a heart on my mind...

today, i'm thinking about hearts... most of us are, since it's valentine's day. but i'm talking about an actual heart.. the very vital organ inside your body. this friday, a precious 5 year old boy will undergo heart surgery, and i am asking you to pray for clayton and his family. here is clayton (left) with his two brothers, eli and aaron. aren't they a handsome bunch? (wendy, i hope you don't mind that i stole this picture off your blog!)


we met wendy and ryan when they lived here for a short time back in 2006-2007, and clayton was just a baby (he is 7 months older than caroline). i remember eating lunch with wendy at chick-fil-a when they first moved here, and she told me all about clayton's heart condition, HLHS (hypoplastic left heart syndrome). he underwent surgery immediately after birth and then again before his first birthday. they were all too familiar with this routine because their first-born son, colin, also had HLHS... and sadly, he died in 2005 when he was 7 1/2 months old. it was incredibly sobering to be sitting with wendy and to listen to her story... to have had not one, but two babies with this congenital heart defect?! God has surely given them the strength to bear this reality and the accompanying uncertainties on a daily basis.

back then in 2006, wendy told me that clayton's third surgery would take place down the road, when he was at a certain weight... and until then, they would count each day with clayton a blessing. that sounded so far off in the distance, at least a few years away. well.... fast forward 5 years, and it is time for clayton's third surgery. they have traveled to california and are awaiting the big day on friday.

i have tried to put myself in wendy's shoes, and i just about lose my breath every time. i know that God is sovereign and that He is in control of every day of clayton's precious life.... i know that ryan and wendy trust in the Lord for peace and rest during this uncertain time.... and i know that He does all things well. yet the weak-human-mom in me just can't stop thinking about friday.

so i ask that you pray for clayton on friday. pray for his doctors, for wendy and ryan, and for his two brothers who will be so very far away from their family during clayton's hospital stay in california. his life has already been a testimony to the grace and mercy of our God, and i praise God for precious, precious clayton.

ephesians 3:20-21
now to Him who is able to do FAR MORE abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. amen.