an open invitation to living your life for Jesus and his Kingdom. 2 Timothy 4:7. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.

This web site celebrates Jenssa's brave battle, provides progress reports and invites prayers.

Happy Father’s Day to my special muscle man daddy. Love your Boey 

June 20th, 2009

“HI DADDY, THIS IS YOUR BOEY. I ASKED GOD TO GIVE YOU THE BEST FATHER’S DAY EVER CAUSE I LOVE YOU MORE THAN YOU’LL EVER KNOW. GOD COULD NOT HAVE GIVEN ME A MORE SPECIAL DADDY THAN YOU. I LOVE YOU WITH ALL MY HEART AND I TREASURE ALL MY MEMORIES OF OUR BUTTERFLY KISSES. REMEMBER THIS SPECIAL SONG DADDY? YOU USE TO SING IT TO ME WHEN I WAS A BABY AND IT MADE YOU CRY. JESUS IS TAKING SUCH GOOD CARE OF ME DADDY, I’VE HAD SO MANY FASHION SHOWS UP HERE, IT’S SOO FUN!! I KEEP ASKING JESUS WHEN YOUR GONNA GET HERE, HE JUST LOOKS AT ME AND SMILES THE MOST AMAZING SMILE AND SAYS “SOON YOU WILL BE TOGETHER MY BEAUTIFUL PRINCESS, BUT FIRST MOMMY DADDY AND YOUR BROTHERS HAVE GOD’S WORK TO FINISH ON EARTH THEN YOU WILL SEE THEM”. I KNOW HOW MUCH YOU MISS ME DADDY. I KNOW HOW MUCH YOUR HURTING CAUSE YOU LOVE ME WITH PERFECTED AGAPE HEAVENLY LOVE AND THAT’S WHY I COULD BE SO STRONG GOING THROUGH CANCER. IT NEVER WON BECAUSE PERFECT LOVE CASTS OUT ALL FEAR AND YOU AND MOMMY GAVE ME PERFECT LOVE DADDY. REMEMBER THAT I WENT TO HEAVEN WITH A SMILE ON MY FACE DADDY, THAT’S BECAUSE I HAD THE ULTIMATE VICTORY AND NASTY EVIL CANCER NEVER BROKE MY SPIRIT OR FAITH IN MY KING. I DIDN’T WANT TO LEAVE YOU GUYS SO SOON, BUT JESUS PROMISED ME HE WOULD TAKE EXTRA GOOD CARE OF YOU AND SEND SPECIAL PEOPLE TO SURROUND YOU WITH HIS LOVE. PLEASE LISTEN TO OUR SPECIAL SONG AND REMEMBER THAT SOON YOU AND I WILL DANCE TOGETHER AND SHARE ENDLESS BUTTERFLY KISSES IN HEAVEN. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH DADDY.

YOU WILL ALWAYS BE MY SPECIAL MUSCLE MAN DADDY - I LOVE YOU SO MUCH - YOUR BOEY

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO WATCH THE BEAUTIFUL FATHERS DAY VIDEO TRIBUTE FROM BOEY TO HER DADDY BY USING THE LINK BELOW:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uCbj5ba778&feature=channel_page

We stand in awe of our awesome loving and amazing Father in heaven who loves us beyond anything we can ever comprehend here on earth. We dedicate Father’s Day to him and to all Dad’s who are his extension of unconditional love and strength. If you have never had the gift of knowing your father or having a father that loved you and was there for you, please know that your father in heaven loves you and is waiting for you with open arms. He will never leave you or forsake you. His love is perfect.

God Bless

The Byers

He is Risen! 

April 14th, 2009

Blessings to all during this beautiful glorious Easter season. We hope your Easter was full of the love, peace and joy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We had a beautiful and peaceful day with family and friends reflecting on God’s amazing love and all he has done for us at Calvary. Praise God that in Christ there are no goodbye’s and we will see our precious Boey soon someday. Our family is continuing to go through the grieving process, it’s an extremely painful road to be on and we could never do it without our awesome God carrying us through drawing us deeper and deeper into his heart.

