Have Faith
How Faith and Family Encouraged My Life by Melissa Tjeerdsma
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teering for organizations I loved, such as my church, Cornerstone World Outreach; the American Heart Association; the Ronald McDonald House; the Sioux City Human
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y life is an example of the way in which God is able to use all the joys and heartaches we encounter by providing a new season of life with a new purpose. As long as I can remember, it was my dream to become a wife and mother, so it was such a blessing when I married my college sweetheart, Kenneth Tjeerdsma. I was working while he was in medical school, but when our oldest son was born I happily stayed home to raise our four children and be the best partner and mother I could be. During those years, I enjoyed the passion of volun28
Rights Commission; and being involved as a parent with our children as they received their education. They were happy years, marred only by the brain cancer that we dealt with in my youngest son, William. Our faith and the many prayers and support from friends gave us strength during this time in the medical system, we won his battle, his cancer went into remission, and I felt a new compassion for people who are suffering from disease and chronic pain. Throughout all the busyness of those years, however, I never expected that season of my life would come to an end. Unfortunately, it did, when my husband, then a well-respected cardiologist with Cardiovascular Associates, died of a sudden heart attack in September, 2009. Life can change quickly,
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