The spunky brown-haired Ryan was the light of his mother's life and the son that Shaun had dreamed of since his teenage years. While still in high school, Shaun had begun thinking about the family he hoped to have one day. "I knew if I ever had a son his name would be Ryan, but I never imagined that one young boy would have the ability to change my life and the lives of others in so many ways."

The heart-wrenching story of Ryan's illness began in December 1996. Shaun had been transferred by his employer in October, and the family was just settling into their new home at Thanksgiving. Ryan and Carly were making friends, and the family had started attending Fellowship Bible Church of Northwest Arkansas.

Around Christmas, Ryan developed a fever and flu-like symptoms that persisted into the new year despite multiple visits to the pediatrician and several rounds of antibiotics.

On January 12, 1997, doctors decided to draw a blood sample, thinking Ryan might have mononucleosis.  The results looked suspicious, the blood counts were erratic, and by that evening, Shaun and Ryan were in Little Rock at Arkansas Children's Hospital where more tests would be performed over the next week. The initial diagnosis was frightening: acute myeloid leukemia.

Written by Sheryl Potter
Copyright, 1998 Horizon Magazine, Fellowship Bible Church of Northwest Arkansas.   Reprinted by permission.