"My heart will choose to say, 'Lord, blessed be Your name!'"

Six years ago the Lord blessed me and my wife, LeAnne, with a beautiful, healthy baby girl. Everything was going great - the nurses were even impressed with her thick, curly hair and chubby cheeks. We were excitedly checking the milestones off the Baby's First Year calendar and peeking ahead to see what to expect next. But then, just five months into that calendar, something happened that we weren't prepared for...and we didn't even know what 'it' was.

I was at work on lunch break and talking to LeAnne on the phone. She had to put the phone down for just a few seconds, and when she picked up again she explained what had happened: she was holding Kaylie on her hip and suddenly Kaylie leaned backwards over her arm and wouldn't sit back up. LeAnne lifted her and held her up for a maybe 8-10 seconds, then she was back to normal posture and acted like nothing ever happened. We didn't know what to think of it, kept an eye on her and eventually forgot about it. Until two months later when it happened again.

The next day we found ourselves in the pediatrician's office and for the first time heard the word 'seizure' as a possible diagnosis for our precious baby girl. Tests were ordered and the journey began.

Soon these 'spells' (as we referred to them before we got the official diagnosis) were happening three or four times per week, getting longer, and involving more of her body. We finally got the test results back and seizure activity was confirmed and the first anti-epileptic drug started. It worked...for a couple of months. Then a new seizure type broke through. The doctor called them Myoclonic - they would come in clusters of up to 20 within two minutes and would jerk her head down suddenly, occasionally causing her to fall face first. This went on every day for eight months, and along with it some new terminology from the doctor: "She is developing refractory epilepsy" (a fancy way to say her seizures are difficult or even impossible to control with medication). Praise the Lord He saw fit to take the Myoclonic seizures away -before the doctors made her wear a helmet- and we have never seen another!

Over the last five years Kaylie has tried eight or more medications with very little relief from the seizures. The side effects have been frustrating and at times frightening. Three years ago she went through a battery of tests to see if she was a candidate for brain surgery - the possible cure. The information was not conclusive; the outcome was more medicine and more frustration.

This past December we did all the tests again, and this time the doctors (an entire committee of them) are confident they can help her through brain surgery. One statistic they shared with us: Roughly 5,000 people come to them annually with seizure disorders. They only offer the surgery to 40-50.

We take the next step of our journey next week. On Monday, April 18, Kaylie will be admitted for the first surgery of a two-surgery process. Please pray for Kaylie, the surgeons and all doctors involved. Please pray for our family and our emotional, spiritual and physical well-being. Through all of this, "My heart will choose to say, Lord blessed be Your name."