Family Sponsorship – 4

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Thank you so much!  Attached is our writeup of Alexa and her battle.  Thanks again for blessing our family during a very difficult time of loss here on earth.  Thank the Lord we have the hope of eternal life through Jesus or we would not be able to cope.  You are blessing our family and we cannot thank you enough.

March 14, 2019 is a day the Tolsma family will never forget.  Our daughter Alexa had been having breathing issues and chest pain.  What was supposed to be a routine chest x-ray to see if she had pneumonia turned into an ER visit and nine hours later, we were informed that our daughter had a rare form of bone cancer called Ewing’s Sarcoma.  

I don’t think a parent is truly ever ready to hear an oncologist come into the ER, ask you to step into a different room and tell you that your daughter has cancer.  Our hearts sank and hit the floor as he explained what Alexa was going to have to endure over the next fourteen months.

From day one, we knew the only ONE who could provide healing for Alexa and give her the strength she would need to endure all this was the Lord.  The Lord led our family to rely on Daniel 3 “Faithful Faith.”  A story in the Bible where three men were ordered to bow before an idol.  They refused and were thrown into the “fiery furnace.”  God chose to deliver these faithful men.  As a family we discussed what kind of Faith would we have now that Alexa has been diagnosed with cancer and thrown into a different kind of “fiery furnace.” 

Alexa has had to endure 177 nights in the hospital, 11 unexpected ER visits, 2 nights in the ICU, 167 shots, 29 scans, 42 blood/platelet transfusions, 17 cycles of chemo consisting of 5 different chemo medications, and a tough surgery to remove 4 of her ribs and 2 sections of her lungs.

Alexa was declared in remission March 25, 2020.  We cried tears of joy and celebrated as a family and we thanked the Lord for His Faithfulness in Alexa’s life.  We thought Alexa’s cancer journey was over…

However, on September 3, 2020 Alexa’s Ewing’s Sarcoma cancer came back, but this time it went to her skull and rib.  Alexa underwent a six-hour emergency surgery to her skull where they removed 95% of the tumor and her entire mastoid bone.  The surgeons could not get all the tumor and had to leave some on the Dura and in the jugular vein.  

Alexa now needed to wait 4-5 weeks before she could start radiation in order to avoid swelling in her brain.  In that amount of time, Alexa’s tumor grew back and was bigger than before she had surgery.  The tumor had expanded and started to grow in her brain as well.  Her cancer was so aggressive.

Alexa was in the fight for her life.  She needed a miracle.  But our God does miracles!  So, we were praying and pleading with the Lord to heal Alexa here on earth.  Our trust was not in ourselves or the doctors but in Lord.  We believe that God could, that He would heal her, but if not, we took comfort knowing that Alexa knows Jesus as her Lord…and the Lord knows Alexa and loves her far more than we ever could.

On November 8, 2020 the Lord saw fit to call Alexa home.  She passed peacefully in our home and was forever healed.  Alexa’s life in this broken world ended on November 8, 2020 but her eternal life instantly began November 8, 2020 as she met her Creator and Savior. 

The pain of losing Alexa is indescribable.  We miss her dearly, but we know because of Jesus, because of the cross and because we have accepted Jesus as Lord that we will one day see Alexa again in Heaven.  We long for this day but until then will keep trusting Jesus and telling others about Him.