Enjoying the Ride
Summertime continues and so does a sweet season for our family. We have been blessed with many activities, outings, and trips. Through all of that, and the few normal, mundane summer days, we have really just been basking in God’s goodness to afford us this time of togetherness and blessing.
Just a few days after the last update, we went up to Manteo, NC to a place we have truly come to love. We spent a week there over the 4th of July and were able to have our parents take halves of the week to spend with us. Lauren’s brother, Andrew, and his family were able to join as well. It turned out to be a great week to be “working remotely” since most of the rest of the working population seemed to take some vacation at some point during that week.
The house sits right on the Croatan Sound side of Roanoke Island. The views from the pool deck and the dock are mesmerizing and on clear evenings, offer some of the most spectacular sunsets I’ve seen. We covered mommy in sand, watched the Manteo 4th of July fireworks over the water, and crusted up the kids with salt and sun. It was a week filled with memory-making and joy.
I happened to be reading through Ecclesiastes while there and was struck by how appropriately it seemed to put in words what I was feeling. I think it captures our spring and summer so well. There is a time for everything: to break down and to build up, to weep and to laugh, to mourn and to dance. We have been in a season of being built up, characterized by laughing and dancing. Yet, as offered in the middle of the book, it is the perspective that we have gained through trials and suffering that enable us to truly experience satisfaction and enjoy life. “Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad (7:3).”
The book centers around the search for the purpose of life…how to live in light of the brokenness of this world. A world where sometimes the wicked seem to prosper while the righteous suffer. Or where the same event happens to both the wise and the fool. It starts with recognizing that God is God - He is in control; we are not. So as the Preacher in the book says repeatedly, “Eat, drink, and be joyful.” Live your life according to God’s call, do your work, and enjoy it all for what it is. Only what God does endures forever. If, or when, we lose sight of who is in control of this life, that is when, to quote the Preacher, all becomes vanity and a striving after the wind. We will become frustrated when the breaks don’t go our way, we will be crushed by the day of adversity, and we will allow the joy to be stolen out of seasons of blessing.
Man cannot conquer this world and there is no permanence to any of his creations. That’s actually great news if we put our trust in God. It frees us to be joyful, to do good, to eat & drink, and to take pleasure in our toil. I’m thankful for the perspective our journey has given us and that we are more able to have a right view of this life.
In the vein of seasons of life and someone suffering on someone else’s best day, our friend Carson lost his battle with AML on July 6th. He was 13. He fought AML six times, had four bone marrow transplants, and was one of the first pediatric patients to receive CAR-T cell therapy for AML. He loved God, his family, dogs, video games, and all things green. We connected at St. Jude several years ago and have been praying for him & his family ever since. Carson is one of the reasons I am so thankful for St. Jude. The team there took their cues from him on his desire, passion, and relentlessness in fighting “stupid cancer,” as he called it. If he and his family were there pushing forward, they were there with them. Carson was a light and inspiration to many. He had an outsized impact on the world in his 13 years. He will be missed. 💚
Speaking of St. Jude, Jennings had his 3-month follow up appointment the week after our trip to Manteo. We did the whole thing in just over 24 hours. Jennings is quite the savvy traveler and has his routine pretty much memorized (not sure where he gets that). It includes pulling our suitcase through the airport, stopping for $6 candy, downloaded Netflix shows on the plane, and, thanks to his doctor’s clinic schedule, waffle Wednesday every time. One wrinkle in the routine this time was these 👇
The on-campus “hotel” was full, so we had to stay in the Hampton Inn downtown. Turns out it’s at the corner of Beale St., hence the welcome package we found on the nightstand. Fortunately, given that it was a Tuesday night and we had a room on the top floor, the earplugs were not necessary and the noise wasn’t too bad. 😂
We got a great report and all good results. His labs are great and his chimerism came back a couple days later at 100%. He will have another visit here locally around the first of September, then another 3-month follow up in Memphis in October. Please continue to pray for results just like this and for us to trust God with them and with Jennings. We are getting pressure to drop some of his chimerism checks, meaning we would start going longer and longer between medically verifying his remission. There’s a lot of thoughts and feelings wrapped up in that for us to navigate through.
As I mentioned at the top, summer has been full. Here’s some more proof:
From left starting at the top: on the field before the Knights game with A Kid Again; the little 3 dressed up for their superhero Burn Boot Camp workout; Henry knocking out some smoked wibs - he ate the same number as me; Monster Jam with Slim & the boys; day trip with mommy to the zoo; Jennings and Lauren at LEGO Brickfest.
Before we go, I wanted to plug this 👇 for Caroline. If anyone is local, she wanted to organize a fundraiser for St. Jude.
“Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil - this is the gift of God. For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart.” Ecclesiastes 5:18-20
#allinforjennings