Greetings!

And you all thought I had finally disappeared! No such luck. After a very hot summer, I thought I'd write a follow-up post to let everyone know where we're at, how things are going, etc.

My lovely bride and I just celebrated two anniversaries. Our TWENTIETH wedding anniversary was in August! After two decades, I can honestly say that I married up! We are foolishly happy with what God has wrought in our lives and marriage. We celebrated by spending 8 nights in Carmel and Sonoma, CA. What a blast! As we drove around Carmel/Monterrey/Big Sur, we were awed by God's majesty, His splendor, His creativity, and His imagination. We glorified Him with every turn as we drove Pacific Coast Highway 1. We stayed at amazing places, ate amazing food, saw amazing places. We simply enjoyed each other and revelled in the one-ness that only God can grow.

While we were there, we marked the one-year anniversary of Dee Dee's cancer diagnosis. What a year! We have been up and down and all around. Thank you all for going through it with us! You have truly blessed us richly with your love, your prayers, your notes, just being part of the body of Christ with us.

Dee Dee continues to feel great. As has been the case throughout the year, she has felt no real physical symptoms. I will say that occasionally the emotional side jumps up and bites her, as it does me. Sometimes there seems to be no reason, but other times there are obvious culprits. For example, if she feels sick for a few days she may start wondering if it has started to spread. Not always, but sometimes. Recently I was diagnosed with a small skin cancer on my right cheek/eyelid (surgery 10/29), and that sort of brought up some emotions about her cancer for both of us. Maybe because hers will never go away we may always have these episodes; we pray that they lessen in frequency and in duration.

We have seen scary moments aplenty. When it was first diagnosed, there were a few weeks in which we did not know if it had already spread and was therefore already terminal. She had thoracic surgery. We've hugged through tears alone in Rochester Minnesota, and spent frightening moments at Duke. There have been plenty of difficult hours. Y'all know that already, and we praise God for His faithfulness and yours.

BUT! Even more than the scary times, the sad times, the alone times have been the amazing times of praise and glory in His goodness and grace. There has been wonderful growth in closeness and unity in an already fantastic marriage. There has been great maturation in already great kids. There have been multiple opportunities to witness and share our reason for hope with unsaved folks. There have been more occasions to mentor and help other folks who are struggling. In short, God has done the God-thing and worked all to His glory and our good. Ain't it grand? Our certainty and assurance in His faithfulness and goodness have been affirmed and strengthened. Praise Him!

We will go back to Mayo next Spring. Hopefully the interim will be BORING. Honestly, I have prayed for mundane as this has gone on. Feels weird, but nevertheless true. Between now and then, I probably will not write too much on the blog. It has been nice to not think about cancer on a routine basis, and as much as this blog has meant to us, it does sort of force me back into that cycle of thought. I feel a bit like a novelist who has gotten to the end of his story and doesn't really know how to wrap it up!

Thank you for being such an important part of our lives, before September 15, 2006, since that date, and prayerfully for many years to come. God bless you all, every single one of you! Praise Christ for His blood shed for our redemption; praise God for adopting us all into the same family! As unreal as "You have cancer" seems to us, the truly unreal thing in this whole equation is that God has intended everything for our good; that He has given us grace where we deserved wrath; and that He intends for us to reign with Christ in eternity. Hallelujah!

Tony
Psalm 4:8