“Addison has two parts to her story. When she was born, she was diagnosed with a heart defect so rare her nurses and doctors had not personally encountered it before. At almost three months old, she had open-heart surgery. A few weeks after her surgery, we started seeing some discoloration in her leg. We brought her back to the heart doctor, and they found a mass in her abdomen that was cutting off blood flow to her leg. It was cancerous, and she immediately started on chemo—at four months old. Her cancer was so rare and destructive, her doctors had to change the type of chemo multiple times and the tumors kept coming back more and more aggressively. During this time, she also received radiation and countless surgeries. It felt like a never-ending cycle. Halfway into her treatment, her doctors were starting to give up and started focusing on keeping her comfortable because it didn’t seem like her body could handle more treatment. To say it was unbelievably hard is a huge understatement. When I first found out about her heart defect, I was devastated, but in that moment, I clearly heard God tell me she would be healthy and with me forever. I held onto that promise throughout everything knowing He always keeps His promises. Gateway was such a blessing during this season too. For a while we were bouncing around hospitals, so when we weren’t in town, we would watch church online, and it made us feel like we still had our home church with us. Addison has now been in remission for three years as of this past June and had her last open-heart surgery this past November. She still has her struggles, but you’d never know it by looking at her. She loves to sing and dance and be the center of attention. She’s truly a miracle. Our little survivor.”
January 12, 2018