DESPERATE TIMES CALL FOR DESPERATE MEASURES.

For the 4th day in a row, Noah has sent me to Target for their popcorn. Today he actually wanted popcorn, a soft pretzel AND an Icee. Yes, we are in full force of steroid week.

Along with the mood swings and emotions steroid week can bring, it also brings strong food cravings. And since my chemo patient son has a hard time finding food to eat the other 20 days of the month, steroid week gives him a chance to enjoy food and gain some much needed calories. It normally brings a lot more work on me, but I’m happy to see him eat.

Some steroid week cravings have been pepperoni, sometimes mashed potatoes, sometimes bacon, and this week seems to be popcorn (with a little bacon on the side. 🙂 ) He is SO picky and when he wants something, what he really means is he wanted it 10 minutes ago.

So you can understand how I was almost in tears when I got to Target and discovered their snack area was closed due to plumbing problems. Doesn’t Target know how huge this is for us??? We need their food and we need it now! I talked to Noah, and after he asked how close the next Target was, 🙂 I offered a few suggestions that he thought he might be able to “try.”

Now I am keeping my fingers crossed that he will like it. And thanking God for the bank that normally gives suckers to the kids, but today they just “happened” to have popcorn instead.

Even though this has happened a lot over the past 2 years, in fact too many to count, it is still something I can’t get used to seeing. But I am thankful it doesn’t happen as often as it used to.

Just 30 more weeks, Noah. We are almost done. YOU are almost done! Praying for your complete healing, where cancer will stay away forever and that you will have no lasting side effects from these terrible, life saving drugs.

Today I said words like, “Noah, leave your sister alone!” and “Noah, settle down!” Words that on today’s occasion, warmed my heart.

We celebrated Noah’s 2 year cancer diagnosis anniversary at Maggie Moo’s tonight. We talked about what we remembered in those early days and how far we have come since then.

We dreamed about what his end of treatment party might look like. We have lots of fun planning to do in the days ahead! And, we are thinking about Disney World in the fall with no medicines and no restrictions since his port will be out. We are excited and have started watching Disney movies again to anticipate the trip and so we can be ready when we see a character in the park. 😉 It feels so good to dream.

We talked about the blessings that have come through Noah’s diagnosis. The kids mentioned several of their friends from St. Jude, Noah mentioned his doctor and free Putt Putt golf. I am so thankful that they can see the blessings through the hardships.

There are lots to look forward to in 2016. And we pray for no hurdles to go over along the way!

Noah had several runners running for him this year in the St. Jude Marathon! It was so sweet to see friends and family (some who aren’t even pictured here), running in their Team Noah shirts. We feel so encouraged and loved by the time and money they have put into training and for many of their family that came to cheer them on!

Recently, Noah hasn’t been eating on Mondays. We think it’s more nerves than anything, but by the end of the day he’s pretty lethargic. He might eat something before we leave, but that’s it. Sometimes that has meant not eating or drinking from 8:30 am to 7 pm. We have tried
everything we can think of. We have taken food, we have ordered food, we let him have a milkshake or something out of the vending machine, ANYTHING! But today we are going to try something new. I have made a sticker chart for his eating and drinking. I’m praying this helps to get him over this slump. (Of course it has been steroid week, so that should help today. 🙂 )

We raised $500 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. 

If you look hard in this picture, not only will you see Waldo, but you will see iv pumps and wheel chairs, you might even see the back of a boys head that has been shaved from brain surgery.

St. Jude does such a great job trying to lift the spirit of the patients and their family. They have art time and movie time in the lobby, they allow companies to come in and bring donations. But their trick or treating party is the biggest event that the hospital puts on each year. Each department makes a booth and gives out handfuls AND handfuls of candy.

St. Jude knows that for their patients, a little sugar pales in comparison to what the kids are facing. They know that for some kids, they can’t get out and go trick or treating like their friends or siblings can because they may be attached to a iv pump, or they might have low counts. They know that this might be even be the child’s last Halloween. They also know that for this one day the kids that look different; the ones with scars on their heads, with no hair, or only a few strands of hair, the ones whose eyes look different or the ones that need crutches or wheelchairs, for this ONE day, these kids can look like normal kids and hopefully feel normal.

