In His Hands

Please pray for Mason. Tomorrow is a big day for him. He is having surgery to remove a small tumor in his upper lip.

Doing this surgery was a difficult decision for us because although the tumor interferes slightly with his speech and teeth and we also know that he has had rude comments from friends and random strangers about the appearance of his lip, we know that the surgery is elective. I begin to question, "What if something happens during surgery and we chose to do this surgery when it wasn't mandatory for his overall health?" But then I think of him as a junior high aged child looking up at me and saying, "Why didn't you take this off? Why did you let me get made fun of?" We owe it to him. He has begged us to have someone "take my 'bump' away."

You know what the crazy thing is? I am actually sad about losing that part of him. I remember when he was first diagnosed with it. The doctor told me that it could become the size of a baseball and I bawled my eyes out. By God's grace, it never grew to be that large with the help of drugs, a wonderful doctor and His loving hand. Now, I think back to all that we went through to keep it from growing. Middle of the night drug regimens, feeding/sucking issues and lots of prayer were part of this journey. I look at his beautiful face and think he is perfect just the way he is. How could God give us a child so beautiful? I love his face. I love his "bump." I can't imagine him without it. Part of me doesn't ever want it gone because it is a reminder of answered prayer and this part of our lives and I think he's perfect. But this is not about me. And the God who graciously kept this from growing to the size of a baseball, is the same gracious God who will protect him during surgery.