GOD’S FULFILLED GRACE

It can be a lonely place when things are at their worst and you have no one to walk through those dark times with you. Fortunately for the Kaikala’s they had planted themselves in a solid church and had good family and friends that were willing to stand in the gap for them.

The Kaikala’s were blessed “immediate support from family and friends was overwhelming. Our brother and sister, Charles and Misty Davis, immediately stepped in with caring for our other three children in our absence. Pastor Ben and Tammie Aguirre, one of many, covered us in prayers and NOT allowing us to sit idle on the negative reports that we were receiving….instead they would point us back to scripture and God’s faithfulness to His word,” explained Ala and Rebecca.

The support they received occurred in a number of different ways remembered Ala and Rebecca, “Mom Peg Jones and Dad Ron opened their house to us while we were in Houston, which was 15-20 minutes from Herman Memorial Hospital where Jesslyn Grace was receiving the initial treatments. What a blessing! Ala’s Brothers and sisters in Washington state creating and monitoring a GoFundMe on Facebook to help us financially.”

Other ways they were blessed included the offerings they received from their church Christian Fellowship Church. “Our friend Casey incorporating a “Jesslyn Grace” fundraiser into her already running a business and sending the proceeds to our family,” said Rebecca. In addition, “our friend Chasity May created a ‘Jesslyn Grace’ T-Shirt fundraiser and her friend Shelly printing those shirts for us for basically free and sending all the proceeds to our family.”

“These are just some of the ways that our family and friends came together to help us financially… but what was really felt was the prayers and encouragement throughout this journey. Everyone was in one mind and one accord. No one felt pity, or at least we didn’t notice it. But without skipping a beat everyone came alongside us and locked arms with us in praying and believing for a miracle,” thankfully said the Kaikala’s.

It would indeed take the prayers and encouragement from friends and family. Since the retinoblastoma was bilateral, meaning that it was in both eyes and since Jesslyn Grace tested positive for a gene mutation called RB-1, there was the very real possibility that they would have to remove both of her eyes.

“We were in the place of the unknown, the unknown of where do we go now for treatment?

The unknown of “Will Ala’s job understand a last-minute trip if best doctors called the next day?

because Ala’s job was the only source of income and therefore the reason why we even had insurance. The unknown of, ‘did we make the right call?’ It was not a comfortable place to be, but we found out later, it was a necessary process for us to receive Jesslyns healing,” said Rebecca.

“After receiving 3 rounds of chemo treatment in Miami, we were told yet again that the option of removing her eye was possible. We told the doctors that we are a faith believing family, that believed in prayer and in God healing Jesslyn Grace. So we asked the doctors what should we target our prayers towards…and his answer was simply “that these tumors die”. Both Becca and I felt the Lord tell us that we needed to FAST and pray. We spoke with our Pastor’s and shared with them what we believed God was telling us to do and our Pastors encouraged us to be obedient and listen to the Holy Spirit,” recalled Ala.

“In fact, our Pastors invited the whole church to join in with us on this fast and our Pastors, along with many other church families, friends and even those who were following Jesslyn’s journey, partnered with us in a 40 day fast from the day we returned on July 19th to the day of her next appointment on August 27th, when we received the miraculous report,” continued Ala.

On August 27th at approximately 11 am they began hearing something different from the doctors. Ala and Rebecca remember, “Jesslyn was taken into the examination room for a scheduled EUA (examine under anesthesia). This process usually takes at least 2-3hrs because they also inject a small dose of chemo through the frontal portion of her eye’s to jump-start the next day’s cycle of chemo. At 12:30pm (hour and an half later) the doctor and nurse return to the waiting room and tell us that they’ve decided not to inject the frontal of her eyes with chemo while she was under and that instead of performing a regular round of chemo the next day, they’ve decided to send us home and see us in 6 weeks instead of doing any more chemo.”

“We thought we’ve just heard that Jesslyn Grace received her healing without the doctor saying it out loud, so Becca asked him again,” recalled Ali. “What do you mean? The doctor, (still speaking in “doctor terms”) said, well because the disease is inactive another chemo injection will only cause more stress on her eyes. Again Becca said doctor what are you saying? Because the last trip we were told that “the disease” was soo aggressive and was not responding to the treatments as fast as you would have liked, that talk of possibly removing her eye was going to be put back on the table…the doctor said correct, and now you’re saying that the disease is dead?....the doctor said ‘Correct. ‘”

“The doctor went on to tell us that we need to stay proactive and keep praying that it will NOT come back. We said it is done and that God is glorified and healed Jesslyn Grace. Becca and I stood up, the doctor stood up and we hugged, cried, laughed and thanked God for what He has done,” said Ala.

When Ala and Rebecca heard about the healing they “cried and then we laughed and then we cried some more! We were so overjoyed! Then we prayed and thanked God for never failing us.”

The church family mirrored ours, explained the Kaikalas, “Our Pastors had to pull over onto the side of the road…our close friends gave victory shouts and others laughed and cried too. This was not just our victory, but a victory for all those that had believed and prayed and fasted with us too.”

“When we returned home, we made it back into town at 6:30 pm Wednesday evening and went straight to church to celebrate and a celebration is what we had! It wasn’t just me and my family’s victory, it was Victory shared by soo many and our church took it as a personal Victory! We took time during our worship service to just say “Thank you God!”….. what a beautiful time it was.”

As for the medical staff, “they were really subtle and for the most part, stuck with the facts of their findings. But when we told them that if our God can kill diseases, He can definitely reattach retina’s, they both came into agreement. Our faith was no foreign concept to them, in fact, our main doctor told us out the gate that he’s a faith believing man and he also believes in the power of prayer. During our first meeting he actually led us into a prayer of faith and believing that God would heal our baby girl. The nurse in the room also cried along with us. It was very much a God moment!” explained the Kaikalas.

The Kaikalas take Jesslyn Grace “for a follow-up exam on October 8, to show that she is truly healed and that there is no new tumor growth.”

Editor’s Note: We will be doing a follow-up article to give you an update on the October appointment and fill in some additional information. The family appreciates the prayers and support they have received. We have received individuals from the community that has been reading the articles say they have locked arms with the Kaikalas in prayer.