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‘Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.’ ~Elizabeth Stone

Being a parent is the most important thing you will ever do, and the most rewarding! Lots of love to the both of you. xo

Having a sick child is the last thing any parent wants to think about. But it happened to us. And to our beautiful daughter Julia, barely three years old at the time.

In 2005, Julia, our middle child, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma – a rare form of bone cancer. It’s the same cancer Terry Fox had, and typically presents itself in children between the ages of 10 and 20 years. At the time, she was the youngest in Alberta to have this type of cancer. We brought her into the hospital because she was limping and within 24 hours she was diagnosed. From that point on, Julia wouldn’t walk on her own again for the next 18 months.

Julia’s treatment was incredibly intensive and took a physical and emotional toll on our entire family. She underwent 10 weeks of chemotherapy, followed by reconstructive surgery, then another 20 weeks of chemotherapy. The tumor was right on her femur near the top of the hip. They had to take out the part of the bone that had the tumor in it, and most of her femur. Her surgery, called Winkelmann’s, essentially made her knee function as her hip and her ankle function as her knee, requiring her to wear prosthesis on her reconstructed leg.

In the year following treatment, Julia went through four new prosthetic legs and suffered four bone breaks.

Julia’s pain levels were high, but she was just amazing. Little kids aren’t like adults – they don’t feel sorry for themselves. In the good moments, she was sweet and chipper. And in the hard moments, she was irritable or quiet but always endearing. What inspired us was seeing how this young person could face such an ordeal with courage and strength. She knew what she needed to get better, and she’d ask for it. Even on the worst days, when her mouth was sore from medication and she couldn’t talk, she would find a smile for her baby sister.

As a family, we had to tap into our inner strength and turn to God to get through this. We were in the hospital two-thirds of the nine months, so we were apart a lot as a family. The separation was really hard on all of us.

Luckily, we had amazing friends and family to turn to. And we each had the ability to take time off work to focus on the recovery of our daughter, and the well-being of our family. Our oldest, Joshua, really stepped up to help take care of his baby sister Jael. It was hard on him – he had to be much more responsible that normal kids his age – but we’ve seen how compassionate he’s become and that’s a really positive thing.

It has now been 8 years since this journey all began. Julia now participates in dance, drama, swimming, and bike riding. Jael is no longer the baby, but she still is the one to make everyone smile. Joshua still has a love for his sisters, and enjoys showing them everything he gets to learn first. Darrin & Christy have not let their dreams die either, as both have completed Masters degrees, and are working professionally in their fields.

The one thing this journey builds, is a passion to be a family. Time together is precious, and whether we are doing chores, homeschooling, or having fun, we try to do it as a family. Life has put challenges before us, and we have overcome them together.

This photo shoot is to participate in the Sharing Hope project being put together by the Ontario Parents Advocating for Children with Cancer (www.opacc.org). Stories like Julia’s are being compiled for a book that will be given to every newly diagnosed childhood cancer family. – Darrin and Christy