Peyton is home!

Peyton got to come home this morning! We are so grateful that everything went so well. Peyton is still in pain, as is to be expected and her recovery road will be long, but thankfully the surgery accomplished what was needed. It was evident that prayers were being answered. I asked that you pray for Peyton before surgery as she goes into the operating room. I am glad to tell you, that she was so brave and went in without any sedatives and without crying at all. Thanks for praying specifically for that. She was such a big girl.

It was actually evident from the beginning that God was in complete control of this situation. At the beginning when Peyton was first diagnosed, the local doctor's listened to Karen about how different Peyton's anatomy is. The doctor's took what she said to heart and referred us to an ear specialist who they felt confident could handle this situation. It would have been easy for any doctor to take this on, even with lack of experience, but these guys didn't do that. They were honest about their lack of experience and pushed this specialist to the forefront.

Once the doctor's got inside of Peyton's ears, they found that the problem was a lot larger and more significant than first thought. The surgeon had to make some difficult decisions during surgery in order to move forward and remove all of the cyst and the cells. He said after the surgery, that this was the largest one he had ever seen and that it was very aggressive. We are not quite sure how long this has been going on inside of her, but all that we have read states that more aggressive chloesteatoma's can lead to very serious issues like having the brain abscess. This process moved so fast to get Peyton into surgery and we didn't even realize how severe it was. Thank you God for taking care of Peyton and getting her the attention she needed when she needed it.

We often wonder why so many things have to happen to one person, especially a five year old. It is easy for us to get caught up in ourselves in times like this and forget about God and his plan. Although we don't understand all that happens, Karen and I can say that in all of Peyton's operations and health issues, we have always seen God's hand in the midst of it. We believe that God loves Peyton more than we could ever love her and that he doesn't make mistakes. All that has happened to Peyton didn't sneak up on God and catch him off guard. We are learning more and more that we must trust God's promises and his plan for our lives and for our children's lives. Peyton has been through a lot and there have been some scary moments in her young five years of life, but God has brought her through all of them. We can only hope that he will use all of these experiences in her life to bring more glory to Himself.

We are thankful to God to have Peyton home and to be home with the rest of our kids. All of the kids were glad to see Peyton come home today and she was glad to be home with them. Thanks again for keeping our family in your thoughts and prayers. We are very blessed to have such caring friends and family. Even those that we don't even know!