Hayden's Hat and Prayer

After a rough Thanksgiving week, Jace had a pretty good Friday morning. Instead of going with Matt and Hayden to Hayd’s out of state basketball tourney, Jace and I chose to entertain ourselves at home. By Friday night Jace was stir crazy and decided he needed a road trip. We made it to Rigby.:) (If you don’t know, that’s about 15 miles from our home.) After playing for a while with his cousins, Jace started feeling yucky- so we made preparations to go home. His emotions got the best of him, and Eli held him for an hour trying to ease his crying. Finally we were on our way, with Dayton and his over-night bag. But even driving home, Jace couldn’t stop crying—sobbing actually. I finally suggested, “Let’s say a prayer.” I was driving, so I asked 6 year old Dayton if he would say it. His prayer was simple and beautiful. He asked three things. “Please help Jace to stop crying. Please bless Jace to feel better. Please bless Jace to be ok.”

We all said “Amen” and not 30 seconds later Jace was very sick and frantically searching for his bowl. In its absence we grabbed the next best thing: Hayden’s ski hat. Sparing you the details, I’ll just say, Hayden needs a new hat, but Jace immediately felt better and was able to come home and go right to sleep. Dayton wondered if his prayer had actually been answered, because Jace threw up, but I explained to him that it was exactly what Jace needed to “feel better.” He said, “I thought maybe the devil and Heavenly Father were fighting, but I knew Heavenly Father would win.” I was amazed at the faith of another young child with complete faith in a loving Heavenly Father who hears and answers prayers.

Jace was brave once again yesterday as he received his PEG shots. We learned his HCT actually came up to 24.3, so he didn’t need a blood transfusion (he’s still on the edge, but the improvement says maybe his body is taking care of it). The BAD news is that his ANC (or the number that tells us how immuno-compromised he is) is down to a .2! This means he cannot be in public at all, and he cannot receive visitors in our home. I’ll keep you posted when this changes.

Jace is still carrying a bowl around, and luckily Hayden wasn’t too sad about his ruined hat. I’ve been scrubbing it, but I’m not sure it will ever be worn again. Hayden knows it’s a small price to pay. He watches Jace be so sick, and he just shakes his head. He asked me last night about Jace’s counts. I told him, and he said, “That’s bad hu?” This morning, Hayden came straight to Jace still in bed, laid next to him, and wrapped his arms around him. His terms of endearment went something like this:

“Morning Bud. I heard how brave you were yesterday. I would have cried if I would have had those shots. Wanna play the Wii before I go to school??” And so they did. Hayden wrapped Jace in a blanket and carried him to the couch. They sat with arms touching and played together. As Hayden said the family prayer this morning, he specifically thanked Heavenly Father for “my brother Jace.” So, after a rough week, this morning I’m grateful again for prayers, with the odd addition of a well used ski hat.