Prayers for a Dear Friend - Updated!

Our friend Narcie is a United Methodist campus minister at Winthrop University in South Carolina. About 2 weeks ago, she was at a campus ministry conference, and she had a seizure. Turns out that she has a tumor. In her brain.

Suck.

You may remember Narcie, Mike, Enoch, and Evy from our visit with them last summer. They are fabulous and amazing and some of my favorite people in the world. Oddly enough, Narcie was present for part of mine and John's first date. (It's a long story that tells you a lot about my husband - but our first date involved a free campus dinner that Narcie hosted. Good times.) Becca is between Enoch and Evy age-wise. And they are adorable.

Narcie had surgery today to have the tumor removed. I haven't yet heard how the surgery (a left frontal craniotomy) went. The surgeon was hopeful that he would be able to fully remove the tumor and was glad to see that though it was touching the motor cortex, the tumor had not penetrated it. Even so, he was messing around in some really delicate areas (hello, it's her brain), and we've been praying all day for steady hands and precision.

Assuming that everything goes perfectly, Narcie will be in ICU tonight and on a regular floor for a few days before beginning her recovery at home. They won't know anything about what the tumor actually is for 2-3 weeks.

I'll update when I hear something, but please do remember the Jeter family tonight and in the coming weeks and months. The next few weeks and on are going to be tough, no matter what this "interloper," as Narcie called it, may be. So do what you guys do: pray, think good thoughts, meditate, hold crystals, whatever. Just send these guys some love. They are such lovely people!

p.s. If you would like more information, you can follow her blog at http://narciejeter.wordpress.com. I'm not sure if someone will post in her stead over the next few days or not, but if you have a few minutes to check it out, I'm sure you'll understand why we love Narcie so much!

*Update! Narcie came through the surgery well, and they think they got all of the tumor! Wohoo! Of course, that's not the end of the issue, but it's a great big huge wonderful step in the right direction! For more info visit http://narciejeter.wordpress.com/ .