Super Cooper

I have several posts with crafty house stuff I want to write about. But tonight my heart is heavy and is keeping prayerful vigil for Cooper. His mom Sarah is a friend I met through high school youth group, and then we lived at the same dorm in college. She married her college sweetheart, Kevin, and they have 4 beautiful children and live in our area.

Their youngest child, 4 year-old Cooper, has been battling health problems since birth. Last spring, after discovering the root of his problem was degenerative Mitochondrial Disease, they finally got the call for him to go to Pittsburgh for a bowel/colon transplant. Since then, he continues to battle infections and need more surgeries and procedures. Thankfully he was able to spend the holidays at home and they were blessed with a Make A Wish DisneyWorld trip in early January (see photo).

He had a surgery on Tuesday and is now once again fighting for his life in the PICU after complications. My heart and prayers are with them. I can't imagine what it's like to live day-in and day-out with a chronically ill child. To spend months at a time living in hospitals, sometimes cross-country and away from her other children. I'm inspired each week by the determination their family shows in the face of such adversity. They are true advocates for their son and are doing whatever they can to help him to get the best care possible and to enjoy as many happy days at home as they can.

With the internet being such a great means of communication, it's amazing how many friends and acquaintances I have whose children have faced serious illness. I've got 4 good friends who've gone through the Congenital Heart Defect and Open Heart Surgery battle which we will have to endure. Mary Clare's close little friend fought through kidney cancer. And then little Cooper...

We are blessed to have such great medical care. When Steven and I start talking about how stressful life is these days...bills, and work, and kids, and house...he reminds me of the number of children, and mothers, who died in those olden days that we sometimes long for.

Tonight as I'm rocking my sniffly, fussy baby, my heart is with Sarah and all those mothers who sit bedside in hospitals this night. My prayers are with those children who suffer. Those little ones who face obstacles that we may never experience in our lifetimes.

I hear the background music on one of my favorite blogs. "I trade these ashes in for beauty, wear forgiveness like a crown, coming to kiss the feet of mercy, I lay every burden down, at the foot of the cross." I lay these burdens at the feet of the Lord. These sufferings that are incomprehensible. I give him my own worries about the little details of our life, and the big ones. I give him my precious Steven Joseph and ask that He makes him strong to endure the battle he will face. I lay down my hopes and dreams and fears for my family, for my children. Illness is one area where I've faced tremendous anxiety in my life. One part of life we can't control which must be placed in the hands of Jesus. Tonight, I lay it down, Lord. Have your way with these children. Oh how we want their lives to be spared and their sufferings to end. But oh, how you know every hair on their head and you have a plan for a future and a hope for them, whether in this world or the next. Please hold Sarah and Kevin and Cooper and their family close to your heart this night. Their cross is so heavy Lord, and I pray that you will lighten their load. For the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

I'll edit when I hear anything about Cooper. He is a fighter, one thing for sure.

Edited to add: (Thurs afternoon) Cooper is hanging in there! They've gotten his bleeding under control and he is fighting hard as usual! Still in the PICU getting blood units one after the other. Please offer another prayer for him when you think of it!