Beautiful Kate

I don't usually link to things like this, but little Kate's family put up a post yesterday of what recent tests have told them and it just broke my heart. If you're a praying person, just pray for this little family. Of course, none of us know God's will for their lives, but let's pray for strength and love for them in whatever they will face in the days ahead.

Here is the CaringBridge website if you want to keep checking in on Kate's progress: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mcraekate/journal The family puts prayer requests in their posts every day, so you can pray specifically for them, if you'd like, or just pray whatever. This will not be an easy journey for this family and it will be rough for this little girl. Just keep them close in heart and thought.

Here is the update from yesterday of Kate's test results: Well, we spoke with Kate's neurosurgeon today and looked at her scans. Let's just say we had to take some time alone afterwards, without Kate seeing us cry. It felt debilitating. A large concern continues to be the location of the tumor, it is very dangerous. The arteries supplying blood to the left half of her brain are entangled in the tumor. Another large concern is the tumor is spread down into the hypothalmus. (this is not a new thing) This would be completely untreatable by surgery. And finally they have a rating system to see how malignant and aggressive (how many cancer cells quickly reproduce) the tumor is. Kate's number was extremely high. Depressingly so. I sobbed for about a good hour, and Aaron a good portion of that. Kate's only option right now is chemo, which we will be starting tomorrow. The one thing with a highly aggressive brain tumor is that we have to get every single cell. One cell left could reproduce. We are clinging tightly to God right now. Knowing nothing is too hard, nothing too big. So we continue to pray incessantly that He would heal Kate, every last cell, her right arm, her right foot, her speech, everything that the tumor has taken. We are praying that God would redeem every single thing. Please continue to pray with us. Thankfully our emotions don't dictate the ability of God. We still trust that God is in control, no matter how desperate our emotions feel. Please pray for Kate's protection tomorrow as she starts chemo. Protection from all of the damaging side effects. Protection for her fragile spirit. Protection from any outside infections. Thank you for helping to shoulder this enormous burden.