I want to take us back to where it all began—back to the moment faith became personal and grace became our daily lifeline.
Dave and I started dating in high school, practically kids. We got married halfway through my senior year of college, full of dreams and plans. I was eager to start a family, but we decided to wait a few years.
A few years turned into five. I assumed getting pregnant would be easy, but month after month, disappointment followed. Just as we were beginning to talk with doctors about next steps, we found out—surprisingly—we were expecting!
Our joy only multiplied when, ten months after our daughter was born, we learned we were expecting again—another girl. It wasn’t planned, but it was a gift.
We thought we’d wait a while before having more children, though we weren’t ready to say we were done. That’s when everything changed. Dave was diagnosed with testicular cancer—before his 30th birthday.
Cancer became the word that turned our world upside down. It brought endless questions and very few answers. What kind? How serious? What next? For Dave, it meant appointments, surgery, radiation, more tests, and months of uncertainty.
And it also meant we were done having children.
In that season of unknowns, tears, and silence, we gave everything to Jesus. We clung to gratitude—thankful for our marriage, our two girls, the gift of parenthood, Dave’s supportive employer, and the steady love of family and friends. We prayed for healing, strength, and, hardest of all, God’s will.
Hebrews 11 describes faith as the foundation beneath everything that gives life meaning. It’s what we hold onto when the future is unclear. It shapes us, anchors us, and shines light into the darkness.
That’s the kind of faith we began to know deeply—faith that sustains you no matter the outcome, and grace that meets you moment by moment. Grace for the joy, grace for the pain. Hope that doesn’t depend on circumstances.
I never would have written “cancer” into our story. But God did. And through it, He’s given us more than we could have imagined: deeper faith, a greater understanding of grace, and—though that’s a story for another day—the beautiful gift of our son.
Hope holds us through heartache.
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. — Hebrews 11:1
Grace in the Disarray 