Message from Andrea - March 21, 2010

I would like to ask you to keep a young lady named Julia in your prayers. Julia is 15-years-old and has been battling craniopharyngioma since she was nine. She has gone through various surgeries, life-threatening infection, radiation and extensive rehabilitation and spent nearly 14 months during a 2-year period in the hospital or in rehabilitation. I've never met her, but many years ago her mother, Carla, spent a summer at our house back in 1977. Carla's mom and my mom were friends when they were school girls in Holland. I visited Carla and her family when I went back for a visit in the early '80s. Gradually, as the years passed, we lost touch, but we recently reconnected via Facebook. How great to catch up again. The internet has wiped away the many miles between California and Holland, and we can chat and catch up in an instant (fortunately, the Dutch speak and write very good English). But sad to hear that she has gone through such a long ordeal, and now to learn that Julia's condition has recently worsened. There is now a new cyst pressing on her brainstem. It's a dangerous situation and her doctors are going to determine her options on Tuesday next week. Please keep all of them, Carla, Julia, her other daughter Stephanie, and the doctors in your prayers. Thank you!