The boys are doing well and excited about all God is doing in them and through them. God has blessed them with many musical gifts to be used for his Kingdom. Rob and I are seeking God’s perfect will and destiny’s for our family’s life.

The Believe For Boey Foundation is a part of Boey’s legacy, one that we are honored to carry on until we are reunited with her in heaven. Thankyou so much on behalf of our family and all cancer families for your donations. Because of your generosity,  we are able to bring the love of Christ to these amazing families. Thank you to the beautiful ladies at North Side Church for donating the stunningly beautiful quilts that were made with so much love and TLC. We donated some of them to a couple local familes who have children with cancer. What a blessing it was to see this children so full of joy when they saw the quilts and other gifts. Thank you for being a part of such a special ministry:).

We will continue to update Boey’s site with all the latest on cancer research, events, fundraising, and of course the Believe For Boey Foundation. God has revealed so many things to us over the last year and four months since our precious Boey entered into eternity with her King. Rob and I are excited to be writing the book, we can’t wait to tell Boey’s story and all God has done. We are truly honored to tell her extraordinary story of faith, hope and love and the extreme spiritual transformation our entire family has experienced. All  Glory goes to our awesome God!

We are hanging on to Jesus and the blessed hope of the rapture. If you haven’t had the blessing of meeting Boey in person, she would tell you to make sure you are safe in Jesus and know him as your Lord and Savior so she can meet you in heaven! We want to see everyone there:). I have realized just how much time in the past we’ve spent on researching different destinations, but never our eternal destinations(not until Boey was diagnosed in Jan  of 06 did God open our eyes to this). PLEASE take the time to research where you will be spending eternity. If you have accepted Jesus into your heart as your Lord and Savior, we will have eternity to hang out in heaven! I can’t wait to meet all the beautiful people our precious extraordinary daughter has affected and brought into the Kingdom because of her faith hope and love for her King.

Blessings to you and your families, may the peace and love of Christ fill your homes, hearts and lives:). God Bless

How to Suffer

Mark 15:20

Then they led him away to be crucified.

If one day we will receive comfort from afflictions, rest from labor, health after sickness, and eternal life from death, it isn’t right to agonize over temporal, human pain…We should consider such matters to be the test and exercise of a righteous life. For how can we have patience if there isn’t previous labor and sorrow? Or how can our strength be tested without attacks from the enemy?…Finally, how can we see righteousness unless the sin of very wicked people appears previously? As a result, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ reminds us how to suffer. When He was beaten, He bore it patiently. Although verbally abused, He didn’t lash out in return. When He suffered, He didn’t speak threats but gave His back to the torturers and His cheeks to buffetings. He didn’t turn His face away from the spitting but was willingly led to His death so that we could see the image of righteousness in Him. By following these examples, we can tread on serpents, scorpions, and all of the enemy’s power.

Max Lucado His Passion

I received a miracle healing!!! 

January 15th, 2009

Ok hold on to your hats!!! Are you sitting down…You better be to hear this story!

I got the MRI back and the report revealed that I have what is called a partial empty sella. What this means is that my pituitary is pushed down in the cavern in my head. We made an appointment to have the doctor explain what this means. He said that it is caused by either a birth defect or a tumor that “used to be there.” Knowing that I had a normal MRI 5 years ago we knew that it had to be a tumor!!!!  We asked how it disappears and the doctor responded, “for some unknown reason it necrotizes” I had to laugh when my beautiful wife was behind the doctor mouthing “I know why and pointing to GOD.”

                I received a miracle in the last 30 days. I met with my pastor and the man who facilitates the healing rooms and I asked them to pray about the pituitary situation. The presence of GOD was tangible when they prayed for me and I could tell God was doing something. At the time I specifically recall them cursing the tumor and commanding it to die and disappear. Interesting that is exactly what happened. 2 additional times in church when I went forward for prayer I have fealt the same annointing of Gods presence upon me and felt things in my body being worked on.

