“Greetings to all. Thank you to everyone for continued prayer for Evan for complete healing and recovery. Evan has reached the halfway point for radiation/chemotherapy treatments and has been blessed with very few side effects. He sometimes has a headache after treatment so he “outsmarts” that with a Tylenol beforehand. He has begun to lose some hair, mostly on the right side, which makes his “crazy hair” more crazy. He has experienced some fatigue, but that could be because of his interrupted sleep.
Each day begins at 4:45 and the schedule of medicines and radiation continues until 9:30. Some days the treatment is followed by doctor appointments or 3 hours of therapy. There is always somewhere to be.
Evan feels very blessed to have so much opportunity to be involved in therapy and spends a lot of his time at home practicing walking, spelling, and the new assignment to put weight on his left hand. Today he did water therapy walking and titled it MOONWALKING. His sense of humor is fun and remains strong!
The cards, prayers and encouragement from friends and family has been amazing and awesome!
In typical Evan fashion he has engaged in conversations with every Emory employee involved in his care… even the valet parking personnel. He has given away numerous banana nut cake and friendship bread slices. As he waits each morning to go into radiation, he greets each worker with a tease about “back to work.” He does not worry that he has difficulty finding the right words, he witnesses and blesses each person and often someone stops to hear his story. These people pray for him and now look for him each day.
In Evans words, at the end of a day of texting with friends and of water therapy with his uncle, “Can anyone feel more loved?”
The transition from the rehab hospital to the Moon family home took some preparation, family and friends, but Evan enjoys an amazing view from his sunroom bedroom. An AC unit was added to keep him cool, shower doors were added to allow him freedom to shower safely and a ramp was built out the front door. Cards, encouraging notes, balloons and gifts are beginning to fill his bedroom and line his windows. The home modifications were paid through the Grace Klein Community assistance program, thanks to the many contributions that have been received towards Evan Moon.
*Please continue to contribute funds towards the Moon family’s emergency needs. Exercise equipment and therapy gear have been purchased to help in Evan’s recovery, hospital bills have been paid and insurance bills are maintained. Denise, Evan’s mom, remains unable to work as Evan requires round-the-clock care. Terry is very creative and has been able to make some of the needed equipment for therapy.
Anytime Birmingham friends travel over for a quick visit, boxes of food are taken to the Moon family to keep them stocked with food and to save them trips to the grocery store. Other local friends have brought meals which helps greatly with their busy radiation, chemo, and therapy schedule.
Evan pushes himself to the limit, helping hoist himself into the seat of the van, trying with all his might to walk, with Denise by his side, or wanting to continue exercises in any free moments. He often falls asleep in the afternoons from sheer exhaustion. Evan understands that how he progresses the first year can determine his recovery success so he spends almost every waking moment giving it all he’s got. He remains agreeable to all the regiments, whether waking super early, remembering to eat meals regularly, doing his homework, exercising or resting. Evan has struggled some from frustration regarding his ability to comprehend long text messages, find the right words he wants to say, and not be able to get up and serve those he adores. The other day, Evan was able to push a window closed for his mom. He was beyond excited to be able to “do something” for someone else!
Evan enjoys trips out of the house, whether it’s to Chick-fil-a with friends, dressing up for Chick-fil-a Cow Appreciation day to score some free food, or driving back and forth from the hospital, the massage therapist, and therapy. The massage therapy was an amazing blessing, paid for by a secret angel, that helped work out some of the pain his body felt after spending over six weeks in a hospital bed. Can you imagine the aches that caused?! Evan is also friends with the therapist’s husband so one day they stopped by to visit him.
One huge blessing is the pool therapy at his uncle’s pool. His parents jump right in to help him. Of course, if they didn’t he would be in serious trouble. No one can go for a swim alone, with only one arm and one leg working! He jokes about the nice life jacket he must wear to get into the pool. If the weather allows, they are at the pool every afternoon practicing the exercises that the therapist has told Evan to do. Evan and his dad have “pretended” to be Gilligan and Skipper. They have frozen some days because of the cold, and every day they wear themselves out with the sun and the physical exertion. Everyone is catching some good summer sleep after time in the sun.
Evan is very thankful for his parents who remain by his side to help him in every way. From middle of the night bathroom runs, transporting him to appointments, dispensing medication, preparing meals, working with him on exercises, helping him move from any place to the next place, translating data into a simple format he understands, washing his clothing, pouring him a glass of sweet tea, on and on. They are literally his hands and feet and he is so grateful for their love and care during this time.
“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” – 1 Corinthians 12:12-27
Please consider giving towards the Moon family assistance through Grace Klein Community. Evan and his family continue to have expenses and we, as the body of Christ, can help carry them in a tangible financial way.
Here’s how you give:
Checks can be mailed to:
Grace Klein Community, Inc., 1678 Montgomery Hwy #104, Birmingham, AL 35216
OR via our website: gracekleincommunity.com/donate
Memo: Evan Moon Assistance Program
