prayers for Gloria

What a positive article about a large Catholic family and their little 11 year old girl with neuroblastoma in a coma up near Seattle.

After seven bouts of chemotherapy, three experimental drugs and a stem-cell transplant, Gloria has reached the point her family dreaded.

Before Gloria's diagnosis, Kristen believes, God told her Gloria would have an incurable disease. She says he left her with this: "When I heal her, I will change the lives of many."
Four months ago, Dr. Julie Park, Gloria's oncologist, told the family she had only weeks to live. So the Strausses stopped treating her cancer, focused on managing her pain and turned to their faith for a miracle.

On Thursday, they tried to explain the entire situation to the kids. The two other girls — Alissa, 13, and Maria, 9 — fully understand. Joe and Anthony do not understand the complexities, but they know Gloria could die. Sam, 3, grasps even less. And baby Vincent is only 10 months old.

"We do worry about our children," Doug says. "It's hard. We want to make sure we're not missing anything that could cause them problems down the road. We're not pretending like this is just going to be OK."