Chasing (and praying) away the monsters

A few weeks ago, I posted about a friend and colleague of mine whose 7-year old sweet son Max is fighting neuroblastoma - an aggressive, common, and uncurable form of pediatric cancer. He was been fighting cancer now for 4 years and after being a brave warrior for so long, it now appears that the inevitable may be coming. I have been watching his story unfold and have been reading about how the cancer has progressed for months now -- and it has reached an inflection point.

His parents were told last Thursday by the oncologists at the children's hospital that they should just stop. Stop treatment to ease Max's constant pain. Stop with hospice.

They may as well just told them to stop hoping. And as Max's dad said, "Without hope, what is there?"

My heart aches for them, and everytime I think about it, I cry.

And even though I was raised Catholic, I am not very religious and prayerful. But tonight, I, along with Hannah and Luke prayed for Max and his family. And we prayed that the Mikulak family and Max could still have hope.

I was mindful tonight as I was reading Max's blog update how our kids would react to my bursts of tearfulness. So I decided to explain it to them. And I was surprised at how much they understood the magnitude of such a complicated and heart-wrenching situation.

Me: Guys, my friend has a little boy named Max. We have to pray for Max tonight and for the next few nights...he needs us to keep hope alive. He is very sick and is dying.

Hannah: Why is he sick? And he's dying? What's wrong with him? Didn't his mommy give him medicine?

Me: Honey, his mommy and doctors have him all kinds of medicine. And it's just not working anymore.

Luke: Why is he sick? What does he have? What's it called?

Me: It's called cancer.

Luke: It's a cancer monster?

Me: Yes, it's a cancer monster.

Hannah: Where is the cancer monster? Is it in his house?

Me: The cancer monster is inside his body and it's spreading all over.

Luke: It's inside his body? How did it get there? Where did it come from?

Me: I don't know, but it's there. And they can't get rid of it.

Luke: What's it doing in his body?

Hannah: (putting the pieces together, as eloquently as an almost-4-year-old could, she answered his question)
Luke, the cancer monster is eating up Max's insides and his bones. And when it is done, all that will be left is a skeleton.

Luke: Oh... (realizing the potential finality of the cancer monster's impact)
So, we need to pray for Max so he won't die and so the cancer monster will go away forever.

And with that, we said a special prayer and sent vibes of hope to sweet Max.