How the burden of a C-section and leukemia was carried by the CHM family

Things were going well with my fourth pregnancy. Then, during my third trimester, I started feeling weak and fatigued.

I was 36 weeks pregnant and we were on a picnic with friends and family. As I was talking to people, I kept feeling worse, and entered a bad brain fog.

My sister took me to the emergency room. They drew blood and found that my counts were very low. I was covered in bruises. They suspected leukemia.

Doctors didn’t want to do the bone marrow tap to test for leukemia while I was pregnant. Instead, we decided it would be best to deliver Maggie first and begin testing and treatment for cancer afterwards.

The C-section was risky because I didn’t have much blood. They gave me bag after bag of blood to get me ready. If I bled too much, my body wouldn’t have anything to replace the loss of blood.

The C-section went well. When I woke up, they wheeled me down to the Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit to see Maggie. I was able to spend one day with her before I had to be tested for cancer.

It came back positive for leukemia. It was a long, nine-month fight before we were able to stop my treatments. Now, I only go for six-month checkups to verify the cancer is staying away.

We were blown away by the love and support of everyone. A local business in town called Koch’s general store raised enough money for us to get a second car, which we really needed because I had to drive an hour to my treatments every day.

CHM members also shared 100 percent of our eligible medical bills, but there was more to it than just financial support. A friend of ours, Aaron, helped us with the medical bill sharing process. As a fellow CHM member, he felt God’s call to help us in that way.

That’s the beautiful thing about CHM—it’s the greater context of the church. It wasn’t just our local church helping us, it was the church from around the world coming together the way the church is supposed to.