"With love alone, we will bring you back to health."
In many ways, the Randells are your typical family. Jason is a carpenter, Liliane an employee at a local university. Jacob happily attends first grade while little brother Liam spends his days toddling around his caregiver's home. They enjoy visiting with their many friends and family, have been known to throw a serious BBQ, and are more than a little infatuated with the local coffee shop.
But more than anything - especially since Jacob's terrifying diagnosis in the fall of 2008 - the Randells love spending time together as a family. There is nothing more important to them than seizing every moment, taking in every experience to the fullest, knowing that time is a precious commodity.
When Jacob was undergoing cancer treatments in the hospital, a fundraiser was held in his honour. On the wall, a poster read: "With Love Alone, We Will Bring You Back to Health." This wasn't just a slogan, but a testament to how the family was dealing with a very difficult situation: With love. It was love for each other, and from their ever growing support circle, that helped them through the darkest of days, guided their most difficult decisions, and ultimately brought their family back together under one roof in the summer of 2009.
Bringing Jacob home after a long ten months of surgeries and treatments was the greatest gift the family could have asked for. Today, the air is thick with happiness and gratitude in the Randell household. Much of their incredible journey to date is documented in the pages of this blog. And, while some entries are filled with pain and others with joy, every single one was written with love.
Each family has a story to tell. It is the Randells' sincerest hope that their story will help another family navigating the stormy waters of childhood illness.
Written by Amanda Knox
