She walks with a long cane outstretched before her. The tip lightly grazes the floor feeling for any obstacles. Her pretty blue eyes stare straight ahead. Unwavering. Unseeing. For 12-year-old Ivana Magnuson, life is all but normal.

In 1998, after Ivana’s bouts of violent sickness and severe pain in the back of her neck, Steve and Margaret Magnuson knew that something was significantly wrong with their little daughter. After insisting on a CAT scan, a malignant tumor nearly the size of a quarter was found at the base of Ivana’s skull. The news was devastating. “I couldn’t believe it,” Margaret said. “I kept crying and saying, ‘No, no, not my little girl, not my sweet little girl!’ ”

It was at this time that I first heard about Ivana. My close friend, Beth, came to me in tears saying that her little cousin’s life was in critical danger. Three days later, five-year-old Ivana had brain surgery. The doctors removed the tumor but said that without radiation and chemotherapy she would have only four to six months to live.

In the next 8 weeks Ivana received 31 radiation treatments. The last one was given on her sixth birthday. She remembers receiving a bag of goodies from the doctors in celebration of it. Six weeks later, the first cycle of chemotherapy began. During these rigorous treatments, Ivana’s weight dropped from a healthy 50 pounds to a painful 35 pounds. She does not remember much about this process except for being stuck with lots of needles.

After the third cycle of treatment, there was a change of attending physicians. Because of this, a hearing test for Ivana was accidentally missed. She was instead given a fourth cycle of treatment, which ended in the permanent loss of part of her hearing. When her parents found out, their frustration was in their helplessness. “I was upset with myself, not knowing how important the hearing tests were. What else could we do? It was already done,” said Steve, Ivana’s father, who is a crime prevention officer with the Marion County Sheriff Department. Ivana is now completely deaf in her right ear and wears hearing aids.

A short time after the mixup, Ivana had a major seizure that caused her sight to deteriorate. This left her almost totally blind, though Ivana does have some peripheral sight and can discern a little light.

Unlike some blind children, Ivana does remember when she could see color, when she could hear clearly, when she lived a normal life. But through her parents’ loving and tender example and sole dependence and comfort in God, Ivana too stays brave and trusting. “I want God to heal my eyes,” she said, “but if He doesn’t, I’m okay with it.”

Ivana seems small and delicate with a pale complexion, little hands, and shoulder-length brown hair that has not fully grown back after chemotherapy seven years ago. Ivana, however, is an independent and busy little individual.

Her day starts out by making her bed around 8 a.m. “I made my bed when I could see, and I don’t find it hard to do now,” she explained. Ivana also gets herself dressed, which, she says, is not that hard. By feeling her clothes, Ivana knows what goes together and what doesn’t, though, her mother said, “She did wear a black and blue sock to church one day.” When she has cereal for breakfast, Ivana normally fixes it by herself. What frustrates her the most in her blindness is “bumping and tripping into things.”

After breakfast, it is time for school. Instead of going to school, however, Ivana and her older and two younger brothers are taught at home by their mother. Presently Ivana is working at a third-grade level due to some short-term memory issues. “Once it gets into her long-term [memory] we’re good,” Margaret said. Throughout the week, Ivana’s afternoons are spent in various activities ranging from piano lessons to horseback riding to writing class.

During the beginning of my talk with her, I found that Ivana and I share three favorite things: mint ice cream, listening to books on tape, and a love of reading. When it comes to reading, however, Ivana can do something I always wished I could do. I asked her very seriously if she could read in the dark, and she laughed and said, “Of course I can. I turn the lamp off and read in bed.”

Five years ago, Ivana started to learn Braille. “Once we got over the hump of thinking that her sight would come back, she really wanted to learn to read again.” But due to chemotherapy treatments, Ivana’s fingertips were desensitized enough that the doctors doubted she would be able to read Braille. Nonetheless, Ivana is currently reading grade 2 Braille, and she loves it! In this world of words, Ivana can see.

Whenever Ivana passes me at church, she always seems to be going somewhere, and her quick, confident steps amaze me. Though she may not be able to see or hear well, this small girl keeps herself very busy. “She does not have an idle moment,” her mother wrote in an email. “She stays busy all day.”

Apart from her strong and brave spirit, Ivana is a compassionate and giving little girl. She enjoys doing and making things for others. She keeps her fingers and concentration busy when she weaves potholders, which she gives to the people she loves. She also enjoys helping her mother around the house, which, Margaret said, “makes her feel a part of things.”

Ivana’s evenings are filled with Lego building, playing with her brothers, listening to tapes, piano, crafts, and more reading. What she loves over all of this, however, is sitting on her daddy’s knee and spending time with him.

A special joy of hers is Candy, an apricot-colored poodle that she received five years ago. Ivana loves telling stories about her cute little furry friend.

Of all her joys however, Ivana’s Braille Bible is the most important and special part of her life. The incredible story behind how she received all 17 huge and heavy volumes that complete her very first Bible in Braille was published in a South Bend, Ind., newspaper this fall. Ivana loves reading it. She told me that she has just finished reading the book of Genesis. I learned from her mother that, through a Bible ministry program called AWANA, Ivana has memorized close to 1,000 Bible verses over the past 10 years.

It has been a long and hard struggle to get to this point, but the Magnusons are grateful that their schedule is now normalized without having to be at doctors’ appointments or checkups on a weekly basis. Ivana has hearing checkups every six months, and her MRIs (to check for tumor growth) have just been extended to every two years.

Steve and Margaret Magnuson do not pretend to know why God allowed this trial to come into their daughter’s life. Instead of growing angry and bitter at the unhappy chain of events, they trust God and believe that, though no one likes to see pain and suffering, God has His perfect plan for Ivana’s life. Romans 8:28 says, “We know that all things work together for good to those who are called according to His purpose.” The Magnuson family knows this to be true.

Only a few months ago, Margaret gave a powerful testimony that speaks to the core of many aching lives when she said with tears in her eyes, “God is so good.”

“He has sustained us and given us our daily strength while going through this heart-wrenching time in our lives. It is hard to put into words all the emotions we have experienced, but our hope was always there and always strong. We are thankful to still be able to put Ivana to bed each night. Many parents are not given this privilege and many do not realize the gift that they are given in their children.

“Our faith in God is what has gotten us through.”