                I have many deep feelings concerning this. It is very interesting that the pituitary gland is just a few centimeters away from the first location of BOEY’s cancer! I have asked the questions of why me and why not BOEY? I have a couple thoughts that I will share.

                First thought is that I am not done with my mission here on earth. I am asking God for and believing for healing for others and to express and reveal how much Love God has for them. I want to have something to bring to heaven with me when I reunite with my BOEY and I am excited for whatever God is preparing my family for!

                Second thought is only part of a thought and I will say it is a very deep issue and that you will have to get the book I am writing for me to fully articulate it. It concerns what Jesus said in John 12:24 “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”   This will take a lot to fully explain but it would appear that this beautiful healing I have received is somewhat of a firstfruits of the seed that Boey sewed. May it be the first of many many many healings. Thank you Jesus. We love you.

I am in awe and happy and sad and excited and amazed…whats new.God is good

Going down into the pit. 

January 3rd, 2009
1 I waited patiently for the LORD;And He inclined to me,And heard my cry.2 He also brought me up out of a horrible pit,

 Out of the miry clay,
And set my feet upon a rock,
And established my steps.
3 He has put a new song in my mouth—
Praise to our God;
Many will see it and fear,
And will trust in the LORD.

Wow! A horrible pit. I can relate…

Surviving this Christmas season as a family without our BOEY could be described as being in a pit. The above scripture came to me on Wednesday because I was scooted into a MRI machine that really felt like a pit from which I needed rescue.

Doctors say that I may have a pituitary tumor that is causing my medical problems.(to quickly summarize Yes it was very stressful after all we have been through to hear that I may have a tumor close to my brain just like my daughter did but we are either very strong or very jaded so we just make the decisions we must to keep going. If it is a tumor it would not be cancerous most likely anyways or I’d be dead by now)

As I went to the same building I brought Boey to many times my heart ached even more for her. As I told the technician about my daughter and my emotional struggle he compassionately replied that this may be good because I can experience what my daughter endured. He secured my head and slid me 4 feet into the MRI tube and instantly I completely freaked out!!! I felt trapped and extremely claustrophobic

My heart was racing and I was very scared. My thoughts went to my 8 year old daughter…I was once again amazed! Did she really do this countless times? Radiation with her head bolted to the table with machines buzzing? Did she really do this exact test with her painful tumor pressing on her head and bleeding into her brain? Without complaint? My admiration of her courage ballooned.

As well as admiration my thoughts were directed to how much Rachel and I comforted Bo during these times. It was a tremendous reassurance to know that I was able to be there for most every appointment and hospital stay and fearful moment and that I really did know how to comfort and love my baby during these times. If I never ever do anything right in this world again I know that I did that one thing right and it makes me tear up to know this.

I am virtual cornucopia of emotions. At that moment I was feeling extreme fear, extreme admiration, and extreme love and then the logic part of my brain kicked in to control the situation as it often does. I needed to be rational, not emotional , so I could accomplish the task at hand. Fear and love and admiration and memories all at the same time. They were all genuine and they were all valid but none of them could enable me to climb back into the pit!

I used my reasoning ability to reckon that if I totally couldn’t hack it and I freaked out agaun, I could wiggle out of the tube and onto the floor. This knowing enabled me to overcome the fear and go back in. This experience was pretty much a metaphor for the emotions that I am still dealing with in my life.

It looks very similar to the way King David dealt with his feelings in Psalm 22 Where he is in anguish and screaming to God “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He then poured out pain and his feelings of rejection until he says “YET… ( I can hear his logical mind engage right there); “Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel. In you our fathers put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them.” Then He rattles off more of his emotional complaints but it is mixed with proclamations of Faith in the God that delivers.

