October 18 marked the 2 year anniversary of Joshua’s diagnosis with leukemia. He continues to do well, after a 2 year cycle of oral chemo everyday, intravenous chemo every 4 weeks, and a spinal tap every 12. There’s only about 15 more of those 4 week cycles to go, as we will end treatment, God willing, before Christmas of next year.

Last year at this time, Jana and I posted some of the reflections we had over the first year. You can read that post if you’re interested on our family’s blog by clicking here and scrolling down a little bit to the entry from October 18.

To continue the tradition, here are some more reflections that have come as we finish this leg of the journey. If you’ve been reading the blog a while, some of these might sound familiar, but here goes:

1. God draws straight lines with crooked sticks. I once heard Harry Reeder say this, and it’s proven to be true. I think it expresses the confidence that God has a clear purpose and direction in mind though the pathway is crooked. It’s difficult. Faith is trusting in the one holding the stick, not in the apparent circumstances of the drawing.

2. Real community bears each other’s burdens. As heavy as leukemia is, we look around us and see the shoulders of our friends and family drooping under its weight as well. They don’t turn it on and off either; the carry it with us.

3. There’s nothing like a plastic sword to help out a kid. Joshua and I bought a sword for 50 cents at a garage sale, and many a tough day has been made better by fighting off imaginary dragons in our living room.

You can read the rest of the reflections on our family’s blog by clicking here.