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"You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You." Isaiah 26:3 I spoke this verse on repeat during the last few weeks of Michael's hospital stay, and it was a necessary reminder this last month, too. There was a profound shift in my spirit a few days before that fateful Saturday when we were told Michael was dying and there was nothing more they could do. The truth of those words became our banner - a banner that wrapped us in a coco

"The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still." Over the years, this has become one of my life verses. And not because I love sitting back and letting the Lord do exactly that, it's because I need the reminder more than most. I love taking action. Need a door kicked down? I'm happy to come do that. Michael operates in a similar way. But I love that, here in Exodus 14, in what should feel like an action-packed moment, God is quintessentially telling Moses to chill an

"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly more than we ask or think, according to the power that works in us." Ephesians 3:20 38 days of massive internal bleeding. Over 100 transfusions. Metastatic cancer. Pain. Loss of a loved one. Respiratory issues and oxygen support. One ineffective procedure after another. None of those things sound like "abundantly more". None of those things sound like answered prayers. None of those things sound like blessing. But I can tel

"You need to put your affairs in order. The scope didn't go as planned and he's bleeding out." "There aren’t any more procedures or surgeries we can offer that can fix this." "Emory and Vanderbilt both said no to a transport." "There aren't any options left. You need to have some hard conversations and make decisions regarding life support." It's nothing short of miraculous that despite hearing one piece of bad news after another this past Saturday, a deep, unwavering peace s

24 transfusions. 7 procedures. 3 long hospital stays. This month has been the hardest of our lives. Not only has Michael endured the ongoing internal bleeding and our family has been separated, but we have been hit with one painful thing after another. The cancer has grown. The procedure didn't work. You're not going home any time soon. There may be a new malignant mass. Your brother/brother-in-law is in heaven now. A potentially life-changing surgery is probably your only op

It’s been three weeks since Michael was in the ICU and he was recovering well at home. As hard as it is for him to be still, he listened to his medical team and took it easy so his body could heal. When he had the first procedure done, we were told that after the initial three days, this kind of internal wound does not reopen. He would be able to get his hemoglobin back up and not worry about recurrence. However, Michael started bleeding internally again a few days ago. They

"No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what He had promised." (Romans 4:20) While this passage is speaking of Abraham, it's a message for us today, too. Like Abraham, we can choose to allow trials, hardships, and what feels like a delay of a promise to weaken or strengthen our faith. God may feel like He moves slowly in our linear, one-sided viewpoint, but His

“So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.” Ezra 8:23 I’ve been reading through the book of Ezra, and oh, what a man of God! He was a great example of leaning on God’s power and wisdom over “our own understanding”. Ezra had the responsibility of leading a large group of Israelites back to Jerusalem, and before leaving, Ezra told the king, “The hand of our God is upon all those for good who seek Him, but His power and His wrath are against al

We didn’t intend to take a nearly three-week hiatus from an update, but with all the end-of-the-school-year activities and the calendar implosion that is the month of May, it definitely took a back burner. But rest assured—no news has been good news. :) “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Exodus 33:14 Rest has been the unspoken theme over here. Well, maybe not for the bustling house of boys or the calendar events that won't quit, but we have all been mak

“And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Philippians‬ ‭4‬:‭19‬ ) God is good. He is gracious, He is merciful, He is kind. And He is my healer. As I approach the final day of my first 21-day treatment, looking back, it’s been quite overwhelming to say the least. I have also been humbled by the show of love, support, prayer, encouragement, kindness, and generosity. The Lord has used His church in so many ways to be His hands and

“If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.” (Exodus 15:26) One of our studies this year with the kids has been on the names of God in Hebrew - when He first reveals a new name, what it says about his character, what it means, and where else we can find it in scriptu

We have one full week behind us, many to go. For everyone who has walked through a healing from cancer or disease, you know it's a long process. I flew home on Monday, a heart torn in two, but I am so thankful for the week I was able to be with Michael - a week made possible by our incredible community. And I'm equally grateful that his good friend, Matt, flew in to be with him this week. We're counting our blessings! The doctors and medical team seem to be constantly checkin

As we sat at the airport on Sunday, watching planes take off and land, I reached over, slid my hand into Michael’s, and let the weight of everything that’s happened over the past two months wash over us. This is our new adventure. I spoke barely over a whisper. He squeezed my hand and nodded as we let the words hang over the myriads of emotions and unspoken thoughts. Adventure seems to be a strange word to navigate cancer treatment - after all, it’s definitely not one we w

Steve Martin was a favorite of my dad's (and something Michael and I shared with him), so when I think of traveling more than a quick beach trip down to Florida, I think of this silly title. Although we hope to avoid trains - and the fiascos of that ridiculous movie - we will be leaving for Mexico on Sunday. After a few weeks of prayer and over a dozen consultations later, Michael chose to receive treatment at the Immunity Therapy Center. We had one door after another close,

After discovering that it's metastasized to his lungs, we were told this type of cancer often shows up in the brain next. As you can imagine, we were very relieved to get back his MRI results today (March 30th), Michael's scan was clear and cancer has not spread to the brain, praise God. What's next? We want to follow wherever the Lord leads us, knowing and trusting that He is the ultimate Healer and can use many different means to bring about total healing. We know that no d

In mid-March of this year, Michael underwent an orchiectomy to remove a malignant tumor. Initially, pathology looked good and the doctors believed the aggressive testicular cancer had been fully contained and removed. However, a CT scan performed shortly after the surgery revealed that the cancer had already metastasized to his lungs. And while his bloodwork and tumor markers have improved post-surgery, his hCG levels remain well above the normal range. Following surgery, his