Diamonds Marriage Conference

There is going to be a second Diamonds Conference this year! It is a one day event covering topics about marriage and chronic illness. There will also be sessions about singleness, dating, and parenting while chronically ill.

The Diamonds Marriage in Chronic Illness event is this Saturday, June 5. If you are chronically ill, you are invited to join us! You can learn more and register for free here for the Diamonds Summer Event.

The Diamonds Summer Event is free while it is live. If you wish to watch sessions after June 5, you may purchase an All Access pass.

Will and I will both be speaking at the marriage event. Will is speaking first, and his session is titled, "Marriage and Chronic Illness: How Suffering in Marriage Vindicates the Wisdom and Goodness of God." He has been telling me about his session, and it is fascinating! If you love theology and learning deep truths of Scripture, you'll enjoy this!

In the evening, Will and I will be speaking together for a session titled, "When the Marriage Bed Becomes a Sick Bed: Sex, Marriage, and Chronic Illness." We have found that there is insufficient teaching from the church about sex when you have a marriage affected by chronic illness. Much of the typical advice given to couples simply doesn't work when one or both spouses are chronically ill. So we hope this session will be helpful and encouraging for those who are trying to navigate challenges in the marriage bed affected by chronic illness. If you are chronically ill and either married or considering marriage, we would love to have you join us for this session!

Be sure to check out the study guide! You can purchase a Kindle copy for 99 cents on Amazon. Or if you prefer a physical copy, you can order a paperback study guide for $5.99.

If you are married with a chronic illness, you are not alone. There are other couples going through the same struggles as you. You can meet some of them at the conference. And if you are single or dating, you too will find others who are going through the same thing as you. You aren't alone. Come join the chronically ill Diamonds community and be encouraged in your walk with the Lord through chronic illness.

Welcome, Baby Gresham!

Welcome Baby Gresham!

Our newest family member is here in our arms, and we are very happy! Gresham was 9 pounds, 5 ounces when he was born, and he was my next-to-smallest baby! I have been enjoying snuggling my little one.

We have had a busy couple of months in the Lundy home. We have been finishing up school, dealing with health challenges, and caring for a baby. Life is hard and wonderful all at once.

William and Adelaide have been a tremendous help to me in caring for Stafford and Gresham every day. I could not do this without them! All of our kids were home for school this year. William did a virtual academy, and Adelaide was home schooled. William and Adelaide took turns doing school work and caring for Stafford in the mornings. And then after Gresham was born, they also helped me care for him!

It has been quite a blessing to have their full-time help at home. If Gresham wakes up and wants to play, but I need to get more sleep, then I just call William. He comes to take the baby, and I go back to sleep. It has been an incredible gift! I am more rested during this postpartum time than I ever have been before. So while I am still tired, and I am kept busy with caring for four children, I am feeling better than I ever have at this point after pregnancy.

It has been hard for me to blog while caring for a baby, and I expect that my blog posts will probably continue to be sporadic over the next year or two as I care for a baby and then a toddler. But I still plan to keep this blog going, and I still plan to write and serve others online as the Lord provides the strength and opportunity.

Our kids are out of school for the summer, and we are looking forward to summer fun, time with cousins, time at camp, visits from family and friends, and hopefully some rest in there too! 

I hope you all have a wonderful summer! What are your plans?

Diamonds Conference and Study Guide

The Diamonds 2021 Conference starts this weekend! Have you signed up to attend? I would love to see you there! The conference starts on Friday at 11 am EST. You can view a full conference schedule on the conference webpage. 

What is Diamonds 2021? Diamonds 2021 is a free online conference for chronically ill Christians. 

When is Diamonds 2021? January 22-24, 2021

Who is speaking at Diamonds 2021? Over twenty people who are affected by chronic illness in various ways.

What does Diamonds 2021 cost? Nothing! The conference is free during the conference weekend. If you wish to view the conference after the 24th, you may purchase an all-access pass for lifetime access to the conference videos!

Where is Diamonds 2021? 100% online. You can register for free at this link.

