Thank you so much for your prayers for little Rachida! (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, look at my previous post, “Please Pray” – blogs.ethnos360.org/susie-locklin/2016/07/21/please-pray/.) It’s been a long month of riding this roller coaster and not knowing what’s going to happen, but this week I got news that a decision has been reached. On Thursday she’s scheduled to have surgery here in country to remove both of her eyes. I’d appreciate your prayers that the surgery would actually get done on Thursday, that it would be done well, that it would remove all the cancer, and that she would heal well from it. We did get test results back that show that the cancer hasn’t spread outside of her eyeballs yet, so that’s a very good thing and gives her a good prognosis once her eyes are removed. But then there will still be lots of adjustments for Rachida and the whole family as she learns to make her way through life without her eyes.
What am I feeling right now? Honestly, so many things have been happening lately that I’m not necessarily feeling a whole lot. I know that it will be hard being blind and I wish there was another solution. But I’m glad that the end of this rollercoaster is (hopefully) near, and soon we’ll be able to look to the future and how best to provide for and care for her future. I’m also hopeful that a quick surgery like this will mean that the cancer will be able to be completely taken care of and gone. And I must say,too, that the thoughts of them going to the US for treatment were scary as well, since I know it would have been very hard on Rachida’s mom to deal not only with her sick daughter, but also hospitals in the US and life in the US in general. How could I even try to prepare them for going through US customs or walking through a US airport when they’ve never left the country, been on a plane, seen a moving walkway (or probably an escalator or elevator for that matter), and don’t speak a lick of English and only a little French? And all that with a blind 1-year-old, as you’re going through jet lag? So a big part of me is glad that they’ve decided to do the surgery here in country, where they can be surrounded by people they know and love.
Thanks again for your prayers and keep them coming. I’ll give you another update when I know more.
Susie- thanks for keeping us so very well informed– may God minister deeply to you –so that your love and energy can be sustained for this precious girl and her family—may God bring total healing and eradicate this cancer completely and moving forward provide in miraculous ways for her care, braille reading, many resources for her and her family– may God be glorified and many be drawn to Jesus through this ordeal. Praying… suzan