“O’er the land of the free
And the home of the brave.”
The beautiful, petite woman’s crisp, ethereal voice swept over the huddled masses assembled at the March for Life Rally in Washington, D.C. on January 22, 2016, just as the snow started to fall.
As I listened to her intone the final note of “brave,” I silently noted that this remarkable young singer and musician is one of the bravest people I know.
Caitlin Jane is a joyfully devout disciple of Christ. She has released two albums: “Ashes into Beauty” (2007) and “Coming Season” (2011), and is working on new recordings. Her music has taken her around the world. She is a passionate advocate of child sponsorship and often speaks (and sings!) on behalf of Compassion International, a worldwide Christian ministry that works to alleviate the suffering of children in impoverished nations.
For more than a decade Jane has sponsored children herself. In 2008 she went to the Dominican Republic to meet Wanda, the child she sponsored, and wrote the song “Sing Over Us” in her hotel room. The award-winning music video for the song is a touching tribute to her relationship with Wanda.
Caitlin Jane is a selfless, faith-filled woman using her God-given gifts to help others. But this is not all that makes her brave in my eyes.
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She was raised in a loving Christian home in Newark, Delaware, and developed a love of music from a very early age. “I loved music as a child. I started piano lessons at six years old and even before that began creating my own ‘songs,’ exploring notes and words and tunes,” she told me. “I remember writing in my journal in middle school, struggling, feeling torn between God’s gift of music and this call on my heart to be a missionary. As the years went on, I realized God was calling me to do both — to use music as a mission to share the hope of Christ with the world.”
Her career and mission work were abruptly put on hold in June of 2014 when, after experiencing double vision, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She was just 27.
She said, “I saw 10 doctors and specialists over a period of several months. I had friends mailing out MRIs to other neurosurgeons they knew. The most experienced and qualified neurosurgeons on the East Coast told me in so many words that this was an inoperable brain tumor.”
Jane and her family put their faith in God and never abandoned hope that a viable treatment option existed for her. While the search for a surgeon continued, she felt well enough to let a good friend set her up on a blind date. She met Jamie just a few months after discovering she had a brain tumor, but this did not stop them from falling in love.
It was through a friend that she finally found the surgeon who would successfully remove the entire tumor.
As she recounted, “It was my connection with Bruce Marchiano, Hollywood actor and pro-life filmmaker of “Alison’s Choice,” that led me to Dr. Shahinian. I grew up watching “The Gospel According to Matthew,” in which Bruce played the role of Jesus, so when we became friends and he told me his friend’s brother-in-law was the most advanced brain surgeon in the world for skull-based tumors — I was amazed at God’s sense of humor and divine providence. I tell people that ‘Jesus’ found my brain surgeon! And He did.”
Related: The Power of Gratitude and Faith
“I also tell people that being pro-life saved my life,” she continued. “If I hadn’t had the connection with Bruce through pro-life ministry, I don’t think I ever would have found Dr. Shahinian.”
Jane’s surgery took place on February 19, 2015. She told me, “Jamie loved me unconditionally through my recovery.”
Two months later, Jamie himself was diagnosed with cancer. While she never lost faith, Jane confessed that the night before his surgery on April 22, 2015 she felt a pang of ‘Why God?’ — but refused to allow despair to settle in.
Through trial after trial, their faith strengthened the couple and cemented their love. Less than a month after his surgery and after receiving her parents’ blessing, Jamie proposed. Their wedding was planned for September 12, 2015 in Maine, where Jane’s family vacationed throughout her childhood.
Then life threw the couple another curveball in July. That’s when Jamie’s blood work showed his cancer had returned.
As Jane wrote on her blog, “It was crushing news, but once again we had to look to God for all the strength and hope we needed to start the course ahead of us. It was 10 short weeks until our wedding day and chemo would be 9 weeks long. His oncologist encouraged us to postpone our wedding, but Jamie was determined to not let cancer dictate our lives — we would go on living and we would be married!”
Jamie finished his course of chemotherapy just five days before their wedding.
The couple were told by several doctors it was highly unlikely they would be able to have biological children. As Caitlin Jane wrote on her blog, “Jamie just looked at me and said, ‘We need to pray. God has a plan for our future family. Let’s dedicate our children to Him, whether biological, adopted, or whatever God has planned.’ So we did pray together that day, and we laid all our worries, all the messages from the world, all the questions we had, before the throne of God. Then we just kept walking through our journey … with peace in our hearts that no matter what, God had a plan.”
The day after Easter of this year, God revealed His plan to them — Caitlin Jane is expecting their first child.
This kind of steadfast faith and bravery in the face of overwhelming odds does not go unnoticed. I am not alone in my respect and admiration for this young lady’s courage.
I agree with Matthew A. Haas, president of Syndicate Pictures, Inc. — the company that produced and recorded Caitlin Jane’s first album. He told me, “Her unwavering faith was such an inspiration to me. She never stopped fighting, never gave up on her faith.”
Amen.
Jewels Green is a mother, writer, public speaker, and advocate for the right to life from conception to natural death. She lives in a suburb of Philadelphia.
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