Wordless Wednesday - who am I kidding?

Wordless Wednesday. I don't know why I continue to call these Wordless Wednesday. They aren't wordless, and probably never will be. But that's ok.

Meet our awesome friends:

When I say awesome, I mean AWE-SOME. Let me just give you a run down, we have: two worship leaders and an elementary school teacher in training, a high school teacher and reigning state champion girls' basketball coach, a physical therapist, a graphic designer, a smarty-pants accounting wiz at an energy company, and two radiation therapists at a cancer treatment center. Ah.Maz.Ing.

These people are simply wonderful and Chris and I are so blessed to have them a part of our lives.

Wanna hear a story?

Want to hear a story? A truly amazing, once-in-a-lifetime story. A story about healing and Jesus and he still performs miracles to this day.

Read this story from Chantel, a friend in our BGroup, who is wise and brave beyond her years.

My name is Chantel Wiley. My husband and I have two daughters, Casey and Sarah. My husband Dustin was diagnosed with Stage 4 brain cancer when I was 7 weeks pregnant with our youngest daughter. He has been through 2 brain surgeries, Chemotherapy, and radiation. His tumor was diagnosed as an Astrocytoma. The first round of Chemotherapy and Radiation in 2010 failed to do the job. The cancer was growing more aggressively and jumped up a grade. After new Chemotherapy combinations over a year and a half, his cancer was in remission. This was February of 2011, when he turned 24.

Exciting right? He had cancer and then he was healed! Oh, but this story isn't over....

This past Deccember, 2012, we rushed Dustin to the emergency room due to severe vomiting and migraines. We found out that his cancer had spread to the center of his brain and now had transformed into a grade 4 Glioblastoma. The worst type of Brain Cancer a person can have. More aggressive than ever. Dustin was given less than a year to live in December.

Yikes! Dustin's cancer has returned. His cancer returned about 5-6 months after moving to Shreveport and joining our BGroup. We all celebrated when he found he was in remission! We were thrilled! And now not only did his world get rocked, all of ours did. We were all on this journey with Dustin and Chantel. When the Wiley's found out the cancer was back, it hurt us all. Dustin began another month of chemo, honestly with little hope. As a class we rallied around the family and prayed for comfort. We brought food and babysat anything to help out. It's strange. We all know our God is still in the miracle business, but it's like we never think we will see it. Or be a part of it.

The Sunday before Dustin's final scan, after 1 month of chemo, we decided in BGroup to pray for Dustin and Chantel and the family ton Wednesday and Thursday (the day of the scan and the day of the results). We each signed up for one or more hours to pray for the Wileys. The family was covered in prayer from 3 a.m. to 11 p.m., Tuesday morning through Wednesday night and same for Thursday. Ah-mazing.

After God's children came together over a beautiful, short period of time, prayers to heaven were everywhere you looked. Dustin had an MRI on Wednesday, January 30, 2013. The next day, when we thought we would hear horrible news, the doctors pulled up the scan and the tumor was gone, vanished..notttta. To God be the Glory. Giving our daughters and I more time with their Daddy, and his best birthday present ever :) February is a good month. We will continue to do Chemotherapy, and are not out of the woods..Brain Cancer has a really stupid way of sneaking back up on you when you aren't looking. So we need all the prayers we can get!  

Dustin's tumor is gone!!!! It is hard for us to wrap our little brains around that. It's truly amazing. I don't think any of us ever doubted God, or the fact that he could truly make this happen. But I don't think anyone truly believed it would happen. I'll be the first to admit, I didn't. Shame on me.

Thank you God for healing Dustin and thank you God for continuing to perform miracles, even when we don't believe or deserve it.

You can keep up with the Wileys and follow Dustin's story on their Facebook page.

Been a minute...

So, hello and goodbye January. Goodness, it has been a hot minute since I have blogged. Maybe I'm just recovering from the holidays? Yeah, it took a whole month....

So let's catch up...
Work- work is crazy good right now. Super busy, like I won't be able to come up for air until April, busy. But that is fantastic! I love being busy with work that benefits the community! It is also so great to work with ladies that love the Lord and always try to do the right thing.

School/teaching- I am not teaching this semester. Whew. I will guest lecture a class at Centenary in March. But other than that, no higher ed for me. (WOO!)

Junior League- Oh my goodness. THIS is why I haven't been blogging. Market is almost here!!! And it has been keeping me busy day and night! My placement has been Market Publicity. It's like a job on top of a job. But I know it will be all worth it when Market gets here. Want to join me for a weekend of super fun events and shopping?? Get your tickets here - http://www.jlsb.org/?nd=tnt

Chris- Chris was off almost all of January!! Crazy!! I say "off," but he did do some work, but he was home every night! What a blessing! Probably the longest we have been together (like days in a row) in a while. Since we've been married? Crazy! We were really able to hang out and be normal with each other. Go to dinner, cook dinner, etc. We also really got to know other couples in our BGroup (Sunday School class). It was perfect timing to where we could hang out and get to know everyone on a better level. It's easier to get to know other couples when my other half that makes me a couple is here. We had so much fun with the crew on New Year's Eve (minus Tyler and Aimee)

The house is great. No four legged (or two legged) kids running around. I wonder which will come first at this point. 

I am doing a new Bible study with a small group of girls. We just needed a change. So we are studying Malachi by Lisa Harper. I wouldn't say it is the greatest Bible study, but it at least let us start conversations with each other and grow together.

I was honored by the Young Professionals Initiative as a 40 Under 40 honoree. We got to dress all fancy and go to the event to be honored. (Yes this was in December. Did I never post about that?)

Me and my boo at 40 Under 40

The whole fam! 

Life is good and I've got nothing to complain about!

Wordless Wednesday

Gah. I love this man. <3