So the Psalm plays out how David processed with GOD. It is one example of how one mans emotional anguish and his logic work together to hold on to the reality of a situation and faith in God’s ability to influence things.

The biggest thing that I am learning from GOD these days is that he does not try to deprogram our emotions and he does not invalidate what we feel. He does allow and sometimes even ask us to do things that we don’t want to do but as a loving Father he sticks close to us. He does not demand unquestioning obedience and he honors “being real”

I imagine that I look like a schizophrenic at times. I have never felt so close to GOD and so aware of his influence in my life; at the exact same time I have never felt so emotionally distant and abandoned by God. Does this make sense…not rationally, but it is precisely what is going on with me. It feels good because I feel like I am being taken care of by someone bigger than myself. It also feels uncomfortable because I am not the most powerful being in my world.

I can sense God going deeper, in a more real way that includes all the way I am feeling. I get angry at him sometimes. Especially in the area of finance where I am constantly stretched. I have the desire to share how I have failed to believe…People write and comment about how our Faith is inspiring and that is very comforting. But I want to be clear; I am not always a tower of strength and faith, for myself, or for my wife and family. And I guess that’s all ok, even though it does not feel ok.

God is building faith and trust in to me and my family block by block. I feel much like Job with my daughter gone, financial stress and medical problems. I am very much like Job at time. Especially the times he cursed the day of his birth and complains…but I know that God allows me to be real and understands.

My friend last night at church reminded me of my own blog on jan 19 called And What About GOD? click here to see

I told of how when Boey was in utter pain from a broken hip and I had to carry her she lashed out at me because she had not the language to express her pain and I, as her loving daddy took no offense but rather saw her security in my love for her; especially as I saw her fall back asleep whispering “I love you…I love you…I love you…” He reminded me that God is much more aware of me and loves me exactly where I am.

God can take it…and he wants all of our heart…including and especially these painful hurting parts. I include this for the people who read my blogs that are grieving. I want them to know that God has grace when you blow up at him and when your flesh tells you GOD is bad…He gets it and he loves you and has even more grace for at that time because you need it.

I am learning that I am a complicated person at times. I can have faith and doubt, love and anger, trust and fear at the same time. I also am learning that God understands and honors that and is teaching me to use my rational mind to make the decisions that I decide to make. I, of course, choose him. He is drawing close to me and its through the hard times that I am nudged closer to him.

God is bringing me up out of the horrible pit.

It helps that my OSU BEAVERS beat Pittsburg yesterday!! Get it :Pittsburg! Ok I know I am weird but I love my Beavs!


Remembering our precious Warrior Princess Jenessa Nicole “Boey” Byers 

December 27th, 2008

 

 I pray everyone had a beautifully blessed Christmas as we celebrate the birth of our savior Jesus Christ. Me and my three boys had a very low key Christmas full of tears and laughter as we remembered our beautiful Boey. It wasn’t much of a Christmas without Boey’s infectious radiant spirit and laughter filling the house, but we still managed to get through the day. Boey would’ve been very proud of her mommy.

 I made the boys an incredibly delicious Christmas meal and listened to worship music the entire day.  Jesus carried us through and there were many times we could feel Boey’s presence, we knew she was close. It was a blessing to have our hearts focused on the most awesome gift of all, eternal life.  Celebrating the true meaning of Christmas and what eternal life means to us was the best Christmas present any of us could ever have received.

 This Christmas all of us were even more grateful than ever for the gift of eternal life knowing the blessed hope of being with our precious Boey again. Just knowing she is more of our future eternity than our past is so comforting through the heart wrenching pain of not having her right here with us.

Praise God that in Christ there are no goodbye’s and this is only our temporary dwelling. We are all  detached from this world and the things of this world. Our hearts are in heaven with Jesus and Boey. They are what we live for now and forever until we are home in heaven.

