Thursday May 10th

Hi everyone,

It is with a mixture of numbing and overwhelming sadness coupled almost with disbelief that I write this blog. My best freind and the love of my life has gone to be with our God on Wednesday morning May 9th  at 3.40am. Sonja did everything possible to "fight a great fight". To say that I am proud of her would be completely inadequate and an understatement beyond measure. She is without doubt the most courageous and faith filled person I have ever known.
I have no answers as to why this has happened this way, but I do know that Sonja and our family could not have walked this very tough road without the strength and love of God. It makes no sense at all to any of us to have this outcome come to pass, so don't look to me for an explanation as I am as lost as anyone, if not more so. But I do know where Sonja is and that is enough for me right now.
My family and I again want to thank all of you who have supported us on this journey - which we all know didn't have the great ending we had in mind.
We would appreciate prayer for:
Strength for us as a family to accept what has happened and stay true to the faith in God that Sonja so strongly displayed.
Supernatural peace to surround us all - especially our three children (Aimee, Rachel & Timothy) along with Kane, Aimee's husband. Also Roel & Anneke (Sonja's parents), along with Paul & Roland (Sonja's brothers).

We are having a service to celebrate Sonja's life on Monday May 14th at 10.30am, at Elim Christian Centre. Address is 159 Botany Road, Howick. Please join us if you can to celebrate Sonja's life and the joy she brought to so many of us.

Denis

Saturday 5th May

I find this post hard to compose as it's been a very rough few weeks since my last post for Sonja and us as a family. A number of things have happened since my last post and so far none of these have been good as far as Sonja's condition is concerned. I won't go into a lot of details except to say that the disease has advanced again quite significantly to the point where I had to take Sonja to hospital about 10 days ago.

We have spent 8 nights in Auckland Hospital which included a multitude of tests and meetings with wonderful doctors, nurses and the many teams of people who are so dedicated and passionate about what they do that  it's amazing to watch. We have finally arrived back home yesterday with the knowledge that there is no more to be done for Sonja medically in terms of chemotherapy, radiotherapy or other cancer treatment.

We are looking after Sonja at home with the great support of family, friends, church and Hospice. We still stand with Sonja completely and absolutely believing in the "miracle she has talked about for so many years" as her oncologist put it. His thoughts echoed us all in the hope that she gets that miracle and proves her prognosis wrong. 

My thanks go out to all the people who are standing with us and who have provided amazing support both in the long journey we are still traveling, and also recently with the provision of well appreciated meals and so many other gestures of support and encouragement. We so love and appreciate you all. Also to my employer "Croxley" who have been so supportive and enabled me to be with Sonja through all of this.

I really can't think of what else to say except please pray for that miracle that can and does happen (although not as often as we would all like). We rely totally on God now and I know we can trust him "no matter what". 

Points of prayer include:

Total miraculous healing for Sonja.

For us as a family to stay strong and full of faith.

Provision for our daughter Aimee and her husband Kane who had to urgently return from a preplanned trip overseas. Pray that Airlines/Insurance will show them favour.

For amazing "good" to come out of this whole experience -  this seems hard to see at the moment, but I know it's possible.

Thank you all again,

Denis.