Darren LeBlanc

Happy Birthday to Andy Bova and Rob Green…

…and me. Yes, I’m an old man now (28). Today we had a visit from our good friends Scott and Ann. They brought by a gift for my birthday. I honestly, completely forgot it was my birthday until they showed up at the door. My life is a bit of a blur lately.

Anyway, back to the saga. I like this whole blog thing, cause the world gets to watch as my family wrestles with life, death, cancer, God, etc. I hope that along with garnering forces to join us in prayer, these posts help someone somewhere with whatever you may be going through. Now, for those of you who don’t know me as well, I’ve served in a pastoral role for over 4 years of my life. Until Misty’s cancer came back, I was in bible school as well while keeping my day job as an engineer. I say this to say that I have a good understanding of the bible, and a very comfortable understanding of Christendom. Nevertheless, in recent months…I have doubted many things. So if you are tuning in for the first time I wanted to give you some background. In the midst of doubting I have found peace. I think we all need to challenge what we believe a little bit more. Too often we take for granted everything we learned sitting around the table with Granda Margaret…we just expect it to be true. We need to “own” our faith. Hand-me-down faith is completely meaningless.

Anyway, enough of that. Here is the latest:
Physically, Misty is no better than a few days ago (can only say very simple words, cannot use right arm at all, has trouble walking and is very weak). I am greatly disappointed about this. If you read my last post, you should expect me to be disappointed. I’m in the process of reconciling God’s word with my experiences. This is a normal process for me lately. I’m looking forward to a nice theological post in a couple weeks. Yeah, so Misty is not any better – but somehow, tonight ends on an emotional high note. I asked misty how she was doing (the usual question) and she conveyed to me that she was ok. I have gotten this response many times, but tonight was a little different. Usually, its “I’m sick of this…but I’m gonna trust that God has it under control” – which by the way, is already a surprisingly good response for someone in her shoes. But tonight was different. I asked her if she was ok having to go through this and she said yes. It’s really hard for us to have conversations about anything other than logistical stuff, but I really felt like she was a bit happier. It was like she went from accepting it, to finding purpose in it. Life has become a little bit easier…

I also wanted to mention that I got an encouraging note from someone this week. His name is Stan. He explained to me that he went to a small group for the first time with my good friend andy bova (see birthday reference above) and they spent much of the time praying for misty. Well, Stan doesn’t know misty…but he is the doctor at Monmouth medical who reviews every one of her MRIs and works closely with Misty’s neuro-oncologist. So now he not only works on the medical side for Misty, but now he is on the faith side as well. I was encouraged by this. Its nice to have someone who plays both sides of the field:)

Oh, and I got a note from an old friend from college. He wanted me to know that he is the Program Director at the most powerful radio station in Maine…and they were praying for Misty on their morning show. That was another piece of encouragement. (thanks to Joe Polek of Maine’s Harbor of Hope, WHCF – 88.5fm)