 When Boey went to heaven she took my heart and a huge part of who I am with her. I was born to be her mommy and I thank God that I always will be and nothing will ever take that away from me. We will be together again and nothing will ever take my baby girl away from me. My mothers heart longs for my daughter. God made us as eternal beings that live forever, death was never a part of God’s plan. Praise God that before the foundations of the world he set a plan of redemption in place through his son Jesus so we could be with him for eternity in heaven.

 I know that I would never ever be able to survive without my faith and love for Jesus. I am just so grateful for who God is and how much he loves us.

It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since I’ve held my beautiful Boey, talked to her, heard her adorable laugh that shakes the heavens, had mommy and special shopping Boey time(Boey never had enough shoes, she was a shoeaholic lol), baked cookies and cakes for the nurses, acted silly together and laughed until we peed our pants, shared make up, sharing makeovers together, jumped on the trampoline so high she would go flinging up in the air and the entire neighborhood could hear her laughing, prayed and worshipped the Lord together, dress up Tia in her build a bear outfits, stuff Bella in her bed, watching her take out her brothers with wrestling, singing karaoke with Chris and Joe and always singing over them lol,  talking with excitement about helping her friends in Uganda and holding the babies there and praying for them, looking into her daddys eyes and saying “look at me daddy, look at me, are you looking at me?? I LOVE YOU!!”, hearing her call her daddy “my special muscle man daddy”, laughing hysterically as she went up to people that were smoking and would say “hey! Do you see this bald head?” They’d instantly put their cigarette down and she’s help them stomp on it LOL, sewing pillows for her warrior friends in the hospital, being the cutest CEO ever and writing down her goals and dreams for the foundation, hearing her adorable voice say “mommy can you buy me a lipstick? I wont pick out a dark one mommy I promise. Oh mommy, look at these cute nails can I have these too?”It was always a tradition whenever we went to the store she’d always ask for those two things and we’d just look at eachother and start cracking up. She knew I couldn’t say no whenever she flashed me her adorable signature boey smile.

 My all time favorite memories are the ones where we were together just holding eachother and I had full access to her sweet soft beautiful precious cheeks. I could never get enough of those awesome Boey cheeks! They were sooooo kissable. She’d start laughing as I’d tickle her with my kisses..then we’d both start cracking up and try to outkiss eachother. The best arguments I ever had in my entire life were the ones where Boey and I are argued about who loved eachother more. And as always we’d end up in a kissing war and laughing our butts off. I am so lost without my best friend, my hero, my perfect princess warrior, and at the same time so grateful that God gave me my Boey to experience true heavenly love here on earth.

We were and always will be best friends that share a very deep and special connection. We could just look at each other and know what the other was thinking..most of the time we’d just blurt out what we thought the other was thinking and start laughing hysterically. It was especially funny when she’d get kind of sassy and I’d make her laugh no matter how hard she tried to keep a serious face. She was always so much fun, pure joy, laughter, non stop excitement and pure heaven on earth.

I thank God every day that he chose me and Rob to be her parents. If I don’t do anything else in my life, I will always be perfectly content knowing the eight and a half years of pure heavenly joy I experienced through my daughters love. I thank God every day that he chose me to be her mother. All good and perfect gifts come from our father in heaven and Boey was my perfect gift. She unlocked places in my heart I never knew existed and brought me closer to Jesus than I ever dreamed possible. She showed me what true unconditional agape love is.

For the two years fighting for my precious daughter’s life I lived out the true meaning of perfect love casting out all fear. Boey showed all of us that no matter what your circumstances are, it can’t take away our joy, our love for others and most importantly our faith in Christ. What a blessing to have a child with the faith to heal a nation and a heart of pure heavenly gold. She was a pure innocent perfect precious vessel the Lord chose to glorify his name. I know with all my heart and soul that my daughter is beaming while looking into the eyes of her savior and saying “all the pain was worth it Jesus, look at how my story and my faith in you has brought people to your Kingdom, it was all worth it Jesus”.