Some friends took Flat Noah on a trip to Italy. He had such a good time, he decided to stay and travel the country side. (He slipped out of the window on the train. 🙂 )

Over the past eight years in my job at Union University, I’ve written hundreds of news and feature stories for the university. None of them were more difficult to write than the one I just posted, the one that began with these words: “David S. Dockery will transition from president of Union University to the role of university chancellor no later than July 2014 …”

A little more than eight years ago, I felt stuck in my career. Some of the jobs I had didn’t work out the way I had hoped. Some of them were positions with limited upside. So at age 27, I was floundering. Though I had no serious plans to leave the job I was in, or to move away from where we were living, I still had this nagging feeling that there was something that the Lord wanted me to do. But I couldn’t seem to figure out what that was.

Then I got a call one afternoon that changed my life. It was from Kathie Chute at Union University, asking me if I had any interest in returning to my alma mater to work.

“Can I just say no, without hearing any more details?” I asked Kathie. My wife and I, and our 1-year-old son, were happy where we were. Sure, my job wasn’t what I wanted to do forever, but it was paying the bills. We had friends and a good living situation. We didn’t really want to leave.

“Yes, you can do that,” Kathie said.

I remember standing there as silence fell on our conversation. My mind raced. I took a deep breath.

“Tell me what the job is,” I told her.

That was the beginning of the path that ended with me working at Union. I came to Jackson a few days later to interview with Dr. Dockery, who I found out was closely involved with my recruitment. I had been acquainted with Dr. Dockery a little bit over the previous years, but didn’t know him well. We had a good interview, and I could sense that Union University was where the Lord was leading.

So here I am more than eight years after Dr. Dockery brought me to Union, posting a news release about his transition out of the presidency. I knew this day was coming, but I kept hoping it wouldn’t be this soon. I’ve written thousands of words about him and about all that he has accomplished here. And over the next several months, I’ll undoubtedly write thousands more. But they hardly seem sufficient to describe exactly who Dr. Dockery is and what he means to me.

I have seen Dr. Dockery in all kinds of circumstances since coming to Union. I’ve marveled at the grace and kindness he consistently shows to others. I’ve been moved by listening to his prayers — prayers that demonstrated a deep and abiding trust in the Lord. I’ve laughed with him, as his keen sense of humor surfaced regularly in meetings and conversations. And I’ve cried with him, especially after a tornado ripped through the heart of Union’s campus.

I’ll never forget the night of Feb. 5, 2008, that I spent with Dr. Dockery and Gene Fant at the Jackson police station as we did our best to figure out the details of the disaster and communicate them to a national audience. I remember the pain we felt when we got word that a couple of our students hadn’t survived, and the relief we felt when we discovered that report was wrong.

In the days that followed, I watched with amazement as Dr. Dockery exhibited such calm, determined and godly leadership in the midst of a major crisis. We didn’t know if Union University could survive as an institution in the immediate aftermath of the tornado. But a few days later, DSD vowed that God would bring renewal from the rubble that was strewn across the campus. And now, almost five years later, the university is indeed stronger than ever.

I’m thankful for the team he has assembled at Union, a team of people with whom it is a pleasure to work. These are people who are more than just coworkers to me. Many of them are also close friends.

I am exceedingly grateful to the man for allowing me to provide for my family. I’ve now lived in Jackson longer than I’ve lived anywhere else in my life, and it has become home to me. My family is part of a church that is a tremendous blessing, and we have dear friends there who are incredibly precious to us.

I also appreciate his willingness to allow me to pursue professional opportunities outside of my main job with the university. Some of the most interesting things I’ve done — covering three Olympics, reporting on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, writing a book about Albert Pujols, etc. — would not have been possible without his encouragement and support.

Though I know the Lord is ultimately responsible for these good gifts and deserves the praise for them, I also know that he used Dr. Dockery to give them to me. Dr. Dockery has been a hero in the Ellsworth home and to the Ellsworth children (Noah used to ask if we could go to “Docky Docky’s house”), and we have regularly prayed for him during our family devotion time. All of my efforts to communicate and express my deepest gratitude to him are woefully inadequate.

I’m grateful that Dr. Dockery’s days at Union are not at an end. He will remain president through July 2014, at which time he will move into the position of chancellor. While I’m thrilled about that, and optimistic about the future of the university under a new president, I’m also saddened that my working relationship with Dr. Dockery won’t be the same. Being a part of his team at Union has been one of the greatest honors and most rewarding experiences of my life.

