Overview

Im sorry to tell you thisyour child has cancer. Each year in America those devastating words thrust parents of more than 12,000 children and adolescents into a frightening, dark tunneldramatically changing the dynamics of each family. Because childhood cancer attacks quickly and unexpectedly, parents reel, bombarded with information regarding treatments, tests, and decisionsas parents echo, Ive never felt so alone. I feel like Im in a fog. From the initial diagnosis and throughout the daunting journey the twelve chapters and resources in Hope for Families of Children with Cancer weave advice, support, and hope from fellow travelers and professionals who come alongside through encouraging short stories, refreshing helpful hints, and inspiring scriptures and prayers. Many weary parents pull apart as communication breaks downsometimes far apart. An added study, You-niquely Made helps family members appreciate different personalities and methods of coping. Overwhelmed families find comfort and courage as writers deal with the struggles parents face balancing needs of their child; family the set-aside spouses and the invisible onessiblings; and selfthe caregiverthe new normal of childhood cancer. Unfortunately 35 of cancer children die. Heartfelt stories include stages of grief, turning the corner, and battling unexpected waves of grief that continue.

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9780979780035

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In Hope for Families of Children with Cancer (Snellville, Georgia: Kindred Press, 2008), Lynda T. Young, who has founded children s ministries in hospitals, and Johnnathan Ward, a senior staff chaplain at Children s Healthcare of Atlanta, handle many weighty topics with a light touch. Hope for Families of Children with Cancer is practical, down-to-earth and immensely helpful with the questions we face when we face something like cancer. What can you expect next? What will your son or daughter ask you? How can you answer their questions? How can you cope emotionally, physically, and spiritually with this long and difficult journey ? Forewarned is forearmed, Young and Ward remind us if your child is given a steroid pulse to kill aggressive cancer cells, you may see mood swings that make extreme PMS seem normal. They also share excellent advice for parenting both the child battling a deadly disease and the easily-neglected, badly-frightened, healthy-but-probably-embarrassed sibling. They also remind caregivers to care for themselves and to tend to their souls: Let God join you in the calm and in the chaos. Chaplains serve on the front lines of ecumenical and interfaith work, and this book benefits from Ward s broad experience and broad perspective. Young and Ward write about people of many denominations and faith communities, people of little faith and those of deep piety, nearly all of them people whose faith is tested mightily by the illness of their children. The authors understand that religion can be a tremendous support to those in crisis but also can divide families. The religious content of this book is delivered gently, such as how to get through the holidays by remembering the meaning of Good Friday, Easter, and Thanksgiving while caring for a sick kid: it is worth noting, for example, that the Pilgrims were nearly all weak and sick at the first Thanksgiving feast. Young and Ward tell some great stories about how chaplains work, striving to be compassionate, understanding, non-anxious, and slow to judge. This book can give all clergy a few pointers on how to care for the sick. It brought back memories for me of my first parish, where I regularly visited a teenage girl who was slowly dying of bone cancer. Trying to be a good pastor to a teenager suffering in agony and to the grandparents who cared for her with courage and extraordinary patience was hard, but knowing them was a great blessing. Chaplains often minister to those whose pastor, priest, or rabbi is far away; sometimes they pastor those who will not let their own pastor visit them in the hospital. Ward tells a particularly moving story of one such sixteen-year-old who initially was too angry to let anyone get close to him, but who eventually died confident that Jesus is in the room and everything s going to be okay and that angels had started a party to welcome him. Can t you hear the music? Tom Goodhue, Executive Direcor, Long Island Council of Churches The Prelude

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