For the last ten years, Joel has lived with cancer.

For ten years we’ve fought, hoped, planned, celebrated, and cried through cancer. Through it all we’ve tried to keep living: raising our kids, traveling when we could, and refusing to let cancer steal the joy from the big and the small moments.

Last week, Joel’s oncologist told us something that changed the way we see the year ahead.

The person he sees in the scans is dying. Based on the progression of Joel’s cancer, we’ve been told he likely has about a year left.

As Joel has shared, when people say that phrase…

They say a year “to live.”

Not a year “to die.”

And that’s exactly how we’re choosing to see it.

This year is about living.

It’s about time spent intentionally. Together. In the present, not fixated with worry on the future. It’s making sure the kids have memories that stretch far beyond this season. It’s about the trips we can still take, the places we can still see together, and the ordinary days that suddenly feel very extraordinary.

But there is also a practical side to this year.

Practicality showing up as transitions to disability, reduced income, increased medical care and insurance costs, and the reality that planning a meaningful year together all come with financial weight.

In the past we asked for just enough help to ease the burdens of the already weighty costs surrounding Joel’s multiple surgeries, extensive travel, and lost income from missing work. And people showed up . Beyond anything we asked for, people showed up. More than the monetary, the gifts reminded us that we had a community willing to carry us through the storms.

Following the news this week, this same community has once again showed up. In texts and comments and messages and phone calls. And we have honestly heard the same question: “How can we help?”

So we are creating this page for those who have asked.

Your support will help us:

• Offset the loss of income as disability transitions loom

• Cover medical and treatment-related costs

• Create opportunities for family trips and experiences together

• Help us focus less on financial stress and more on time together

If you would like to support us in ways beyond financial gifts, we would also gratefully accept:

• Airline miles

• Travel or hotel gift cards

If you have something like that you’d like to share, please reach out to us directly. We are trying to fit years of family vacations and retirement together into a few months.

Because we don’t know exactly what this year will look like. Or how long Joel will be able to do anything.

But we do know this:

We want to fill any time he has left with as much living as possible.

Thank you for walking this road with us, for loving our family, and for helping us make this year count.

With Love,

The Stetler Family