2 Years Ago Today

2 years ago I was living in Honduras being a mama to 2 sweet Honduran babies, hosting our 2nd mission team, and loving life. But I wasn’t feeling great, and our family doctor came by and sent me to the hospital in Santa Rosa for an appendectomy. 4 and 1/2 hours later our world was rocked with the “C” word–Cancer.

2 years have passed quickly. I spent the first year mainly going through the process to get to remission. We did with God’s grace and the support of family, friends and heck–even a few strangers that heard about our story helped get us through. We battled through chemo, an insane 9 1/2 surgery, a blood clot, V-fib code blue, and weeks of draining extra fluid out of my body.

Then God gave us a season of remission and restoration. Ben got a full time job in Jesup, we bought a house and cars, and our family was finally able to be under one roof. We even threw a wedding reception for Jordan and Tricia at our house just 30 days after moving in–life continued on.

Then July 2018 rolled around and I had my reversal surgery. During the surgery, rare cancer cells were found and I was declared out of remission. Since then a small nodule was discovered, but it has remained stable. My body is slowly healing from the reversal–but I am far from healed and I find myself at home or making small, short trips away from home.

But here is the truth of all this chaotic journey we have been on–the truth is that God has held us up through every doctor visit, every procedure, every diagnosis, every sick day, every good day, through every single event. He has not left us to do this alone. We have learned to trust in Him over any diagnosis. We have learned to find peace from trusting in Him.

And you want to know what else we have learned? We have learned to be thankful, to choose joy instead of anger, to appreciate talking and spending time with family and friends, and even random people we meet at doctor appointments. We have made choices to value the quality of time we have rather then the quantity. We have learned that loving and living is more important than arguing and being mad.

We have not been having easy days lately either–infact, recently our family has gone through 2 major life events that I still don’t feel comfortable giving out the details about. But just know that even when you are going through a chronic medical crisis–life events still happen. Some you get to celebrate like the birth of Hailey Rose, the wedding of Tricia and Jordan, new job for Austin, some you cry over and question God about why you are going through it.

But still, even through the ups and downs, I have learned over these past 2 years that I can trust in God’s plans and His will for my life. I have learned that my days were numbered before I was even born and that I can’t do anything to get 1 more or to lose 1 of them and you know what? I have peace about that. In fact, I celebrate it!

I’ve lived 730.5 days since the “C” diagnosis.

I wouldn’t have asked for this to happen to our family, but I also wouldn’t trade the truths I have learned over these 2 years. I also wouldn’t give up all the love, laughs, joy, tears, and prayers that we have shared with you either. We are thankful and appreciate every single one of you and for the support you have given to us. We truly don’t have the words to say how grateful we are.

My challenge to you and myself: live every day to the fullest for the glory of God.

Every single one!