While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss While We're Waiting® - Hope After Child Loss

Sixteen years ago today, Hannah took her ACT test. She had just returned from her "Grandma & Grandpa" Camp week, and was pretty worn out, but she was adamant about taking that test. She had just completed her sophomore year of high school, and planned to take it several times over the next couple of years, hopefully increasing her score each time so she could get lots of college scholarships. She didn't feel well that day, and she still struggled with the "falling out of...

I am pleased to have Joni Robbins as my guest again today. She is the author of "In Grief: A Mother's Fight to Choose Joy", and the mom of two sons, Anson and Ethan. In last week's episode, Joni shared the story of her "gentle giant", Ethan, and how he lost his life due to an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound. Today, we talk about the difference between happiness and joy, finding purpose in our pain, and the mission of the Ethan Robbins Fund. Lean in and be...

I never knew that life with cancer could be so "normal." On the days that Hannah was treatment-free, life seemed to go on as it always had. It was summertime, so we were moving at a little bit slower pace, but there were still school workshops to attend, dentist appointments to keep, cheerleading routines to practice, and basketball camps to sweat through. We celebrated Bethany's 13th birthday, and life was good. Hannah was feeling better after having completed her fir...

I'm pleased to welcome Joni Robbins, author of “In Grief – A Mother’s Fight to Choose Joy” to the podcast today! Her son Ethan was a gentle giant and a friend to many, who dreamed of being in law enforcement someday. He died at the age of 17 in a tragic accident in their home in the spring of 2021. In this first half of our two-part conversation, Joni shares who Ethan was, and talks about the incident that took his life and the impact it had on her marriage. Be sure and come...

Round One of Hannah's oral chemotherapy treatments was complete, and it felt good to get it behind us. It had been rough ... no doubt about that ... but we had a nice stretch of treatment-free days ahead of us now before Round Two would begin. We were encouraged. We could do this for eleven more months if that's what it took for Hannah to be healed.Thank you for joining me for another bonus episode of the While We're Waiting podcast in this year-long series in which I share ...

I remember the exact moment my teenage daughter became my hero. She had already been through brain surgery, 33 radiation treatments, and several MRIs. She had begun an oral chemotherapy protocol where she took a dose of a drug called Temodar for five days out of each month. One evening, as I watched her bravely swallow those five giant capsules, one by one, knowing they would make her terribly sick by morning, I found myself thinking, "She is my hero." Thank you for joining me for anoth...