Every so often it hits me that a little over a month ago we were told that Jackson had a deadly cancer that could require amputating his leg, meds that would cause him to never be a father, and the worst, possibly not responding to meds at all. That was our reality for a short time. It’s hard to believe.

The day before Jackson’s surgery to remove the “tumor”  we finished at MD Anderson early and decided we wanted to go to lunch just the three of us before we started what we thought would be a long journey. We decided to go to our favorite restaurant in Houston, Lupe Tortilla. You have to check it out if you are ever in town. They have the best queso and fajitas. Anyhow, when we arrived I put our name in and let the hostess know that we needed to sit at a table that would fit the stroller next to it. She asked if Jackson could sit in a high chair and I explained that he couldn’t because he had just gotten out of the hospital and was pretty dizzy. She asked more questions and quickly rushed us to a table because she didn’t want him to have to wait.

Yesterday, my friend Kima was visiting and we decided to take her to Lupe. When we walked in I told the hostess, “this is the baby you met before he went in for surgery, I don’t know if you remember us.” She replied, “Oh yes, it’s Jackson, right?! I have been praying for him every day since I met you! She was just thrilled to hear that Jackson’s thought to be cancer ended up as a benign vascular malformation.Her friend walked by and she hollared, Mary (don’t know her name but let’s just say Mary), this is the baby I told you about. You know, the one who had cancer, It’s benign!!”

I think in my own life God will be revealing his power through other people’s reactions for years to come. People from around the world prayed for Jackson by name.

On a side note, Jackson is trying all sorts of new words these days…he says “hola”,  “quack, quack”, and now nods and shakes his head for “yes” and “no”. He made attempts at other animal sounds today but I can’t say they much resembled the animal sound. Cute for sure, but not quite there yet! By the way, chickens in Colombia say “pio, pio” and dogs say “wow, wow”. Who knew that animals in different cultures produce different sounds?! My friend Kima (from South Africa informed us giraffe’s don’t say anything!) Anyhow, Jackson is growing up so, so fast!


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