Am I Really Typing This?

On Monday my niece B was diagnosed with a tumor on the base of her skull. She is eight years old.

B had been having headaches for a few weeks. And then she started vomiting. After testing her for Valley Fever and then hoping it was allergies and trying Benadryl, her pediatrician (our pediatrician) ordered an MRI. We all hoped the MRI would show nothing and that B's headaches and vomiting would just stop. We hoped for a kid virus. We hoped for weird allergies. We hoped for a mysterious period of time where B had headaches and throw-up that we would look back at and say 'That was so weird.' We hoped the MRI would be an expensive waste of money. And we prayed.

Monday afternoon I missed a call from my sister-in-law. I felt nauseous when I saw I had missed the call - we were waiting for news. I called her right back, and she asked if I could take Tada. Yes. And then she told me. I cried while with a shaky, mommy-can't-have-a-break-down-right-now voice she told me that our pediatrician had told them to go to the hospital now.Fifteen minutes later Tada was at my house, and B was on her way to the hospital with her parents.

Since then B has shown us all how strong and fearless she is. She's had multiple MRIs, CT scans, IVs, blood draws, and medications. She describes the hospital as a place where you can watch all the movies you want and eat whatever you want (unless you're NPO for a procedure, then you get to smile dreamily about what you will eat once you're allowed). She named her IV pole. She held her breath to make the monitors go off. After 2 days in the hospital and a second opinion at another hospital, right now she is home with her family, swimming and playing and eating, a little extra-silly thanks to the steroids that are preventing her headaches. Surgery is planned to remove the tumor on Monday, July 2nd, to be followed by radiation treatment. The doctors think they know what kind of tumor it is, but won't know for sure until they examine the tumor once it is removed. Stay tuned.

Serene and I talk about how we are all still stopping periodically during the day and thinking, "A TUMOR!?!" (Usually my thinking is punctuated with swearing.)  I told a friend today that J and I are doing okay - drained, shorter fuses, at times heartbroken and crying out to God, at times punching car cushions and yelling, and at times just okay. At times the Spirit intercedes for us only with groanings too deep for words to express, as described in Romans 8:26.

Please pray for B. Pray for her parents. Pray for her doctors. 

Let's pester heaven until God is so exasperated that He gives us exactly what we want just to shut us up.

Let's make miracles happen.