Ellie Grace's Prayer
Circle
(R)ejoicing in hope;
patient in
tribulation;
continuing instant in
prayer. . . .
—
Romans 12:12
Every time I try to think up how to start this
story, I get teary-eyed and my throat squeezes shut. So bear with me. I'm just
going to tell it.
There's a cute little girl with an ugly kind of
cancer who needs you and me to join her prayer circle. It's forming around her
and her family now, with remarkable beauty and sweetness.
The outpouring of love and prayers for a
2-year-old in a tough situation reminds me of the gut-wrenching scene in the
Christian football movie, Facing the
Giants, when the coach gets down on all fours, eye to eye with the crawling
player, and through shouts of encouragement and sheer force of will gets him to
crawl 100 yards with a 160-pound teammate on his back.
That's what this cancer battle is going to be
like for Ellie Grace.
Oh, God. My God. This one, we've got to win.
I don't even know her
family, just that the live in Nebraska. My cousin's wife's sister is a friend
of Ellie Grace's uncle. They sent out a link to a blog that the mother has been
writing, to update friends and family on her kidney cancer, and her recent
treatments at Omaha's Childrens Hospital. Would I pray for her? Of course! I
went to the blog, read the story, saw the pictures, and fell in love with this
adorable little girl and siblings "Yippy" and "Lulu" (better known as Mitchell
and Lexie).
It's easy to see the love beaming from her
handsome dad Tom (note the earrings), helping to make her feel as normal as
possible, despite the maelstrom of doctors and hospitals and machines and needles
that has accosted her since they found the softball-sized lump in her tummy
right around Christmas. The family says their family is pulling even closer
through this. Their faith is growing and their friendships are deepening. But I
know this father's heart. I can feel it thumping like mad. These things are
toughest on fathers, because they can't "fix it" immediately, much as they
yearn to:
Ellie Grace has a rare kidney cancer, called
Wilms' tumor. Apparently she's in Stage III, necessitating surgery plus
radiation and now, chemotherapy once a week for 25 weeks. They say she has been
incredibly brave through the whole ordeal. Nurses and doctors like coming into
her room because she's so happy. Every night in the hospital, she ended her
prayers whispering, "Jesus, I love You."
When the family took her back home
from the hospital the first time, there were already "Welcome Home Ellie" signs
with balloons at her house, and a girl's devotional Bible with a note, "From an
Angel," in the mailbox.
At their church, 500 pink prayer bracelets with
her name on them were handed out so that everyone would remember to pray for
her. They ran out; her dad's FarmHouse fraternity brothers got 1,000 more.
There have been more than 500 comments left on
the blog, many from total strangers, with encouragements like, "Don't tell God
how big your storm is - tell the storm how big your God is."
A big box arrived from people they don't even
know in Loveland, Colo., full of toys, restaurant gift cards and a bunch of
"prayer bears" sewn in colorful fabric with "JESUS" front and center. Each has
a note from a Sunday School child tucked in a pocket, for Ellie Grace to hand
out to the kids she encounters during her medical journey, which she is doing
with glee:
She's already losing that gorgeous blonde hair. Her mom had it cut
short to make the transition to baldness a little easier, and Ellie Grace was
proud to donate her long ponytail to OTHER cancer kids. Now she's enjoying hats
like this special one with special buttons: the big one is for her Daddy; the
pretty one is for her Mommy; the shiny ones are for her brother and sister, and
the one that's a star is for God. It came with a matching blanket to remind her
of how many people are blanketing her with their love and prayers:
There are too many other
wonderful things to tell, so I'll just ask you to read for yourself and perhaps
join our family in ordering and wearing prayer circle bracelets for Ellie:
http://elliegrace.squarespace.com/
Here's where it gets hard.
Here's where it gets real.
Here's her mother, Debbie, holding Ellie Grace
after a rough day in the hospital. This is the picture that gets me the most.
But I know that over and around them, on all sides and below, is the Holy
Spirit, tucking around them an invisible but all-powerful blanket of prayers.
You can't see it. But somehow, I know that THEY can feel it:
Oh, God. My God. Dear God. Bless this mother and child, with
successful treatment. Win it for us, Lord.
We know You're there. That gives us hope. We know You're
working. That helps us be patient. We know You hear our prayers, every one.
That fills us with joy.
All join hands and form a prayer circle, now. We unite in
prayer for the healing of Ellie Grace. †
