Category Archives: Family Features

The Brann Family

Jessica and Aaron “A.J.” Brann know what it is to suffer and grieve. But thanks in part to the Children’s Healing Center, joy and hope for the future are also a part of their ongoing lives. Both are natives of Allegan County, and their journey together as husband and wife seemed normal enough at the […]

The Jackson Family

The Jackson family calls it “Mistha’s Journey.” And what a journey it’s been – a bittersweet trek that began when this little tyke was just 6-weeks-old – diagnosed with a life-threatening immunodeficiency called HLH, short for Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis. Today, at just shy of 18 months, Mistha thrives. Her parents, Julius and Widline, lean on acts […]

The Choi Family

Pssst! The “Children’s Healing Center” now has an unofficial alias! It’s “The Clean House.” Pass it on. That’s the word from 3-year-old twins Taylor and Jarren Choi, who because of a blood disorder that threatens Jarren’s immune system, find it difficult to enjoy public or even private places where kids can hang out and just […]

The Burgers Family

That little girl there with a smile as big as a butterfly’s wings? That’s Becca Burgers. But not Becca Burgers the patient. Not Becca Burgers who has leukemia. It’s Becca Burgers the kid, beaming because she’s about to burst through the doors of the Children’s Healing Center. And simply play. Becca, 4, is just one […]

The Bradley Family

When Colin Bradley was diagnosed with leukemia at age age 11, he and his parents were immediately thrust into an inexplicable world they never saw coming, defined by a monumental series of challenges that would take up more than three years of their lives. The journey included Colin’s younger brothers, Aidan and Keegan, then 5 […]

The Lerg Family

To Seth and Stephanie Lerg, it seems at times like only yesterday that they were honeymooning on Hilton Head Island, hardly a care in the world, their immediate future wrapped up in nothing more complicated than where they’d next play golf. But like any other couple on the verge, their road map became more unpredictable […]

The Lawrence Family

They never saw it coming. Not the family. Not the doctors. No one—Connie and David Lawrence realize now—but God in heaven. “Hannah was the first girl to be born on either side of our families, and everyone had high expectations,” Connie relates. “I had done the nursery, and it was beautiful. I look back at […]

The Tanis Family

In the first few excruciating moments that followed their daughter Lily’s diagnosis, Matt and Allison Tanis’ only question was, “Can she be cured?” But later – after realizing that their precious Lily would have to be segregated from others to safeguard her immune system – another concern surfaced, and it was, “Where can she go […]