It May

-ed. As in this May has been Maying, as the kids say on the socials. Or so I hear. How would I know? Maycember is another popular one. Just a way of naming how busy and full this month seems to get.

For some, these monikers are used in a negative, exasperated, I-can’t-wait-til-it’s-over kind of way. For others, hopefully most, it’s just a way of calling it how it feels - full. But full of mostly good things. For all who use it, it communicates, “We are exhausted.” 😅

We would fall in the latter camp…and the exhausted camp. Our month has been full, but really full of joyous things and that makes the fatigue easier to handle. Plus, as we’ve known for years now, we have kids. Four of them, last we got them all to gather and be still to be counted. “Tired” kinda comes with the territory.

One thing our month has not been full of…cancer-related medical appointments. Yes, killer segue, I know. Jennings has been doing the normal, healthy kid thing since we got back from Memphis because, well, that’s what he is. And praise God for that.

Here’s a few from this past month 👇

Top left: That’s Caroline and her friends at Carowinds. One of her friend’s moms used her Mother’s Day to take a half dozen middle school tweens to the amusement park. Bless her. The girls had a blast from what we heard and C rode every rollercoaster in the park - so impressed! To the right of that is Henry after his last soccer game. He seems to really enjoy that sport and I was really proud of his hustle on the field. Bottom left is all of us with Charlotte after her performance in Winnie the Pooh. She was a bird 🤣 and absolutely lit up on stage, which in turn made her theater loving mother practically weep in the audience. Next over is us at the annual daddy-daughter dance (in typical dad fashion, the dads at the elementary school can’t seem to get the thing organized to occur around Valentine’s Day like most others, so we opt for the next best time - May). Caroline has “graduated” from it and Charlotte was on the fence about even going, but was glad we did. I dominated 3 other dads in a game involving “keepy uppy” while on all fours, while also wearing a suit. I also got my first exposure to the APT. song (I live under a rock when it comes to pop culture sometimes…or all the time if you ask L) and it even came with a choregraphed dance by some of the 5th grade girls. Last one is Jennings in his pitching debut. He looked good on the mound. Has some work to do on the control, but proud of him for going out there and giving it a shot.

Time has been doing its thing. We’ve both been reflecting on this lately. Jennings is normal and healthy. We have experienced four years of recovery as a family, so we are four years further from where we were emotionally and mentally when we moved back from Memphis. That’s a good thing. We are forever changed by what we’ve walked through. The innocence and naivete with which we walked through life before is gone. It is a large part of our story and always will be. That’s what God had for us in that season and we have accepted that, and can even see the good from this side. But, it is less “in our face” and much less top of mind.

We have gotten all of this time with Jennings. Time we prayed desperately for and time that seemed unlikely to be granted. Now, we are on the other side of that valley and the time looks more likely to be there than not. Of course, we walk in the full knowledge that we do not have full knowledge of tomorrow, but from where we sit there is no longer an imminent threat to Jennings. That’s just time’s way of healing.

Lauren had to miss a couple of Jennings’s baseball games recently. Back to the Maycember, four kids, which way is up? conversation. In the past, that would have been a nonstarter for her. She would have moved things to be at his games. We lived as if there likely may not be a “next season.” That was right in its time and transitioning out of that is right in this time.

We’ve had a couple new people join our team at work. They meet me and they do not know our story. Why would they? But, there was a time when our story was very front and center. It was often how people saw us. It would be the first question or series of questions. Often, we would meet people and they would already know. Just like attending the baseball games, that was right in its time and transitioning out of that is right in this time. With the passing of time, it’s now the opposite. We meet people and wait until an appropriate time reveals itself to share.

Our pastor used the analogy of a “faith field trip” recently in preaching the passage in Mark 8 where Jesus takes the disciples to Caesarea Philippi, a pagan city complete with a cave labeled as “the Gates of Hell.” He had been teaching them in the “classroom,” but the real, tangible learning comes when we leave the classroom and experience. This is where He asks them who do they say that He is.

We were certainly on a faith field trip as we walked through Jennings’s diagnosis, treatment, relapse, and treatment, take two. Many times, we felt like we were at the Gates of Hell. It was a trial to be sure, and God was absolutely asking us who do we say that He is.

We have come out of that trip now having learned, really learned, tangibly learned who He is. For that we are thankful, especially as we look forward to what our next field trip may entail. Things are still mushy and a ways out from really cranking up, but our addition / renovation project is making strides towards actually starting. We are looking at that as a faith field trip. It will require us to completely move out of our home, take all of our stuff with us, and live in temporary rental housing that is TBD for anywhere from 6-8 months. There will be some trying times, I’m sure, but we are hoping to approach it with a growth mindset, eager to see what God has for us to learn on the trip. Easier said than done 😉

Speaking of trips…in yet another classic dad move, we planned our annual family camping trip for May. We went back to North Mills River Recreation Area to the group campsite. A place we have been before and the only group campsite reopened so far after Helene. Here’s how that went down 👇

Left-to-right, top-to-bottom: The campsite is right on North Mills River and playing in the river is probably the highlight for the kids. Next, is that Charlotte and Lauren sleeping in the car, you might be asking? Sleeping, no (their eyes are open, silly). But in the car at night, yes. On Friday night, the 30% chance of rain in the forecast turned into a pretty significant thunderstorm in the middle of the night. Not ideal when a thin sheet of nylon is all that separates you from the elements! When our phones (which don’t get an actual cell signal there) went off at 4:30a for a tornado warning, we decided to hightail it in the cars to the nearby Ingles parking lot to ride it out. Next, the kids posing on the rail for a picture. Camp-host Lauren organizing a round of camping bingo. Bottom left is the current welcome sign as you drive into the campground area. That’s exactly the kind of sign you want when you are just barely (you wanted me to spell that “bearly” didn’t you?) able to convince your wife that this trip is a good idea each year. Kids being kids in the field at the group site. Like father, like son. The wives with their mugs that say “Happy Camper” forcing smiles through gritted teeth.

All in all it was a great weekend, and the kids had a blast. We caught some trout, built fires, cooked over coals, had plenty of laughs, and panicked during one tornado warning. Not bad for a weekend in the woods with no cell service.

Hope you all have thrived through a busy May and are ready for the start of summer to get some good rest. 🤣 Lord willing, we’ll be back next month with hopefully no medical updates and lots of updates on the next field trip.

“And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’ And they told him, ‘John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.’ And he asked them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered him, ‘You are the Christ.’” Mark 8:27-29

#allinforjennings