I am happy to say that the study guide is now available on Amazon! The Kindle copy is FREE! Or if you prefer to have a physical copy, you may purchase a paperback study guide for $5.99.

Chronic illness is messy, and so often we let it become who we are. But illness cannot steal either your purpose or identity. Diamonds 2021 is an online conference for chronically ill Christians. The goal of the conference is to encourage all those facing invisible battles.

You aren’t alone — far from it.

This year, twenty authors, bloggers, and ministry leaders who battle chronic illnesses themselves are joining together to offer hope and insight as you navigate relationships in the midst of long-term illness. Hear from people like Susie Larson, Chris Simning, Kara Swanson, Mary Frey, and many others about topics like:

• Navigating Grief and Chronic Illness
• Marriage with a Chronic Illness
• How to Create Your Unique Support Community
• How to Serve God When You’re Chronically Ill
• And much more!

This study guide will help you make the most out of the Diamonds 2021 conference and remember what you learned far past the end of the conference.

I hope you will be able to join us this weekend! If you live with a chronic illness, or are a caregiver for someone with a chronic illness, this could be a very encouraging and helpful conference for you. You are not alone in the struggles you face. And this weekend we are coming together to encourage and pray for one another. See you there!

A Little Blessing

I am not usually a fan of surprises. But I have come to realize there is at least one kind of surprise that I am always excited about... a new baby!

In our family we love babies and toddlers. The unexpected blessing of Stafford has been wonderful. It has been hard, but also truly wonderful. We cannot imagine our family without this delightful child. 

William and Adelaide have been asking for another baby for well over a year now. Even with all of the work they have to do to help me take care of Stafford every day, they wanted another baby to take care of too! I told them that they needed to ask God for a baby. Well... they did! This summer God answered their prayers. We have another little one on the way! 

We are having a baby boy! We will be welcoming Gresham into our family sometime in March!

We are all very excited to have a baby again. It will be hard, but we are looking forward to having another little one in our home. William and Adelaide are ready to help me out every day with baby care. Stafford is excited to have a little brother. He talks about Gresham every day, and when he prays he thanks God for Gresham. We all thank the Lord for this precious gift!

Grateful for 40 Years

November is my birthday month, and this year I turn 40, so we are celebrating all month long! I'm actually excited about turning 40. Not everyone gets this opportunity. While it might not be pleasant to have aging joints and aging skin and declining energy levels (along with a chronic illness), I recognize that it is a privilege to have more time on this earth to be with my family and to serve the Lord. 

We began birthday month celebrations on November 1 by taking a day trip to Split Rock Creek State Park here in Minnesota. It is a park I had been wanting to visit this year, and we hadn't made it yet, so getting to see the park for the first time was exciting. We enjoyed our family time at the lake, and we took lots of pictures of our fun afternoon.

As I celebrate turning 40, Sara Frankl and Kara Tippetts are often in my thoughts. These women both impacted me through their blogs and their books. Neither woman made it to the age of 40, the milestone I have been given to celebrate this year.

Sara Frankl had Ankylosing Spondylitis, and she lived in extreme pain every single day. She was completely confined to her small condo due to her illness. Yet she lived with joy, and she reached out to others from her small corner of the world. Through her blog, Sara showed me how to live a homebound life with joy. Sara was only 38 when she passed away in 2011.

Kara Tippetts fought breast cancer, and she encouraged many through her books and through her blog, Mundane Faithfulness. Kara turned 38 on the last birthday she celebrated on this earth. She told her friends, “I hope I live long enough to have wrinkles. I hope I live to see 40.” Kara died a year and a half before that milestone birthday she wanted so much to reach. She left behind her husband and four children when she died in 2015.

Turning 40 isn't something I take lightly. As I celebrate throughout this month, I am filled with gratitude. I am living long enough to get a few wrinkles and have some gray hair. I feel the weight of this gift.

I am grateful for the years I have had with my husband and my children. I am thankful for my life, my family, and the God who makes this life worth living. I am grateful for 40 years.