alo's place: Whats the Deal

is the month of january cursed? i swear...i have been dealt another blow this year. remember last january? yeah, it sucked...we said goodbye to Charlotte and my good friend elizabeth started her battle against cancer. thankfully, elizabeth and i are both on the flip side of last january, but our good friend susie is just beginning a battle of her own. :(

i met susie several years ago while i was working at athletes in action. she and her hubby, ben, are missionaries with aia in the international division. in fact, when i first them they had just returned from india to take a position at headquarters. fast forward a few years. susie and i started getting to know each other just after they brought their son, charlie, home from rwanda. i started doing susie's hair and eventually talya's hair (susie's little girl). we would have so much fun being girly, talking about books we were reading, etc. susie was a huge source of encouragement after we lost Charlotte. she and ben lost a sweet baby boy while living in india :( ben and peter were in the same bible study for awhile...we just fell in love with the thomas family and have missed them since moving to houston.

over the last (almost) 2 months susie has been having mini seizures, headaches, and a few other symptoms. the doctors started testing her for epilepsy and MS. susie is now 14 weeks pregnant with baby #4, so that is complicating things a little bit. this past wednesday, susie had an MRI to rule out a few things. before she and ben could even get back to the office, they were called back to the hospital. susie was told that she has a mass the size of an orange on the front/right side of her brain.

for real? a brain tumor? for my friend? my pregnant friend? my very young friend?!?!? how could this be happening? she is healthy, she works out, she has 3 kids 6 and under at home, she is PREGNANT!! i knew that susie was having a few issues, but i was never prepared for what i found out on wednesday. who would ever actually think this could happen? how could this happen again to one of my friends? i just sat and cried for a bit on wednesday and again on thursday. i have prayed non-stop since wednesday and i know there are people all over the world doing the same thing!

susie had another MRI yesterday and a biopsy this morning. the doctors think that the tumor may be contained and, hopefully, benign. as crazy as all of this is, susie seems to be doing "ok". on wednesday when she made her first post about the tumor, she was cracking jokes about wishing dr. shepard and dr. montgomery (from grey's anatomy) were real! :) she also posted a photo of her hospital intake sheet...apparently someone wrote that she has a brian tumor...spell check much? is a brian tumor better or worse than a brain tumor? :)

please pray for my sweet friend! please pray that the biopsy shows a benign, contained tumor. please pray for wisdom for ben and susie as they have to make so many decisions. please pray for baby thomas #4 that is still growing and developing. please pray for susie's doctors and nurses. please pray for susie's kids at home: simon, talya, and charlie. PLEASE PRAY!!