Mundane Faithfulness

Family

Kara’s Collection: The Beautiful Rough Road

Kara’s Collection: The Beautiful Rough Road

from an article originally posted October 27, 2014…

Waiting, waiting, I have been waiting to feel better. I keep looking around the corner of this disease to find the sunrise of normal to rise. Yesterday, I turned to Jason and asked him what it felt like to feel normal. I asked him what if felt like to not feel weak. I feel like I’m starting to forget. Instead of embracing the moment of feeling a bit better, I’m beginning to panic over the coming treatment. But I remember enough of normal living and loving to long, long, long for a day of normal. I plan normal days, dream of events where we are all present and strong. Not huge strong, but sweet walk-on-a-fall-day strong, sit-by-a-fire-with-a-book strong, laughter-through-tears strong. He turned to me and said, I forget normal too; I have a wife with cancer.

Kara’s Collection: Big Love

Kara’s Collection: Big Love

from an article originally posted October 18, 2014…

How do you love when you are at the bottom of yourself? The last gulp of a drink you feel tentative to swallow? How do you swallow that last gulp of life and fight to live it well? I’m struggling today, and I knew it would be a hard one. Chemo brings a low that I struggle with words to describe. And on top of the yucks, pain seems to be growing. And with the growing pain is the growing knowledge that my cancer is likely growing. To say it’s discouraging, well, that word feels simple.

Kara’s Collection: Kept

Kara’s Collection: Kept

from an article originally posted October 9, 2014…

Until this point, I have only shared my journey and the journey of our family. David C Cook granted me the amazing privilege of sharing my journey on a larger scale. It has been an unbelievable journey of seeking grace and living near to Jesus.

Kara’s Collection: Good Moments on Hard Days

Kara’s Collection: Good Moments on Hard Days

I’m fighting to get out of bed this morning. Today, today my head is fitted for a mask to battle my brain cancer. We have to re-look under my skull to see if my cancer has grown in the 2 weeks I opted for chemo first. Every pain, every headache, the fear of larger brain tumors fills me with dread. But, the grace, the big and little grace in each moment keeps me looking for hope. A daughter of a dear friend wrote a paper for school about me. My friend shot a picture of it and sent it to me last night. That a young woman would see my story and see my fight for hope—well, that’s just goodness promptting me to get my behind out of bed this morning.

Kara’s Collection: What a Night

Kara’s Collection: What a Night

from an article originally posted September 29, 2014…

Friday was a night I will carry with me forever. Forever. I entered a room full of so much love I could not take it in. I struggled to look into the audience, because I could not understand this room filled with people coming to hear my feeble words trying to express love unending. Honestly, it is not mine to take in—the words are not mine. I’m simply the one that has the pleasure of sharing them. I entered, I tried to look up, but I could not. So I let my gaze fall on the front row. The row I know well. My loves. My family, and dear friends to my family. I could look there. But the room, oh my soul, there was so much love in the room Friday night. It was unbelievably humbling.