Breaking Heart For Hurting Friends

When we get pregnant with our first child all we can think about is the perfect little baby that we will be bringing into our home. How he/she will have 10 little fingers and 10 tiny toes. How we will watch our baby grow and progress, from their first smile, laugh, time rolling over, crawling, sitting up, walking, talking. We never think immediately about what could go wrong with that child. All we see is a perfect gift.

Last year when I met Crystal she had just found out that she was pregnant and I was getting close to delivering Kenneth. She was 18, newly married, in the greatest time of her life because she was able to get pregnant despite doubt from doctors. She was full of questions, of excitement, of hope and faith that everything would be fine. Then when she hit the third trimester it seemed like little Sidnee wanted to come out long before her due date at the end of May. She was in the hospital for what I think was about two weeks with them trying to stop her contractions. She suffered through the pain trying not to take pain medicine that could potentially hurt her baby. She was a trooper! While there they gave Sidnee steroid shots to help develop her lungs in case she came early so that she would stand a fighting chance. Sidnee cooperated and didn't come out before she had "fully cooked" being born on May 30th as a perfectly healthy baby girl.

She was however born with a bump on the top left side of her head. They told her that it was nothing to worry about. Now almost 4 months later after having a brain scan yesterday her young parents have been told that their perfect little girl has a brain tumor, and that she has a hemorrhage, and that she has had some bleeding on the brain.

What do you say to your friend who often calls for parental advice when she tells you such devastating news? How do you console her? How do you show optimistic support without seeming to play down the seriousness of the situation? How can you tell her that everything will be okay, no matter what the outcome? They are so young, and they have felt so blessed to have a baby against the odds, and now they have been devastated by news that their 4 month old will have to have a major brain surgery and/or risk permanent brain damage. Even if you aren't a praying person, give it a try for this little family. They could sure use the love and the prayers lifted on high for their little Sidnee. I just pray that God will bless them with the comfort that only He can give them. This is so heart breaking.