Boey has changed our life forever. We are all transformed by her agape love, faith in Jesus Christ our savior and the way she chose to live her life despite her ongoing suffering. Boey’s light will always shine bright. She has changed the world forever. She believed the CCCA Bill would be signed despite the odds and fought for it even while she suffered from a recurrence. She believed and knew in her heart that the bill would be signed by the president allocating 150 million dollars in funds towards pediatric cancer research and a cure. On July 29th, President Bush signed the CCCA Act into law. We are so proud of our daughter for writing to her senator and asking him to sign the bill.  Once he signed it and spoke about Boey on the senate floor, it caused a snowball effect and senators from all over the nation signed on to the bill. To say we are proud is an understatement.

The Lord is continuing to amaze us with the way he is using her story to bring others close to him. Extreme Makeover Home Edition continues to air our show all over the world and every week her guestbook is bombarded with messages of how her faith courage and love for the Lord has brought them back to God. All glory to you Lord! The show airs everywhere from Norway, the UK, Belgium, Sweden, Canada, Brazil, Iraq(soldiers write the most heart wrenching beautiful letters saying Boey is their hero..incredible), Germany, Netherlands and of course here in the US. God is using her story in the most powerful ways and it’s very healing and comforting to us knowing that our daughter’s story continues to be told and always will be until we are reunited with her in heaven.

We are so grateful for all the Lord has revealed to us during the last year of intense and unbearable pain. When we draw close to him he draws close to us. Even when it feels like we are suffocating in pain, we know he is right here with us mending our broken hearts and using our pain to make us more like his son. We are so grateful for the healing dreams, visions, him speaking to us, our boys on fire for the Lord, and him drawing us deep into his heart during this time. God is continuing to write The Believe The Boey Byers Story, we can’t wait to finally get the entire story out!! The blogs that Rob and I write don’t even begin to touch all the Lord has said and done in our lives. It’s an honor to write a book on our daughter, who she is and all she went through. We plan on including our experience with EMHE, Chris Daughtry her rock star friend who gave her so much encouragement and love, her biggest dreams and passions for the foundation, her intense love and faith for the Lord despite the horrible pain she was in especially at the end with a broken spine, hip and brain surgeryL, and so much more. It’ll be quite a novel and we are honored that we are able to write it in honor of our beautiful and brave princess warrior.

We thank God for all of the amazing people he has brought into our lives. We cherish all of you and can never thank you enough for all the words of encouragement, support, prayers, love, ornaments sent for Boey’s perfect pink tree, and the thoughtful letters sent to the boys. As we move into a New Year, I pray God’s blessings on each and every one of you. I pray that your walk with the Lord will draw you closer to him than ever before and you will experience him in ways you never dreamed of.  We are excited to see all that God is going to do through the foundation and how he is going to use our family to minister to other families experiencing the nightmare of cancer. We can’t wait to see how God is going to use our boys gifts to advance Gods Kingdom here on earth and bless others. This has been an extremely surreal painful and heartwrenching year, we are looking forward to being a part of God using all we’ve been through for his glory. We look forward to the joy, restoration, peace and joy that only God can bring to our broken hearts.

I would love to hear how Boey’s love and faith has changed your life. Please include what specific changes you are making for 2009 and what part you’d like to play in the Believe For Boey Foundation and making all of Boey’s dreams come true. Please leave a comment on this blog, I am putting together a beautiful scrapbook in her honor and I would love to include your beautiful messages.

Please light a candle tonight as we remember our warrior princess and her entrance into heaven. If you’d like to take pictures of the candle we would love to have that for her scrapbook. We will be staying up crying and remembering our precious angel baby until 12:14 a.m, the exact second Jesus carried her home to heaven. Just like Boey said in her you tube video, I WON CANCER I WON!! You sure did baby girl, cancer never touched your spirit and you never stopped believing or fighting…all the way up until your very last heartbeat. You are our hero sweetheart, always and forever.

May God bless you and your families richly in 2009

Have a safe and blessed New Year,

In Christ,

Rachel