Gino's Cancer Battle

In October at a leukemia walk for my friend Ashlee, I met a 10 year old boy, Gino. Ashlee and Gino know each other because they both have cancer and Gino's family came to support and walk with Ashlee, like my family did. As I got to know Gino while walking, he told me his story about how he found out he had cancer a year ago when he found a lump on his hand. If I had not known that he had cancer, I never would have guessed. Gino was happy and optimistic about everything. He sang me some songs and told me some cute stories and after that night, I was so thankful that God had put him and his family in my life. In November, a month later, Gino went for scans to see if the cancer was gone, hopefully forever. The scans looked really good and Gino was told that he was in remission. What exciting news! A week or so later, Gino started going back to school and his hair started growing back, really fast actually :) My mom and I started planning a dinner for Gino and Ashlee's families to come over and hang out. It didn't work out at the time because of the holidays, so we were going to wait till after things settled down. Then, this past Friday night, my mom received a text from Ashlee's mom saying that Gino's cancer had come back. When my mom told me the news Saturday morning, we both instantly broke down. Those words are never easy to hear. I prayed like crazy all day for God to look out for Gino and heal him completely. But then Sunday and Monday morning, I received devestating news. Gino had a seizure Saturday night and has been in the ICU since then. While at the hospital, they did some tests and found a tumor on Gino's brain. My little friend, who I care about so dearly, has two types of cancer in two different places. It is so hard not to want to just sit and be depressed, but God has been reminding me that He is good through ALL things. Please pray for Gino and his family, today, tomorrow, and whenever you think about him. I am so thankful that God is right here next to me as I hope and pray that Gino will only get better from here.