Isn't it funny how facebook can make you feel so connected to people? Facebook is a huge blessing in the lives of military families like ours. As we move around and meet and leave different people, it helps us stay connected with our military friends.
In Florida I met a fellow military wife at a mutual friend's baby shower. When we moved to North Carolina for those few months, she was there as well. We were not the very best of friends, but she and her husband hosted some lovely parties and we got to know them this way.
It has been 5 years now since we have seen her and her husband, and in the meantime they have started a family. They have the most adorable 3-year-old boy named Jack and a beautiful 20-month-old girl named Lilliana. She and I are facebook friends, so we keep up with each other's lives that way.
Recently, Jen's husband returned home from a deployment and her pictures brought tears to my eyes. I remember looking in awe at those pictures and thinking to myself what a perfect little family they are. It took their little girl a couple of days to be comfortable around her Dad again... since he had been gone so long, she didn't really know him. Jen posted about these things on facebook, and I found myself feeling sad about the times when Michael might have to deploy in the future and the pain he might feel when Sawyer is uncomfortable around him for a little while....
On post deployment leave, they traveled to Michigan to visit their families. They grew up in the same town. While there, their 20-month-old daughter stopped walking without support. That plus a few other symptoms they related to their family doctor on the phone led him to believe that there might be something neurological going on.
He was right. They soon discovered that Lilliana had a brain tumor.
7 hour surgery ensued where they discovered not just one but two tumors in her brain.
Cancer. AT RT cancer - which I researched and discovered is the second leading cause of death for children under three and carries a 10 percent survival rate....
Jen updated the other night that while recovering from her surgery, her little girl is too weak to even open her eyes, but she did raise her arms up and show them her muscles (her most recent trick).
I've never met this little girl. It has been years since I was in REAL contact with her mother, but my heart is breaking for this family. It is just too terrible for words.
Sawyer has never even had a real cold. The idea of such a long surgery. A baby who is too weak to open her eyes. Chemotherapy on this little girl's horizon. I am just sick with sadness for this family. This family that only weeks ago seemed to be the perfect little family. The family that I looked to with eyes of envy.
I know that you don't know Lilliana or her family - but if you are a praying kind of person - please keep her and her family in your prayers. They need them.
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