We have wonderful, exciting news!!! Luke's team confirmed that his scans look great, and he had his port removed this afternoon! We are so very, very thankful to be at this point. A chemo port is a huge blessing during treatment, but it is a blessing that we are very, very glad to be done with! We're praying so much that cancer will never touch Luke again. Thank you for continuing to pray with us!

As I was driving to Hopkins this morning, I was praying for God to help me keep my eyes fixed on Him, on the hard days and on the easier ones. The drive between home and Hopkins is filled with specific spots that remind me of God's faithfulness, and as I was driving by those places and thanking Him again for those reminders, I realized that all those specific spots are much like the stones of remembrance that God commanded the Israelites to place in the Jordan River -- visual reminders of His faithfulness.

There's the spot where God sent a kind stranger who saw our hood up and stopped to help. The spot where God protected us from the deer that did NOT hit our car when it ran right in front of us across the 70 mph highway. The exact spot where I realized that God was answering prayers and my 2 am drive following an ambulance wasn't even feeling too hard because God was with me. The spot where, on one especially scary day, God calmed my fear with the peace that only He can give. The spot where we saw the eeriest stormy sky we've ever seen and the spot about ten miles later where we hit some of the worst weather I've ever experienced, both of which God protected us through. And the spot where we stopped on the way home from Luke's second chemo admission and he struggled to walk the short distance to and from the car -- him so courageous and uncomplaining and me wondering if he was able to make it and how I could best help him if he fell; I cannot think of that spot, at the beginning of a time that was in many ways terrifying, without remembering how far God has brought Luke from that night. God has carried us so lovingly across the many months and the many miles. The road between home and Hopkins is marked with visible reminders of His faithfulness, and our hearts are forever marked, as well.

Looking back and thanking God for all that He has done makes it so obvious that we ~ all His children ~ can trust Him with our future. No matter what life brings. When hard times come and "what ifs" creep in, we sometimes have to remind ourselves of truth, but when we look, there are reminders all over the place. God is unfailingly faithful, completely trustworthy, and incredibly loving. 

These words from Phil Wickham's song "This is Our God" were resonating with me on the way home: