She had some kidney stones, gallstones, and gallbladder removed after her first child was born. But other than that, she was in really good health. Her husband had recently moved to a new area and while they were waiting for insurance to kick in after 90 days, she was setting up appointments where she could go to the doctor to get her yearly physical to make sure that everything was okay.

She does that every year and so finally insurance kicks in on the first of August and she goes to the doctor to get a physical and mammogram done. Then the phone call comes. They ask her if she can come back and talk. She thought right away that something might be wrong and sure enough, there was a tumor that they had found in the mammogram and they did a biopsy and found out a few days later that yes, it was cancerous. She then goes to the oncologist to find out that it most likely is in stage one. She then goes a few more times and they may upgrade it to stage two. So she has the surgery and the surgery goes well and everything seemed to be removed. Everything turned out to be successful. She asked to go through chemotherapy for the next several months and I think it turned out to be 18 weeks of chemotherapy. That was dangerous for her because it messed with her heart a little bit, but she recovered. She did fine. But it was today, September 1, 10 years ago to the day that she, my wife, Valerie Burns, became cancer-free!

During this time, I was working in Christian radio and it was both a blessing and tough for me to hear sometimes because I felt encouraged, but at the same time, I would ask God, "Why? I don't understand. We've dedicated our lives to Christian ministry. Why would you let this happen to us?" But God brought us through it and my wife has had the opportunity to share her faith with those going through cancer. I get to share with husbands whose wives are going through cancer and remind him that God is always there. This is not taking Him by surprise.

What I'm learning through this journey is to make God a priority. Seek God first with all of your heart and know it's not going to be easy sometimes because we don't understand. But this is not taking him by surprise. He has a plan and it's our role to just seek to be in His plan. Whatever it is, however, just know that God's plans are better than anything you could ever dream up.