College sweethearts, Lesley Miller, and her husband, Jonathan, were excited to be welcoming their firstborn child together.  The joy of their daughter's arrival was soon shadowed by a cancer diagnosis for Jonathan at the age of 29.  Lesley shares the ups and downs of that year of juggling new motherhood while caring for her husband during cancer treatments.  She talks about God's faithful presence in their lives and the radical love of the community around them.  Today Jonathan is cancer free and the Millers are running around after three children together.  With a testimony of resilience, joy, and faithfulness, I know you will be blessed to hear Lesley's story!

Resources/References mentioned in this episode:

"How Not to Say the Wrong Thing" (ring article)

There is No Good Card for This: What to Say and Do when Life is Scary, Awful, and Unfair to People You Love by Dr. Kelsey Crowe and Emily McDowell

Psalm 112:7 

Book of Ruth

Don't Waste Your Cancer by John Piper

A Shelter in the Time of Storm: Meditations on God and Trouble by Paul David Tripp

Streams in the Desert by L.B. Cowman

Proverbs 6:9

Lesley's Spotify playlist to listen to during difficult times (or really anytime!).  Mercy in the Storm

Pinterest board of Cancer Resources

And a little shout out to Coffee + Crumbs that Lesley mentioned toward the end.  Lesley was the amazing podcast host for Coffee + Crumbs podcast before God called her into a different chapter for her life.  You can check out C+C's collaborative blog of motherhood stories as they support and encourage mother's!  (I've been a long time fan of C+C myself).  

Finally, you can follow Lesley at her blog: lesleym.com which also contains links to her social media accounts.  

Thanks for listening!  

You can reach Tears of Gold at www.tearsofgold.com

Tears of Gold :: Stories of Hope is back!  Thank you for your patience as I prepared for Season Two.  I have a great line up of guests ready to share their stories with you and this season opener is an awesome kickstarter!

In this episode I get to interview a very dear woman to me, Mary McBrearty.  I have known Mary since I was in high school and now we call her by Nanny Mary.  My family is grateful to get to have a local, surrogate grandma in the form of Mary.  She loves my children with overflowing joy, love, and patience.  And as you'll hear in her sharing, she got to deepen those character traits while raising her own three children.  In particular, with her daughter, Christie, who will be a forever child in Mary's life.  Far from being bitter about a dependent adult, Mary's story reverberates with a message of God's faithful love, compassion, and provision in her life.  Even though I have known Mary for twenty years and seen this story up close, I was moved to joyful tears by Mary's deep and abiding confidence in her heavenly Father.  

I am positive you will walk away encouraged, uplifted, and joyful from Mary's story!

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