Obituary of Faith Marie Martin

Faith Marie Martin, 10, of Simi Valley, California, passed away on September 2nd, 2015 in her home around her family. We will be celebrating her life on October 10th, 2015 at Cornerstone Community Church in Simi valley. At 11 am. Faith was born in Van Nuys, California, to Jerry and Katie Martin on May 21st, 2005. Faith, apply named because we felt God was going to deepen our faith through her and her life. Faith was born with Down syndrome and had several holes in her heart. At 6 months old she had open heart surgery to close the holes. After a lengthy stay in the cardiac ICU for 14 days she continued to get stronger and started doing the things typical children do. In Nov 2008 when she was only 3 1/2 years old she was diagnosed with Leukemia. She went through 2 1/2 years of weekly chemo treatments with many hardships along the way but fought hard and prevailed. She then started on her journey of being cancer free. She loved to sing and dance, or as she called it showing her moves. She loved filling note book after note book with "writings". She was one very special ray of sunshine to so many people. Sadly in May of 2015, she had a relapse of her Leukemia and we started chemo. This time it was much harder on her body. Her liver and kidneys just weren't functioning as they should and so we started doing some alternative things to help her body cope with the Leukemia. She responded really well to the treatment and we were able to bring her white blood counts down from 206,000 to 7,000. And we fully expected her to beat the cancer. But she didn't want to eat and her body just couldn't take the stress anymore as her hemoglobin just kept receding instead of going back up. At around 2:30 the morning of September 2nd, she was very unsettled. She kept wanting to lay down and then wanting to sit back up. She also kept wanting different things to drink. At this time we were still unsure what was going on, we didn't know if she was just having a hard time getting rid of the last leukemia cells or what was really going on since her wbc counts were continuing to go down and we were fully expecting her to recover. At around 5:30 in the morning she told us several times that she wanted to die (previously, like during her month long stay at the hospital she had repeatedly said she didn't want to die). We told her that if she wanted to go be with Jesus that she could go be with Him. At 6:44 am while sitting with us on the couch she wrapped her arms around both our necks and gave us a few firm pats on our shoulder and then breathed her last breath. We love you peanut. We miss you and can't wait till we see you again in heaven, Love Dad, Mom and your brothers and sisters. Faith is survived by her parents Jerry and Katie Martin. Her two brothers Jerry Martin III, and Luke Martin. Her two sisters Bethany Martin, and Mercy Martin. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations or cards can be sent to Jerry or Katie Martin at 3144 Hilldale ave, Simi valley. CA or online at http://www.gofundme.com/cbqll0 Thank you for your continued prayer and encouragement. We know that God works all things for good to those that love Him. And we are continually reminded that God is good ALL the time, ALL the time God is good.