Dear Cancer, You are about to get your butt kicked. Sincerely, The Coakleys

Dear friends, family and loved ones,

My amazing husband, Paul, could really use your prayers. Mr. Invincible hasn't been feeling well recently. We saw a doctor in September, but things didn't seem like they were a big deal and our new insurance hadn't kicked in. Over Thanksgiving Paul got a cold and was really not doing well. He finally started coughing up blood, so after work last Friday (Dec. 19th) he went to a walk-in clinic. An x-ray of his chest found "Innumerable small, moderate, large, rounded bilateral pulmonary masses, highly suspicious for mailignancy." The walk-in clinic scheduled him to see a pulmonologist yesterday (Dec. 23rd). We were at the hospital from 9:30am until 5pm. The result: Testicular cancer that has metastisized to his lungs. The doctor believes its probably in his abdomen as well and that with the chest/arm/shoulder pain Paul's been experiencing he may need to have a later surgery on his lymphatic system. My Superman will go into Maury Regional Hospital at 7am the morning after Christmas to have surgery to remove the testicle. They will run more test and start developing a game plan from there.

Paul and I have felt an incredible amount of peace and grace that we know comes from all the many prayers we've alrady received in this short time. The doctor (who was wonderful and a strong Christian!) said that he wasn't going to sugar-coat it. Its really bad. But he was really positive and thinks that, with prayer, Paul's going to cope well.

Its pretty scary and crazy, but we are happy to be able celebrate the birth of Our Lord, who has already conquered death, together with our beautiful children and family. We left the hospital and drove straight into Nashville to pick up Paul's brother, John, who has already been a huge help playing with the kids and keeping them distracted while we deal with other things. We are blessed to be at my parent's house where the kids are distracted and have the best babysitters in the world so Paul and I can be together for doctor appointments. This morning our well pump went out, so we are with out water, but my dad and my brothers went straight to work fixing it. So many blessings!

Yesterday, while waiting for the doctor come in, Paul got to feel our baby kick for the first time! This miraculous baby, who was conceived shortly after the loss of our twins this past spring, was a reminder of how much God is watching over us. The doctor warned us, barely 15 minutes after baby's little karate demonstration, that we may not be able to have more children when all this is over and done, so yes. This baby is another confirmation at how much God is watching out for us!

We love you all and pray that your Christmas is beautiful and miraculous. Please keep us in your prayers and know that we are offering our sufferings up for the intentions of our loved ones. We are blessed to have several people offering novenas up for Paul's full recovery and we are doing a novena to Blessed Margaret of Castello asking that she interced on behalf of Paul to Our Lord and that his healing be a move towards her canonization. This is the novena we are using if you'd like to join: http://dominicanidaho.org/novenablmar.html

We can not tell you all how deeply we've felt everyone's love and concern. We apologize if we can't personally respond to everyone right away, but we really appreciate knowing that you all are lifting us up in prayer. God bless you all!

Merry Christmas!
Paul, Annie and the kiddos