Circle of Faith

"You have to meet Axel," is what I was told back in June during our last visit at the Mayo Clinic.

I had heard about Axel and that he was battling rhabdomyosarcoma (rab-doe-my-O-sar-co-ma). I knew that Hannah's cancer was termed non-rhabdo, but I had to go look up what the rhabdo part actually was: A fast-growing, highly malignant tumor which accounts for over half of the soft tissue sarcomas in children. It grows in soft tissue areas of the body and tumors can appear in many locations.

After meeting Axel and his mom in the hospital that day, I instantly became connected with his story. It amazes me still that while I don't know any more about a person than the time we may spend chatting in a hospital room or hallway, you connect on a level that escapes most people,... cancer has that power to connect. You know their worries, their fears, their struggle, and their strength in faith. In reading Axel's journal (written by his mom) this morning, he is moving into a hospice care situation. The fear flairs up in me and a pit grows in my stomach,.. for a boy that I met one day has touched me without even knowing it. His mom writes: Thursday, August 20th confirmed our worst fears of a recurrence of the rhabdomyosarcoma. Do not feel that your prayers have not worked, or not been answered, for indeed they have. God has been good to us. The last year and eight months have been truly wonderful including and despite Axel's medical inconveniences. It is just now apparent to us, that Axel, as the medical miracle, is not meant to be. Please give us some space, and a tiny bit more time.

Please keep Axel, a boy you've never met, in your prayers today.