Praying for grace, praying for wisdom.

Gabe is scheduled for surgery tomorrow--just a minor procedure to repair a hernia. I am praying for wisdom here, more than usual, because the past few weeks have been difficult. Apparently, it's normal protocol with surgeons to simply blurt out, in front of the child, that they are going to have to have surgery. Gabe has been laboring under this knowledge now for several weeks, and originally the surgery was scheduled for April 16th.

This past weekend, I realized that we simply couldn't do this anymore--Gabe was miserable, dreaming about this, talking about it, getting naughty all over the place and then bursting into tears, wishing he was a baby, etc. All of this could have been prevented by the surgeon simply talking to me first, and allowing Jim and I the right (which we should already have) to bring up the topic with Gabe at the appropriate time. Anyway, yesterday, I called the surgeon's office and said that we had to get this done ASAP, and explained why. They were very helpful and sympathetic, and we were able to get in tomorrow. We even managed to get a pre-op physical today with our regular doctor, which was a small miracle in itself.

I need wisdom now, and in the days to come, as I have in the past few weeks, because it's so important to follow our routine, to be "normal", and yet I need to know when to take a line on discipline and when to give grace because he's beyond coping. God has been good to us, and I think that Jim and I both have made wise decisions about how to handle various situations that have come up with Gabe, and we have primarily been just trying to keep him extra busy so that he can't think too much about his "stitches", as he calls it.