Update 12/7/25: Moment by Moment—>Hope Has a Name

Matthew 6:34 “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

1 Peter 1:3 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

The mantra in our home the past few days is moment by moment. We are trying to squeeze every little pleasure out of our time left with Wayne. At times, there has been overwhelming grief. Then we find moments to laugh and just be intentionally present. 

Two things we want to pass on to you: 1) if you don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus, ask me all about Him and what He has done in our lives. That is the most important decision you will ever make in your life…and it’s life changing! 2)The importance of the gift of time with your family. Take time away from work, the busyness of life, put the phone down, and just be with your family and friends. None of us know what tomorrow holds. Take the photos, make the videos, share your dreams and hopes with one another…make the memories together!

Recently, we have been going through family photos from over the years and reliving memories. It’s fun to laugh and remember funny stories (even if they didn’t feel funny at the time). This is what is important in life…family. I had heard many times this saying, “You never hear someone in their death bed saying I wish I would have worked more or stayed busy. They usually say they wish they would have spent more time with their family.” Even though Wayne has spent hours with all of us, he still wishes he had more time to spend with us. What are you spending your time on?

Our friend from Moody, Matt Shada, preached a sermon today on Hope has a Name. I’m sure many pastors preached on Hope today since it is the first advent candle. But as I listened to his sermon this evening, what he said really struck me. “If we truly understand what Christmas is all about, then, regardless of our circumstances, we have something to celebrate and a reason to worship. If you know Jesus as your Savior, then you have hope! Hope is powerful, but so is hopelessness. Life is at its worst when you feel hopeless…hopelessness is not from God. Our hope, according to God’s Word is not in our education, our investments, our possessions, our status, or how we appear to people or the world, our health, our circumstances, our human strength, for sure not in politics..our hope has a name, and His name is Jesus! Our hope is in the person of Jesus Christ! Our hope is not an idea, a feeling or a season/future outcome, but it is a person…If your hope, your foundation, is built on anything else then Jesus, it will crack the moment life hits you upside the head. BUT, if the foundation of your hope is Jesus, nothing can shake your joy. That is the difference between happiness and joy. Happiness depends on happenings, joy depends on Jesus.” 

As we watch Wayne navigate processing his mortality, there is still joy there. His circumstances are terrible: can hardly walk, can’t sing at church, can’t really read, losing sensation in his body, etc. But in the midst of that, he is still present and worshiping God. We talk a lot about how awesome it will be for him to breathe his last here and wake up in heaven! The only thing that makes him sad is knowing that we will be here without him and he knows how painful that will be for us.

We had three hospice meetings last week: initial set up, social worker, and another nurse visit.

Picking up this package broke me. I feel like I’m living in a bad dream that I can’t wake up from. Hospice ordered this care kit for us. I just can’t wrap my head around what is happening. 

Since Wayne feels like he won’t be making it much longer, we celebrated our anniversary early. He took me to Carson’s so he could have nice steak dinner. It about wrecks me seeing how well he looks and yet knowing the tumor is destroying his brain. 

Grace and Davis came over this afternoon to visit before they leave on their honeymoon. 

This couple here has been a huge blessing to us, as many people have been. Rob helped get Wayne’s wheelchair ramp back on the van. I’m so thankful for a church family that is the hands and feet of Jesus to us!

Friday night we drove up to the Creation Museum for our annual Christmas lights visit. We went to Costco for dinner because who can beat $20 to feed a family? Shan cracks me up because he bought a hot dog on top of his piece of pizza and was eating both at the same time!

The newlyweds joined us! We rented Wayne a scooter so he could enjoy all the sights. 

Hot cocoa and lights go perfect together…especially when it was under 30!!

All bundled up! It was cold, so we had many layers on.

Thank you for continuing to pray for us as we navigate this time. Wayne’s family starts to arrive tomorrow to spend some time together. We will continue to make as many memories as we can for as long as we can.