07/15/2026
This is my grandson, and as most of yall know, Ethan’s youngest son. Yall have all been so great to us. But if you can take some time to pray for them for the next few days. We thank you all.
Tonight I’m memorizing his perfect chest that surgeons will open Friday morning.
They’ll break his tiny bones, they’ll place him on life support, then they’ll stop his heart. For hours, strangers with extraordinary hands will hold my son’s life in theirs while we wait, pray, and hope.
I once sat on a ultrasound table and spoke words I never thought I’d say about a child of mine, “Is this terminal?” and with a straight face I was told without surgery, it is. Since that day I have prayed for this and it’s timing. The very thing that terrifies me more than anything in this entire world is also the only thing that can give him the chance to grow up, to take his first steps, start school, scrape his knees, fall in love someday, and live the life every mother dreams of for their child.
It’s impossible to explain what it feels like to hand your baby to a team of doctors knowing he’ll come back with tubes, wires, stitches, and a scar that he’ll carry for the rest of his life.
These are the last couple days that his heart will beat exactly as it was created and in a strange way I will miss it but this heart he has right now can’t support him.
I hear all the time “He’s so strong.” I know he is but he shouldn’t have to be.
At the end of the day, he’s just a baby.
A baby who should only know loud siblings, snuggles, and home. Instead, he’ll face one of the biggest surgeries a human can endure before he’s even had the chance to discover the world.
So tonight, tomorrow, Thursday, & Friday, I’m asking you for one thing.
Please pray he survives this.
Pray that his tiny heart starts beating again after it’s been stopped.
Pray that every surgeon’s hand is steady, every decision is right, and every complication stays far away.
Pray that when those operating room doors finally open, we hear the words we’ve begged God for.
“Surgery was a success.”
I’ll spend the next couple days kissing all over this perfect scarless chest because Friday, he’ll earn the bravest scar I will ever know. I will love every inch of it, because that scar will be the mark of the day his life was saved.