2014: Looking Forward In Our Own Words…

Last year, I had the family look back on 2012 in their own words.  This year, with a concussion-induced writing break and the first part of January already slipping away, I asked them to look forward.  As I reflect, it actually seems more appropriate.  2012 ended in a way that we needed to sit and process.  2013 ended on a decidedly different note – one that has caused us to look forward with great expectancy.  So here we are in our own words…

Darcy (7):  “This year, I want to go back to our old house.”  [Since Chase’s diagnosis, we have lived with grandparents for immediate and constant assistance – a thing we could not do without –  but our kids miss our condo, and in truth, “our old house”  often means “our old life”.  How I wish I could snap my fingers and give that to them.]

Aidan (5):  “This year, I want to go to Lake Geneva!”  [I’m pretty sure this is the first thing that popped into his head, but it’s his story and he’s sticking to it.]

Chase (4):  “This year, I just want for to have no more cancer and The Polar Express.”  [I don’t think there is anything I could say to elaborate on this.]

Karsten (2):  “I want to sit on my bottom!”  [At the time I asked Karsten about his 2014 plans, he’d just been ordered to “sit on his bottom” at the dinner table because standing on his chair to eat his soup was deemed inappropriate.  In all fairness to him, that’s an excellent goal for 2014 and a much needed one.]

Bob: My thoughts on 2014 center around motion and growth.  We’ve been stagnated under the immediate and the urgent for so long.  Now, we have this chance to move…to be in forward motion, if you will, away from the treatment and the upheaval and to be out from under all of that.  I look forward to 2014 being a season of moving forward and growing in many facets.

Ellie:  In a small way, I echo Bob.  My hope for 2014 is that we find our place.  We have been wanderers in the treatment phase for so long – I’ve written a few times about the urgency that barely allows you to make eye contact with life, and now, we’ve been granted the great gift of a reprieve.  It’s terrifying to stop fighting and live, but it’s amazing to stop fighting and live.  We’ve been given this gift of life – now we actively seek God for our place in it and the courage to assume what He has for us when He makes it clear.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.  Jeremiah 29:11

With great hope… Moment by moment.