God bless David S. Dockery. He has truly been one of God’s greatest gifts to me, and I thank the Lord for him.

Union University President David S. Dockery has compiled a list of his top 25 books published in 2010, in no particular order:

BONHEOFFER: PASTOR, MARTYR, PROPHET, SPY, by Eric Metaxas.  Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE: A MEMOIR OF MY EXTRAORDINARY, ORDINARY FAMILY, AND
ME, by Condoleezza Rice. New York: Delacorte Books, 2010.

FIRST FAMILY: ABIGAIL AND JOHN ADAMS, by Joseph J. Ellis. New York: Knopf, 2010.

RATIFICATION: THE PEOPLE DEBATE THE CONSTITUTION, 1787-1788, by
Pauline Maier.  New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010.

WASHINGTON: A LIFE, by Ron Chernow. New York: Penquin, 2010.

THE WISDOM OF WOODEN: MY CENTURY ON AND OFF THE COURT, by John Wooden
with Steve Jamison.  New York:  McGraw-Hill, 2010.

THE ESSENTIAL EDWARDS COLLECTION, by Owen Strachan and Doug Sweeney.
Chicago:  Moody, 2010.

GOD AS AUTHOR: A BIBLICAL APPROACH TO NARRATIVE, by Gene C. Fant, Jr. Nashville: B&H, 2010.

BIBLICAL THEOLOGY IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH: A GUIDE FOR MINISTRY, by
Michael Lawrence.  Wheaton: Crossway, 2010.

BAPTISTS THROUGH THE CENTURIES: A HISTORY OF A GLOBAL PEOPLE, by David
Bebbington.  Waco:  Baylor University Press, 2010.

POLITICS FOR CHRISTIANS: FROM STATECRAFT TO SOULCRAFT, by Francis
Beckwith. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2010.

1 PETER: A HANDBOOK ON THE GREEK TEXT, by Mark Dubis.  Waco: Baylor
University Press, 2010.

ONE NEW MAN: THE CROSS AND RACIAL RECONCILIATION IN PAUL’S THEOLOGY,
by Jarvis Williams.  Nashville:  B&H, 2010.

RECOVERING THE REAL LOST GOSPEL, by Darrell Bock.  Nashville: B&H, 2010.

CHRIST AMONG THE DRAGONS: FINDING OUR WAY THROUGH CULTURAL CHALLENGES,
by James Emery White.  Downers Grove:  InterVarsity, 2010.

AGAINST ALL GODS:  WHAT’S RIGHT AND WRONG ABOUT THE NEW ATHEISM, by
Philip E. Johnson and John Mark Reynolds. Downers Grove: InterVarsity,
2010.

ENCOUNTERING THEOLOGY OF MISSION, by Craig Ott, Stephen Strauss, and
Timothy Tenant.  Grand Rapids:  Baker, 2010.

MAGNIFYING GOD IN CHRIST: A SUMMARY OF NEW TESTAMENT THEOLOGY, by Thomas R. Schreiner.  Grand
Rapids: Baker, 2010.

DEFENDING CONSTANTINE: THE TWILIGHT OF AN EMPIRE AND THE DAWN OF
CHRISTENDOM, by Peter Leithart. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2010.

WHY BUSINESS MATTERS TO GOD, by Jeff Van Duzer.  Downers Grove:
InterVarsity, 2010.

SHAPERS OF CHRISTIAN ORTHODOXY: ENGAGING WITH EARLY AND MEDIEVAL
THEOLOGIANS, edited by Bradley G. Green. Downers Grove: InterVarsity,
2010.

HISTORIES AND FALLACIES: PROBLEMS FACED IN THE WRITING OF HISTORY, by
Carl Trueman.  Wheaton: Crossway, 2010.

REDEEMING ECONOMICS: REDISCOVERING THE MISSING ELEMENT, by John D.
Mueller.  Wilmington, DE: ISI, 2010.

KEY EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF THE HISTORICAL JESUS, edited by Darrell Bock
and Robert Webb.  Grand Rapids:  Eerdmans, 2010.

FOR THE BEAUTY OF THE CHURCH: CASTING A VISION FOR THE ARTS,  by W.
David O. Taylor. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2010.

PSYCHOLOGY IN THE SPIRIT: CONTOURS OF A TRANSFORMATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY,
by John Coe and Todd Hall.  Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2010.