gush, gush

Here he is. My dearest dear. He's a five on the enneagram, he loves Pink Floyd and Mostly Autumn, he likes Frank's Quality Kraut, "Mennonite" sausage, raw kale, mustard greens and spinach, homemade ice cream and Liquorice Altoids. He can make pretty much anything out of Legos. This is a picture of what he likes to read.
Joel is a philosopher, a visionary, a darn good computer technician, and he's refraining from editing this post for accuracy. That, in itself, is a sign of his goodness as a person.

Ten years ago today I was sitting in Sermon on the Mount with Mary Schertz at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary wondering how I would gracefully exit class (we had only told people at church he had a lump; not the wider seminary) to drive to Goshen with Joel to get the pathology report we had waited four days to hear. It was Easter Monday. We drove to Goshen, spent an hour and a half in the waiting room reading Conde Nast's Traveler or some such magazine, went into the tiny, dark consultation room at the surgeon's office and heard the news: lymphoma, probably Hodgkins, "What I want you to know is that this is treatable." All the same, I could scarcely cope. Stomach knot. Sweat. Oh God no.

Laughter came half an hour later when, once in the door, we checked our messages to hear Joel's dad's voice. "Just called to see how the autopsy report went..." [Then his mother's voice interrupting] "Autopsy! My God, Virge!" Then [nervous chuckle], "I mean biopsy report [more nervous chuckling]...well, anyway, give us a call when you find out."

That did it. "I'm not dead yet," came the response from Joel. That evening held many phone calls, pizza, visits from our pastors and friends. The next day (I think) the journey of testing and staging began, then twelve weeks (six sessions) of chemo and a month of radiation.

Ten years later we are the parents of Henry Daniel and so very grateful for these past ten years. Troubles come. Troubles may seem to stay. Suffering happens. But the Holy Ghost over the bent world broods with warm breast and ah! bright wings.