Friends and family,

Thank you all for your continued prayers for our family.

At this point, I have completed 8 chemo treatments and hopefully only have four additional treatments remaining. It is encouraging to be able to see the finish line and to be getting close to a new season of recovery. After my last treatment on May 23, we will wait about a month and then will have a PET scan mid-June.

Thank you all for praying for Maeson. She has been doing much better over the past few weeks. Jake and I are doing our best to support her and help her work through her feelings in healthy ways. We pray daily for wisdom and are grateful for God’s promise in James 1:5 to provide the wisdom we need when we ask in faith.

I am still experiencing profound nerve pain throughout my body. It usually is worst around Days 5-7 after treatment, so Tuesday-Thursday during my off (non-treatment) weeks. At this point I am trying to manage this pain without medication, just using ice and heat. I am thankful that the pain is not continuous. I know I have been able to cope with it so far through the past 8 treatments so I know I can make it through the next few treatment cycles.

I have been supported, loved, and encouraged by the faithful, intentional, generous and caring friends that have truly surrounded us in this season. You know who you are- the friends that keep showing up, present, available, faithfully praying and checking in day after day, week after week. I cannot express how much that means to me. For several years I have begged God for godly friends, specifically other moms who love the Lord and God has heard and gracious provided for me in this season. I just want to highlight, underline, and circle God’s faithful provision in my life in that way. Having rich Christian community and supportive friends is one of the deepest desires of my heart. It is so sweet to look up and see God’s unexpected, abundant provision in my time of desperate need. I am truly thanking God for each of you.

Something I’ve been reflecting on is that our theology really matters, especially in the midst of seasons of suffering and sickness. I am so thankful for the clarity and truth of God’s Word. I know that my cancer cannot separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:39). The Lord has been so near to me in this season. I have experienced His grace and goodness every day in a million ways. I have been so encouraged by Romans 8:18-25:

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, THE REDEMPTION OF OUR BODIES. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently”.

I am so thankful for the hope that my body will be redeemed. All of creation, including my body, will be liberated from its current bondage to decay and will be brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. I love verse 26: “'In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express”.

Cancer is a terrible thing. One of the hardest parts of this season is that we have heard so many other people share their cancer experiences, and it hits us close to home. Cancer is scary, heavy, and intense.

I love Paul’s words in 1 Thessalonians 4. Paul doesn’t say that we are not supposed to grieve. We do need to grieve! But we are not supposed to grieve “like the rest of men, who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). In verse 17 Paul gets clear and specific about the hope that makes Christian grief different than the grief of unbelievers: “We will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage (or “comfort”) one another with these words”. John Piper wrote about his cancer experience in a free ebook titled “Don’t Waste Your Cancer” (available for free online at https://www.desiringgod.org/books/dont-waste-your-cancer). In it, Piper shares about how he was encouraged by 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10: “God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.”

We can and should grieve. But we do not grieve without hope. We have so much hope, y’all. No matter what happens. Sickness or health, cancer or not, we know that we will always be with the Lord and that all of creation, including our bodies, will be redeemed.

Thank you again for your faithful prayers for us.

Love, Meredith