On The Mark

This week Markus graduated from Credo Christian High School. As parents we are thankful to God that he could attend the graduation ceremony and most of the other events associated with graduation. With COVID rules still in place only students and staff were able to attend the ceremony so we gathered with our family as well as Markus’ cousin Eric’s family to watch the ceremony online. At moments such as this we try to prepare ourselves for the various emotions that are sure to begin flowing. While we don’t overthink these situations, we did anticipate experiencing a few moving moments when Markus went up to be handed his graduation diploma and obligatory book that all the students receive. But alas, things proceeded quite differently. Principal Kent Dykstra gave the opening remarks and began by immediately reaching under the podium and pulling out an “On the Mark Maintenance” ball cap and placing it on his head. Needless to say we couldn’t hold it together. Principal Dykstra’s speec

As Christians we believe that our only comfort in life and death is that we belong with body and soul to our faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. This is especially comforting to us as we navigate life with Markus and his fight against Ewing Sarcoma. Therefore, soon after Markus’ diagnosis, when we were contacted Make-A-Wish Canada, we did some contemplating. This sounded exciting, but we would have traded good health for Markus over anything he would wish for. How was this going to make things better? In our minds we knew that Jesus was the one who would get us through this, not a gift from Make-A-Wish. Yet, this charitable organization (which you can support here ) simply wants to, “create life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses” as r esearch shows that children who have wishes granted helps to build the physical and emotional strength they need to fight a critical illness. Initially Markus wasn’t really interested in it, but he must have been mulling over some thing

It has been a few weeks since we received the good news that the tumors are shrinking, and the chemo is having its desired impact. Markus had another round of chemo last week. It was perilously close to being postponed because of low platelet counts it was able to proceed as scheduled. While at home Markus still has energy to complete the schoolwork required in order to graduate from grade 12. This past week he completed his Capstone project and presented it to a number of faculty members at his high school. It was the first time Markus has been back to Credo Christian since the diagnosis and it went well. He was pretty thankful that a number of his friends were also present for some moral support. 😊 We also met with Dr. Clarkson, the orthopedic surgeon who will be rebuilding Markus’ upper right arm. It was an informative meeting but also challenging. Currently Markus’ arm causes him no pain and he has full use of it. Following surgery his range of motion will be seriously restri