Twenty More Years Than I Thought We'd Have

In 2006, my husband was diagnosed with cancer.

I can still remember hearing the news, and feeling like the floor had disappeared beneath me. Fear, uncertainty, and countless "what if" questions filled that season of our lives.

What made it even more frightening was that the doctors weren't entirely sure what they were dealing with. Because of his previous battle with melanoma years earlier, they feared the worst. As we sat there listening, all I could hear was that my husband might not be here much longer. I felt our future had suddenly become very short.

As if that wasn't enough, life kept piling on. During that same season, I found out I was pregnant with our son. While trying to process the possibility of losing my husband, I was also carrying a new life. Then came another blow. I was laid off from my job.

Cancer. Pregnancy. Unemployment.

It felt like one wave after another.

Yet, even in the middle of all that uncertainty, God was at work in ways we couldn't see.

Here we are in 2026, twenty years later.

Twenty years.

Sometimes I joke that I was supposed to be on husband #2 by now. Instead, I am still blessed with husband #1, and I couldn't be more grateful for these extra years together.

They haven't been perfect years, but they've been good years. Hard years. Interesting years. Fun years. Real years!

We've lived through sickness and health, through being young, dumb, and broke, and through eventually getting life together just a little bit more. We've made mistakes, learned lessons, and experienced God's goodness in ways we never could have imagined back in that frightening doctor's office.

During these twenty years, we've raised two beautiful children. We've welcomed an amazing son-in-law into our family and fallen completely in love with our granddaughter. We've shared countless adventures, explored countries and cultures we once only dreamed about seeing, attended concerts, camped under the stars, and created memories that I once feared we would never have the chance to make.

When I look back now, I am amazed at our story.

Not because everything went according to plan. It certainly didn't.

I'm amazed because God's faithfulness showed up in the middle of uncertainty. The chapter I thought might be the end turned out to be the beginning of twenty unexpected years filled with love, laughter, growth, and grace.

Life has a way of reminding us that tomorrow is never promised. But it also reminds us that we often worry about endings that God hasn't written.

Twenty years ago, I was grieving a future I thought we were about to lose. Today, I stand in awe of a God who saw what I couldn't see. The diagnosis that looked like the closing of a chapter became the doorway to twenty more years of love, family, adventure, and countless reminders of His faithfulness.

I know that not everyone gets a happy ending or a story like mine. There is sadness and pain in watching our loved ones fight for their lives. The truth is that every story eventually comes to an end, and 20 years ago, with that cancer diagnosis, I thought our love story was ending too. But we know that God is good, no matter the outcome. His goodness is not defined by the ending of our story, but by his faithfulness through every chapter.