Blindsided

Today marks 6 full months since Elijah has been hospitalized for any reason.  This is the first time in nearly 6 years we can say that. He is doing great and growing rapidly - we praise the Lord for such wonderful progress. We've had almost an expectation that something would go wrong and this streak of health would be halted. But it hasn't. At least not for Elijah,

Yet, today, we were blindsided with news about Gideon, our energetic 3 year old. In November of last year, we noticed a small wart on the very center of his left cheek. It slowly grew and late in the month, we made an appointment to have it frozen off. Instead of turning black and falling off, it turned red and grew to three times larger.

Our pediatrician referred us to a dermatologist. I put off making the appointment and the "wart" continued to grow. Finally, two weeks ago, we took him in. The dermatologist looked at it and said that he wanted to biopsy it; he felt that we were not dealing with wart, but a cancerous growth. Frankly, I was quite skeptical and expected the results to come back normal.

Today, on the six month anniversary celebrating one child's health, we were told that Gideon has cancer. It is a very rare, aggressive form of skin cancer. He will soon have surgery to remove the remainder of the growth. Out of every 100,000 moles that are biopsied, 1.5 are a type of tumor called Spitz Nevi. Of those 1.5, over 70% are benign.

This form typically spreads to the lymph nodes. He will be tested. There are symptoms that indicate reasons to be concerned about this. Please pray for us as we learn more, seek the right doctors and care for him. The main prayer right now is that it will not and has not spread.

We do know that we serve the Great Physician. He wasn't blindsided and knows how to cure this and has promised to carry us through whatever lies ahead. We know that He will provide all that we need and despite what seems to be difficult news, He is good.