New Year Update

Happy New Year, everyone! I do not post here often (still hoping to change that) and when I do, it is rare that it is about my personal life. However, a lot have been happening in my family’s life the past several months and I wanted to provide a bit of an update.

Perhaps some of these updates might explain my relative silence, perhaps not. 🤷‍♂️ In any case, here are some highlights:

Cancer Diagnoses

A few months ago, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, and a fairly advanced form of it. She has just recently finished her first rounds of chemotherapy and will be having surgery this next week. We are praying that the chemo was able to reduce the cancer to the point where the surgical removal will be the end of it.

Not long after my mother’s diagnosis, we were shocked to learn that my young nephew has also been diagnosed with a radical form of testicular cancer. At only 25 years old, this news was certainly surprising. He is still undergoing chemotherapy at this time, and prayers are certainly welcome.

By God’s grace, most of the people in my family are believers in Christ and therefore have found a great peace through all of this. I pray that my mother and nephew have found that same peace as well.

God is good, all the time, even in this dark hour which He has designed for us Himself.

Infertility

Some of my readers may already be aware that my wife and I have been trying to conceive for at least 7 years without success; we never saw a single positive test result.

This summer, my wife began further testing and surgical explorations to determine what the issue may be. We now have a concrete answer that we will no longer be pursuing a natural family for ourselves. The testing has confirmed that even if we were to conceive, it would almost certainly lead to a miscarriage, every time.

Knowing that, we look back on the past 7 years with grateful hearts and are thankful that the Lord has protected us from having to experience the loss of a child. I know parents who have endured such heartbreak, a heartbreak of a magnitude that I do not believe we could endure. So now we see the grace of God in our inability to even get pregnant.

Paper Pregnant

As such, we have begun the exciting journey of adoption to begin our family! We are still relatively early in the process (working through the home study now), but are confident that this is the path the Lord has laid out for us right now.

We plan on being open to just about any arrangement, so even if God were to bless us with triplets, we would not hesitate!

The process is long and very expensive, though. And knowing the birth mother may change her mind even after the child comes home with us, it is a scary prospect. There would be no refunds for any of the funds we already paid, so we can really only afford to do this process once, provided God meets those financial needs in the first place. So please pray that we would be strong and faithful, trusting in the God’s providence; whether this ultimate results in our having a child or not, it is in His hands, not ours.

So, there is some trepidation there, and a lot of education required (including some rather abhorrent, state-mandated indoctrination), but we are hopeful and just really grateful to the Lord for providing this avenue for us to explore!

Conquering Habits

One habit I have struggled with for most of my life that I’ve not talked about much has been my addiction to nicotine. Ever since my then sister-in law offered me my first cigarette when I was 16 years old, I was hooked.

I had tried to quit smoking many times over the years, usually with half-hearted attempts that I knew weren’t likely to last. My greatest “triumph” was when I switched from cigarettes to vaping, thinking they were somehow the healthier option, and one that I could gradually reduce the nicotine levels until I quit entirely.

Well, that did not work out so well either and simply lead to years of vaping. This past year, however, knowing the vaping was probably worse than smoking and I could do it anywhere, anytime, I made the decision (after prayer and counsel w/ my wife) to switch back to cigarettes with the intention of finally quitting them soon after.

Well, long story short, on September 11, 2024, I smokes my last cigarette just before bed and haven’t had a smoke or vape since! Praise God. Almost 30 years of my life trapped in that addiction and the Lord has finally freed me of it. All glory to Him, without whom I would have never had the willpower or even the drive to quit.

Bible Read Through

A couple of years ago, I set out to read through the entire Bible in chronological order. I had never been able to say I read every word of the Bible before, but I wanted to change that. I had also made it my primary effort to read through without consulting outside commentaries, dictionaries, etc., unless absolutely necessary. My goal was to let the Holy Spirit reveal exactly what He wanted to reveal to me without the potential for outside voices to sway a clean reading and interpretation of the text itself.

Note: I do not have an issue with commentary and I do/will consult them when studying, but for my daily reading to get through the Bible, I avoided them.

I am happy to say that I finally finished that goal! It did take longer than I expected because once I reached the New Testament, my progress slowed as it was hard to force myself to just read without stopping to ponder and study more the awesomeness that I found there. Regardless, though, I can now say that I have read every single word of the Holy Bible!

And, having read it in chronological order, I can honestly say I have a much better understanding of the overall history of the world and my faith than if I had simply read it from Genesis to Revelation. I highly recommend all Christians read through the entire Bible this way at least once!

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I suppose that is all I have to share at the moment. I will say that I am planning on getting back into my X account (@unworthy_prod) again in 2025; I miss the constant immersion in God’s word that my interactions there produced and have also missed the many wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ I have come to know there. I do not know what God has planned for me there, but the past several months away have not had the positive effect I had been hoping for.

If you all would please pray for the needs of my family mentioned above, as well as for my wife and I as we journey through the adoption process, I would greatly appreciate it. I would also covet your prayers for my own sake, as I have been dealing with depression and a cold faith the past several months; pray that the Spirit would daily remind me of the promises of God.

God bless and go serve your King, keeping your mind focused on things which are eternal. Go and point others to the Light in these dark times!