Port Surgery

After the news of Micah's clear scan settled, I called the Pediatric Surgery man, our Dr Merritt, whose hands God guided to take the cancer out of Micah's lungs, to let them know that we are finally settled, got a clear scan and are ready to take Micah's port out. That was a big sentence! (o;

So we set a date. Nov 2 at 11:30 am, Micah should be in the OR.

The first moments after I got off the phone, Ken and I were struck by the enormity of this.  Even though the cancer could come back and this is not over for us, it is a closing of this chapter.

Ken often reads my blog posts before I post them. He read what I had wrote and he commented that I didn't tell you all specifically what God did. Ken is not a shouter from the mountain tops! It is not his personality at all. But this time he is encouraging me to SHOUT! I love it when he does that! (o:

So here is my shouting.......(o:

What God did was beyond amazing!!

Micah was first diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in Nov 7, 2007. I can't believe that we are weeks away from five years since that day. (Here is a past post about that day if you are new here.) God used 16 months of very difficult treatment to heal him.  Micah relapsed  9 months after finishing treatment in Dec of 2009. We had used all of the big drugs the first time through. Nothing was working and we were losing Micah. In a way we had started the grieving process. We were giving him back to the Lord a little bit at a time. Separation had already begun without us even noticing.  In the middle of all of this, in His providence, He sent this amazing surgeon to us, who was sure he could do anything. It was so hard to trust and it was such a big decision, but God gave peace, making it clear that it was OK to try to give Micah more life.  God took all the obstacles that seemed so big out of the way.  In March of 2010, Dr Merritt, took out three quarters of the left lobe in Micah's lungs. God blessed this surgery in a mighty way. Although we love the doctors and they have been given gifts, we want all the glory to go to God, not the docs.

He gave Micah back to us to keep for a while longer. We don't take that lightly or think that is ordinary. It IS miraculous. The cancer was expected to return a very long time ago. It had the potential to return even three months after surgery.  Humanly speaking Micah is not supposed to be here with us.

When we have sermons on miracles from the Bible, it sounds strange, but we can relate. Hearing those stories, often brings tears to our eyes. In St Thomas, a few times, I wanted to stand up and
say to everyone, "Don't forget, He still does miracles today! They just look a little different!"

Our God is kind and gracious. I say this so often ... He is faithful and He will never change regardless of our circumstances. He is always good.  God taught us so much along this road. It was painful, but he used it to shape us and even prepare us for the road we are on now. It's beautiful that we can look back and see God's hand in everything.

On the other side of the coin, in a way it feels like a big scary step.  Having his port in is such a comfort. We always know it's there if we need it. Sometimes it's hard not to look at statistics, they can be daunting. But we do know that God is way bigger than statistics. He is sovereign over all. We must keep our eyes on Him at all times.

A few prayer requests:

• First,  thank the Lord with us that we have been given the privilege to take this step
• That Micah's surgery will go smoothly
• That we will have peace and not second guess this decision.
• That Micah will have peace on surgery day. 
• That God will continue to give our boy health.
• That the winter will not be hard on his lungs and that we won't constantly be looking and listening for that cancer cough. That is really hard on us all.
• That we will trust the Lord with Micah's future and not fret about what could happen.  

Thank you for all the love and prayers you have covered us with in the last years. You are all a wonderful  blessing from the Lord.



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