This week we’ve got a lot to be thankful for. It was almost a year ago that Alycia first felt a lump. Right after Thanksgiving she noticed something, which is when this unexpected journey began. All the anguish of waiting for appointments and results was months ago, but the feelings from that time are still very memorable. After the diagnosis, we had a lot of hard conversations trying to determine the best way forward. Alycia had surgery and then less than a week later we were hanging out at the Disneyland Hotel because I was speaking…

By nature, Alycia and I tend to be planners. We’re not so rigid that we can’t change our plans, but for the most part we like to know what we’re doing. Alycia’s unexpected journey has led us to do even more planning. Not only are we planning out our meals for the week and our kids’ activities, but we’re also drafting a schedule to pick up the kids from school and trying to figure out how well Alycia’s going to feel when making future plans. We are wrapping up Alycia’s second cycle this week and getting…

This week Alycia and I are celebrating our 14th anniversary. We were discussing how the first seven years really flew by, but the last seven seemed to have taken 14 years themselves. Having kids has definitely slowed our perception of time, at least on a day-to-day basis. The saying that with kids the days go slow but the years go fast is very true. For me, that’s how the last two and half weeks have felt, slow but also fast. Alycia’s next treatment is on Thursday, so we’ve almost finished the first cycle. We experienced a…

One of my favorite scenes in the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy is when Gandalf arrives at the end of The Two Towers. In fact, that’s one of my favorite scenes of all time. The Uruk-hai have broken through the gates of Helm’s Deep and there appears to be no way out for the men, women, and children of Rohan. Aragorn convinces King Théoden to ride one last time, all the while remembering what Gandalf had said: “Look to my coming on the first light of the fifth day, at dawn look to the east.” Aragorn,…

Sam: This is it. Frodo: What? Sam: If I take one more step, I’ll be the farthest away from home I’ve ever been. Frodo: Come on, Sam. Remember what Bilbo used to say: “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no telling where you might be swept off to.” In some ways, the past few months have felt like Sam’s first steps outside of the Shire. Alycia and our family have gone further down this journey of breast cancer than we’ve…

Tomorrow, July 3, Alycia is going in for her surgery. She’ll be checking into the hospital at 9:30 in the morning and, if everything goes as planned, we’ll be home in the evening. It’s a relatively minor surgery to remove the tumor as well as remove a few lymph nodes. Please pray that the surgery goes well and that the lymph nodes test negative for cancer. We should get the results from the lymph nodes in a few days. We’re very grateful that Alycia’s mom and Jim took our kids for a sleepover so that we…

Alycia’s genetic test came back negative. That result was one of our biggest prayer requests and it makes our future feel much less daunting. Because the genetic test was negative, Alycia can move forward with her plan to have a lumpectomy. A lumpectomy is a much less invasive surgical option and the one that we were hoping would be her path. A lumpectomy is an outpatient procedure and, from everything we’ve heard, the recovery isn’t too bad. Combined with chemo and radiation, a lumpectomy is just as effective at eliminating the cancer as other options. This…

Every journey is wrought with frustrations and obstacles. The classic hero’s journey wouldn’t be so classic if there weren’t any opposition. Just beyond the Shire, Bilbo had to face off with some trolls. Luke and Han had to escape the Death Star before they could rescue Princess Leia. Moana had to brave all sorts of sea monsters before she restored Te Fiti. On Alycia’s journey we knew that we were going to face some frustrations and obstacles, but that doesn’t make it any easier when they occur. In the last post we shared about Alycia’s diagnosis…

For as long as I’ve known Alycia, she has loved the Lord of the Rings movies. I don’t know if we watched them when we were dating, but I’m sure we watched all 12 hours of the extended editions before we had kids. And, when The Hobbit movies were released, we saw each of those in the theater. So, when it came to theming this website and how we wanted to talk about this season of our lives, “An Unexpected Journey” seemed appropriate. If you haven’t yet, check out the page dedicated to how we got here. The TL;DR version…