You know how you can be in the middle of doing something, and a memory floods your mind that you weren’t expecting? I have had several of those moments lately. And they have all had to do with my dad. A few months ago, before any of the recent events came to pass, I was looking at the words in my Bible and had a flashback to a memory. All of the feelings that came with that memory filled my heart, as they would in the hearts of both of my sisters. I was a little girl again, sitting next to my dad in a big church pew, me in my fancy dress and my dad in a suit. I watched him as he underlined some verses in Scripture that the pastor was referencing. He had this soft, pensive look on his face as he reached his left hand around the words and quickly, imperfectly drew lines under, and sometimes through the words on the page. I would watch this scene countless times. But I had no idea that this one image would come back to impact my adult self. Something about having someone who you view as larger than life humbly take in counsel from a book and a teacher is profound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Growing up, he was never too proud to pretend like he knew everything. To me, he did, of course, but he has always shown us that life is about learning, growing, being thankful for what you have, and working hard to give of yourself to others. In fact, the sincerity of my dad’s countenance in day-to-day life is pretty astounding. Anyone who knows my dad can tell you that he is one of the kindest, hardest working people they’ve ever met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now that we have established some background, I hope you can understand how significant the past few months have been for our family. In fact, this past year has brought about waves of change and new hurdles to overcome. In the midst of the recent changes though there have been two constants: the joy that comes from our baby boy and the faithfulness of family. I have continued to heal in pretty amazing ways. I just got word that my recent blood work looked really good and that the number associated with the protein specific to GPA (granulomatosis with polyangitis) has definitely gone down. I feel better than I have in a long time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I began to feel normal again, Tucker and I started to re-evaluate what this next life stage looks like for us. Now that we have a son, so many of our priorities have shifted. While for so long we felt at peace with exactly where the Lord had us, all of the sudden we were no longer feeling centered in our positions here in Franklin, Tennessee. For the past 4 and a half years, this city has been really, really good to us. We have the best of friends, awesome community, and countless opportunities for growth. Tucker loves his job, and we honestly felt for a long time that it would take a lot for us to leave. Well, as a friend recently said, it is those times when you begin to feel the most comfortable that God rocks your world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We felt that a new start was brewing on the horizon, but couldn’t completely explain it other than the fact that circumstances had shifted for us and we began to feel less attached to all of our normal ‘contexts.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of both of our families live in North Alabama. If you know us, you know that family is everything. We have spent the past four years making regular trips home for the weekend, and our families have sacrificially driven back and forth to Franklin more times than we could count. The night after Tucker returned from a work trip back in September, we had a special date night at a place called Homestead Manor- a historic antebellum home turned farm-to-table restaurant. After an amazing dinner, we walked upstairs to their porch that overlooked the plantation, sat on the porch swing, and talked about our family’s future. The excitement was tangible as we talked about the possibility of adopting a child, and about the fact that we wanted to be settled into the home and location that God would have us to live next before we begin that process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A couple of weeks later, we were looking online at houses in Madison, Alabama. Tucker had gotten approval for a work-from-home arrangement, and we shared with our families that Madison would be our next home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We felt a very steady peace throughout this process. We had what seemed like the ‘perfect’ house for us that ended up not working out, and now we are in the process of selling our home and potentially putting an offer on a great home with a little more space for our growing family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
About a week after we announced to our families that we were moving back, we discovered that this next stage in our journey would be marked by completely different things than we would have ever expected. It instantly became clear why God was leading us to move home, and why things were moving as quickly as they were. Forewarning: it is difficult to put into words the emotions surrounding the life-changing events of the past several days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My dad, the same larger-than-life dad, had gone in for an endoscopy for some unusual digestion issues that had been going on for a few weeks. The doctor saw some things that looked “very concerning,” as was described to my mom after the procedure. Biopsies were sent off, and multiple scans were taken. A few agonizing days later, my parents met with the gastroenterologist who said that none of the initial results showed up positive for cancer. We could all breathe a sigh of relief, even though this doctor was intent on running more tests because she knew what she saw at first didn’t look good. It turns out that this particular type of cancer is pretty hard to detect. So, a deeper biopsy was scheduled for Halloween morning. The surgeon didn’t complete the procedure because he knew what he was seeing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That was Tuesday, and now it’s Saturday. The past few days have been filled with questions, tears, hugs, and an initial appointment with his oncologist. We’ve all just been spending time together as a family, as normally as we can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My parents are so strong. My dad is such a warrior. My mom has incredible strength and poise. My dad is a beacon of light to all that know him, and his light is shining brighter now than it ever has. God has been preparing him, particularly in the past six months, in ways that we can’t begin to understand this side of heaven. His reliance on God right now is keeping all of us steady and hopeful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was diagnosed with linitis plastica, a very rare form of stomach cancer. He is getting a PET scan done on Tuesday, with a follow up appointment on Wednesday morning to find out the extent of the cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This world gives us darkness, and along with that darkness comes pain, suffering and heartache. BUT we will not lose heart, because inside of my dad is the fighting power that is stronger than anything in this earth. The same power that can raise the dead to life is inside of him, and he is so in tune with that power. Lives all around him are changing, and we are already seeing evidence of that. What Satan intended for destruction, God is victoriously using for good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(From Hebrews 6:16-20\/ adapted):<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus, our high priest forever, has entered within the veil ahead of us. He has given us access to this sure and steadfast hope, which is an anchor for our soul. We can take refuge in this truth because God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. His purposes are unchangeable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The outpouring of love toward our family has been unbelievable already, particularly from those who have been in this position or are currently in a similar fight. One of my best friends is going through a very similar situation with her dad, and the support she’s shown has been so grounding for me personally. My mom’s cousin Ginger, who has been battling stage 4 colon cancer, and a family whose dad just fought and won his battle, sent thoughtful gifts and have offered invaluable encouragement and support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the midst of all of this, our sweet Nana (my mom’s mom), is recovering from a mild stroke and blood clot following knee replacement surgery. Thank you for praying for her healing as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We will be posting updates on caringbridge.org, possibly as early as next week when we have more details. These next few days, before we get definite answers on Wednesday, prayers are appreciated, and necessary. He is poised and ready to tackle this. He may have a tough road ahead, but his spirit is tougher. We’ve already experienced miracles throughout the very beginning of this battle, and I know <\/em>that many more lie ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \n\nPhoto by lauren lulu taylor<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You know how you can be in the middle of doing something, and a memory floods your mind that you weren’t expecting? I have had several of those moments lately. And they have all had to do with my dad. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":73,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/morganburkewrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/morganburkewrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/morganburkewrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganburkewrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganburkewrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/morganburkewrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135,"href":"http:\/\/morganburkewrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71\/revisions\/135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganburkewrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/morganburkewrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganburkewrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/morganburkewrites.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}