On September 5, 2008, my husband and I sat watching the Stand Up to Cancer telethon with tears streaming down our face. The tears weren’t for grief and sadness towards the souls put on display during the program, our tears spilled because we were in our own dark tunnel. Just hours before the telethon aired, my husband, Justin, was shockingly diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer. At the time of diagnosis we learned that he had tumors in both lungs, neck, shoulder, all down his spine, in both hips, ribs, and his liver. Our son’s two-year old birthday was just weeks away and our hearts ached as we wondered if it would be the last one Justin would celebrate. Yet, we were strong and positive, and trusted that Justin would prevail.

Over the next five months we had many low moments as two different treatment drugs failed to stop the rapid tumor growth. We knew the statistics were appalling for this aggressive type of lung cancer invading Justin’s body. We figured he probably only had a 7% chance at a five-year survival, and if he made it to that it would likely involve living with a disease-filled body for five years if the doctors could figure out how to control the growth. We were being so positive, spending our hours pleading with God to heal Justin. We simply didn’t understand why our miracle wasn’t being delivered.

We heard about The Secret prior to Justin starting his third treatment attempt. I grew up in a very open-minded household with a father who continuously told me that all I had to do was focus and visualize my life’s desires, and I could manifest whatever I wanted. Never in my life had I ever wanted anything so badly than to have the love of my life and best friend healthy once again. After being closed-minded for so many years to my dad’s manifestation approach, I bought The Secret book and movie. It was then that Justin and I watched a movie that would change our lives forever.

We stopped saying the word ‘cancer’, not realizing until afterward just how much we effortlessly let that dreaded word roll off our tongue. If we had to talk about cancer, we would say ‘can-survive’, or ‘the c word’, or simply ‘it’. Our desperate prayers had been for God to heal Justin and bring him cancer-free days. We realized that we were continuing to feed this disease when all we truly wanted to do was refuse it any energy to survive. We immediately started praying together as a family, and we felt like we found God when we joyously started to praise Him for Justin’s perfect health. We continued through our days saying “thank you” for everything, of course with the abundance of our gratitude revolving around our family’s perfect heath. We would spend our time mentally spilling all our desires to the universe, making sure that every word and sentence articulated an extremely positive outlook for our future. We had so much trust, faith, and belief in God to heal Justin that we continued to thank Him for a miracle that the doctors had yet to witness.

Six weeks after starting the new treatment, the doctors finally saw what we knew and trusted all along. 90% of the cancer had miraculously disappeared, and by the time his chemotherapy treatments concluded Justin was declared in remission and healthy.

Today Justin continues on a maintenance drug, and we continue to live The Secret each day… thanking the Lord for allowing Justin to spend the next fifty plus years here on Earth with his family.

Our motto continues to be “Speak it, Think it, and Believe it”…