Activity #22

"Will I still be a girl when my hair falls out?"  Questions that have probably been asked before by other children, but this child  is ours. This experience, this trial, this victory, this struggle, this unimaginable ordeal...all ours.  We get to own this one. Which means we are the captains of this ship, right? We can create the outcome?! If you are a person with FAITH in the one and only God, the God that offers us the victory if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, then the answer is YES! And if we claim this faith, then we have no other option than to believe. And when the outcome isn't exactly as we desired it to be, we still have to believe it was God's will, right? Right?! RIGHT!

Hayden starts chemotherapy and radiation on May 3, 2010. She has endured 2 surgeries to remove the tumor that is invading her life, had 4 baby teeth removed under anesthesia (because all dental work must be done prior to chemo), had surgery to put the port in that will deliver the chemo to her little body, been shot with dye for a bone scan (which we are so grateful came back clear today),an appointment with the Radiology Department,  and on Friday is going to be getting a 2 hour MRI, for which she will once again have her "under" anesthesia. So much preparation for the next six months of the unknown. I believe in many ways, she is doing a better job at dealing with all of this than we are. She gets it. She gets that there are people who care about her, and will be there for her. She understands the love that her family and friends feel for her. She not only understands it, she strives because of it. Truth be known, without her, we wouldn't know the kind of love that we love her with.

As you can tell by the question I began this post with, she is just a normal preteen, concerned about her hair. And what beautiful hair she has. The color of pure sunshine, spun from silk. Her mother is constantly getting comments about the beauty and color of it. Thank goodness, there are organizations that have addressed this concern, and now make hats that have the patients real hair attached to them. We are hoping that this will make this element of her ordeal a little easier to deal with--http://www.hatswithhair.com/

So the ship has set sail. The course has been charted. We have signed up to be the first mates. God is our Captain. We believe this to be true in our lives, and for this journey, we will claim nothing different. Pray for us. That we may have the strength when it is needed, be the soft place to fall when Hayden needs us, and be capable when we need each other. We don't know what to expect, but we know that we aren't alone. It's going to be a wild ride, so put on your life vests.