God is good!!!

God graciously answered our prayers for a safe surgery for Titus. We spent January 25th at Children's Hospital in San Diego to get his "spitz nevus" removed. This is a common mole that has the menacing title "juvenile melanoma," even though it was not malignant. But it is composed of cells that greatly resemble melanoma - minus the cancer part. Confusing, I know. There is a great debate between dermatologists as to whether they should be fully excised or not. Titus' was atypical enough that his dermatologist (who treated his hemangioma when he was a baby), who happens to be world-renowned, wanted to get it out. This will prevent any question of it changing in the future. We hated to have him go under general anesthesia, but we had to give our worry to the Lord, knowing that Titus' life, like all of ours, is in His hands anyways. That is so freeing. God went above and beyond our request, giving us an absolutely wonderful day. 3 1/2 hours at the hospital went by so smoothly, without a complaint from any of the kids (yes, we had them all with us) - not even a peep from baby Sullivan. Titus was not afraid at all, just a little quiet. The procedure took about 15 minutes, and he snapped out of his sleep in about 15 more. We walked into recovery to find him enjoying a cherry popsicle. His brothers were each given one and they had their "popsicle party" that Titus had been talking about for a month (thank you, Dr. Cunningham for calling it that!). Our hungry boy who had been fasting all morning wanted to go to his favorite restaurant, The Cheesecake Factory, so that's what we did... and had a lovely celebration lunch. I did not take my camera, but I got these pictures of our little trooper after we got home. He got a bath and wanted to play the Wii with his brother. Thank you to our many wonderful family members and friends who had Titus covered in prayer!