The presence of cancer and the threat of paralysis cannot overwhelm a soul that trusts in God. This week’s podcast features Katie at her best in the worst of times. She opens her heart in a journal entry (below), email, and Caring Bridge post with striking vulnerability, spirituality, and wit. She was passing through a deep place of uncertainty in her soul, faced with the reality that cancer was now destroying her spine and threatening her with paralysis.

You see the damage cancer is causing and think "This can't be me"

In the face of it all, she says, “I have no control over the cancer that is relentlessly eating me up, but I do have control over my thoughts, emotions, reactions, and choices.” She quotes from The Incredibles, Rocky, Handel’s Messiah, Jesus, and Lecrae. This podcast is vintage Katie: facing the threat of paralysis with tenacious faith, spunk, and humor. (Her unofficial guide to all the machines they stick you in during cancer treatment is also priceless.)

In these posts, Katie talks about the snap trip we made St. Louis to consult with a spine specialist. We went to Atlanta Bread Company for dinner when all was said and done. We checked into our hotel in the early evening, and Katie had nothing left. She wanted to stay up to keep me company, but she needed to sleep. I remember sitting in the room, just watching her sleep. Hours of watching filled with stillness and sorrow. They are holy to me now.