"...the clouds ye so much dread."

It's early here in Clinton, Mississippi. I've been up since about 4:15AM, and didn't sleep much last night. In about an hour here we'll leave to go to the hospital with Isaiah. For the next 24 hours or so, he'll be in the hospital getting prepped for surgery tomorrow morning, something called an "A.C.E. procedure." You can read about it here.

I'm not looking forward to today as the prep for the surgery is probably going to be rather unpleasant, probably, in some ways, worse than the surgery itself. He's going to have the equivalent of a colonoscopy prep. If you've had one of those, I need say no more, but if you haven't I'll leave it to you and Google to figure things out. For an adult, a colonoscopy prep is really a minor inconvenience that, as a small compensation, entitles you to some inside jokes and helps you to be empathetic when someone says, "Well, I gotta have a colonoscopy next week." Those of us who have had this experience make a bunched-up face of pity and slowly nod our heads with an almost "feel-your-pain-bro" kind of acknowledgement. I have the special honor of being among a small percentage of people under 50 who have had one.

But for little Isaiah there will be no jokes. There will be no bragging about the technique he used to get that "awful, nasty solution down." There won't be the pleasure of joking with the G.I. specialist before the procedure by saying "I guess you really have a dead-end job." For him they have to put a tube down his throat to administer the solution as well as hook him up to an I.V. It's going to be a messy day. If all goes according to plan, tomorrow morning sometime they should do the procedure.

A couple of things you can pray for specifically:

• For Isaiah to handle this as well as possible, not becoming too distressed
• For us to be patient, comfort and care for him
• For Cristy's mom who is with us, as she tends to Nadia
• For Nadia to be good for Cristy's mom
• For the doctors and nurses to have wisdom and skill in what they do
• That the surgery can be performed via laparoscopy. This is usually how it is done, and this is what we're hoping for because it means just one night in the hospital after the surgery. This is in contrast to 7-9 days in the event they have to start cutting.
• For a successful surgery, quick healing time and no complications whatsoever.

I'll be making updates as things develop.