I’m amazed that the Seattle Times would publish a story like this.  -Jeremy

By Jerry Brewer

Seattle Times staff columnist

She awakens in the middle of the night, excited and motivated. She tries to rise on her own. She gets to the edge of the bed, legs dangling, but then she pauses. The pain is too much. The cancer is too strong.

Gloria cries for her parents.

HER PARENTS CRY FOR GLORIA, TOO. Doug and Kristen Strauss realize their daughter is fading. They estimate she sleeps 70 percent of the day now.

Gloria had an IV sending 120 milligrams of morphine per hour into a medical port located just below her right collarbone. Two days ago, she switched to Dilaudid, a stronger medicine. She is given hourly doses of 35 milligrams. If that is not enough, she can press a button every eight minutes that shoots 20 more milligrams into her body.

Neuroblastoma is overwhelming Gloria. She has fought this childhood cancer for more than four years, but true to its dogged form, the disease keeps coming after her life.

“I can’t say I don’t fear death,” Doug says. “Whenever I fear it, I pray. There are moments that are just gut-wrenching. You don’t want to go anywhere. You don’t want to see anybody.”

Three months ago, Dr. Julie Park, Gloria’s oncologist, told the Strauss family Gloria’s cancer was killing her. Since then, Gloria and her parents have abandoned last-ditch cancer treatments because they have no history of healing in cases as advanced as hers. Instead, they have turned fervently to their Catholic faith.

For nearly two weeks, Gloria has been mostly immobile. She last walked without assistance July 10, when the family went to see a special preview of the new Harry Potter movie. Since then, she has been trapped in the den, in a borrowed hospital bed, in her body.

Even now, the Strausses believe God will heal Gloria. They continue to pray for what they want. Religion is their reality. They snap back to faith, always.

“We’re not walking blind,” Doug says. “We’re not defending ourselves from the worst-case scenario. We’re turning ourselves to the miracle.”

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The longer they must wait, the harder it is to remain resolute.

AFTER HELPING GLORIA, Doug walks into the bedroom and sobs. He looks at his wife and collapses on the bed.

“Where’s my faith?” he asks. “Where’s my trust?”

 Read the full article here.

My precious family of God,

It is my final day here in the beautiful country of Lebanon, and I have been thinking of you and missing you greatly.  I hear that my sister has made an appearance among you and that she loved it–thanks so much for making her feel welcome! She is growing into a young woman, and this sort of Christian community is really good for her.

Lebanon has been truly incredible.  Hiking to old ruins of Greek orthodox churches, drinking out of an ice cold mountain stream (unfiltered…Oh the adventure!), swimming in the Mediterranean, running off with my young-adult cousins for a day away from my grandparents, eating almond and pistachio ice cream…but best of all, getting to know my grandparents in a sweet and intimate way that is so incredibly precious.

These people have taken me all over the country.  My grandmother walked with me more than she had walked in six months, even though it hurt her, because she wanted to take me shopping around downtown Beirut.  The show me love endlessly, whether it is bringing me tea with milk in the morning, or running out to buy me a pair of jeans for hiking because I didn’t bring any–they have been incredible witnesses of hospitality and love—all characteristics that Lebanese are famous for. This is the heritage that I am especially proud of, and which I would love someday to also exhibit in beautiful ways like they do.

My love to all of you, and I eagerly await the day when I will see you all again.

I leave tomorrow for London, and I will be in Seattle the evening of the 24th.  Most probably I will see you all at Brett’s Cabin, and I will hopefully be bringing some photos with me.

Your sister,

Elise

From day one God blessed me with such an amazing Christian family, and I was baptized at the ripe age of 8 after accepting Christ into my life. The water on this fine afternoon was totally frigid, which actually worked to my advantage as I remember the day quite clearly. The early years of junior high were fairly decent, short of my dad’s small (but rather large) drinking problem. He was the type of alcoholic to get absolutely wasted and then yell at his family for a couple hours. So not cool! To keep myself distanced from this environment I started running track, playing football, and wrestling. Playing sports helped me to develop friendships quickly at church and school, which combined with practices and games, encouraged me to forget about the yelling and fighting.

Now we move onto the early years of high school. After realizing my dad was going to lose his family, he gave up drinking and completely embraced a relationship with the Lord. Can I get an Amen! In addition to playing sports, I became profoundly interested in a super amazing group called Younglife. My sister (oh yea-ps-I have a rad sister!) went to Malibu and became a leader shortly after, so it was only natural to follow step. After graduating from high school, I became a volunteer leader and started the next-current phase of my life.
I attended college at the most amazing university in the country, also known simply as U-DUB! Apparently, God thought it would be better for me to pursue Younglife and not collegiate athletics as I was too small for football and not fast enough for track. During this time I took two groups to Wild Horse Canyon and three groups to Malibu. Watching kids accept Christ on “say-so” night was the most amazing memory I have from college. There’s nothing better than seeing the Lord plant new seeds. My living arrangements for college were vast, however my favorite home was a little place called the 17th Avenue House. Being the only sober people on the field-turf, we normally won all our sports games and tourneys, which played well with the ladies. J/K We were also required to have a weekly small group and mentor to coach us through college and our personal relationship with the Lord. What a valuable experience! We all had a lot of fun and made friendships to take with us after college.
Now I work for an insurance brokerage in Bellevue and have submitted my application to Mars Hill children’s ministries, so I’m excited to see what lies ahead in this little journey called life.
God Bless,

Tyler

My dear and beloved friends,

I am writing you on the day before I embark on a weeklong adventure to Mexico! I thought I’d have nothing to report about my vacationing time, and that I should just make all my stories about the intense Mexico time, or the exotic travels to Lebanon (those come later), but God had work to do here in the Sunshine State, as well.

As many of you know, I’ve been really praying and asking for prayer regarding the relationship between my father and I. It hasn’t been particularly good ever since…oh, probably around when I was twelve or thirteen. I’m the eldest and my dad just had never had a daughter of my age and as I started to become more of my own person (and as I proved I could be just as stubborn as him), things just clashed a lot.
So God has finally started answering the prayer from an angle I completely didn’t expect! Instead of things magically becoming more harmonious, I started to realize that even though there were still disapoinments and things that were hurting me in my interactions with him, I was bouncing back with happiness, love, and affection. This is unheard of. I will gladly hold a grudge against my dad for quite a while, and now, suddenly, the bitter feelings are just melting away.
God is changing me first–which, when I come to think of it, is an excellent place to start. I’m learning to demand less of what I want him to give me as a daughter and to just wait and see what he’ll offer as a father, leader, and friend. It’s a totally different mindset, and it’s beautiful.

Thank you so much for all your prayers and wisdom and comfort. You are all so precious to me and it makes me ache to think the distance between now and when I will see you all again!

Love,
Elise