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KIDS WHO CARE<br />
Sophia Malone<br />
Sarah Rein<br />
WHEN SOPHIA MALONE’S<br />
PARENTS, ROMAN & TONYA,<br />
WELCOMED THEIR FIRST<br />
CHILD AFTER FIVE YEARS<br />
OF MARRIAGE, THEY WERE<br />
THRILLED TO ENJOY THEIR<br />
NEW ARRIVAL. The months of<br />
pregnancy and anticipation were filled with<br />
excitement, nerves, and expectations. Then, a<br />
few days after birth, Sophia was diagnosed with<br />
a hemangioma - a benign blood-filled tumor not<br />
uncommon among infants. Often referred to as<br />
a “strawberry” birthmark, they are typically minor<br />
and shrink or even disappear after a child’s first<br />
year. However, Sophia’s hemangioma was<br />
compound, meaning it affected both the skin’s<br />
surface and extended underneath, affecting her<br />
cartilage and bone structure. Unlike the usual<br />
pattern of these tumors, hers grew dramatically<br />
after her first year and began affecting her vision<br />
and nasal structure. Sophia had to have her most<br />
extensive operation at the age of eighteen months<br />
when the size of the growth began to threaten<br />
her eyesight. Over the years, she has had more<br />
than twenty surgeries to remove her tumor as<br />
well as correct some of the damage done to her<br />
underlying facial structures.<br />
While it would be easy to be bitter or<br />
frustrated at what she has endured, on the<br />
contrary, Sophia has embraced her journey.<br />
“I remember growing up very comfortable with<br />
myself,” Sophia shares. “I’ve always been confident<br />
and had an easy time making friends. Starting<br />
school did feel a little scary, but I’ve never been<br />
insecure about my hemangioma. I’ve always<br />
welcomed people talking to me about it.”<br />
Tonya admits that she initially was challenged<br />
by Sophia’s diagnosis. She felt worried<br />
about all the things she might not get to do or<br />
how her life might be harder. What she did not<br />
expect was what a gift Sophia’s journey would be<br />
to those around her.<br />
After an excellent elementary experience at<br />
First Presbyterian Day School, Sophia transitioned<br />
to Jackson Prep where she has excelled<br />
personally and socially. Sophia danced for years<br />
before transitioning to Prep’s award-winning<br />
Réveillon Show Choir. “They have really become<br />
like a family,” Sophia relates. “I’ve learned and<br />
grown so much in that program.” She has also<br />
served as a student ambassador and in Prep’s<br />
Service Club.<br />
One of her most colorful memories during<br />
high school was getting to be part of the Prep<br />
sailing team that won the Mississippi Sailing<br />
Championship her tenth-grade year.<br />
Since the age of thirteen, she has worked in<br />
her father’s family’s roofing business and, later,<br />
her aunt’s clothing boutique. Sophia explains that<br />
there has always been an expectation in her family<br />
that the kids would work. “Yes, we learned<br />
something about the business, but it was mainly<br />
to teach us responsibility and discipline. We have<br />
been encouraged to be people who give back.”<br />
Church membership has always been<br />
important in her family, and Sophia has also<br />
become involved in the Young Life organization<br />
where she has made close friends and been<br />
involved in weekly Bible studies. Last summer,<br />
she had the opportunity to work as a Young Life<br />
Capernaum Buddy, where the camps are created<br />
with teens and young adults with disabilities in<br />
mind. “I think, because I don’t look like the average<br />
person who has it all together, people find me<br />
more approachable. So, I’m able to use my birth<br />
defect as a blessing.” When asked how she feels<br />
she has grown from her struggles, Sophia<br />
expresses that, while her hemangioma has been a<br />
big part of her story, God has taught her that it<br />
doesn’t define her. Tonya agrees, “God has<br />
opened doors through this that wouldn’t have<br />
happened otherwise. I mean, even kids who have<br />
no disabilities feel insecure about themselves,<br />
and because Sophia accepts herself just like she<br />
is, she shines a light when she goes places.”<br />
Sophia recently found out that her next<br />
opportunity to do that will be at Samford, where<br />
she has been accepted into their nursing<br />
program. She is following in her mother’s<br />
footsteps (Tonya is a long-time surgical nurse)<br />
as well as honoring all the nurses who have made<br />
an impact on her during her health journey.<br />
As Sophia considers the blessings that have<br />
come from her trials, she thinks about the people<br />
who have been the biggest influence on her.<br />
She is quick to mention her mother, who is her<br />
biggest cheerleader. Her mentor, Amanda Slack<br />
from Prep, also comes to mind. She poured into<br />
Sophia through Bible study and their relationship<br />
for years. She particularly recalls a nurse<br />
anesthetist she had in Arkansas who brought<br />
Sophia stuffed animals from her travels. The<br />
woman would line them up around Sophia as<br />
she woke from her surgeries, so she felt immediately<br />
surrounded and loved. Reflecting on her<br />
future plans, Sophia wonders aloud if she may<br />
also want to pursue pediatric nursing and,<br />
perhaps, work with children with disabilities.<br />
After all the challenges Sophia has faced, she<br />
believes in God’s ability to use them for His glory<br />
and her good. As Romans 5:3-4 reminds the<br />
Christian - “We rejoice in our sufferings,<br />
knowing that suffering produces endurance,<br />
and endurance produces character, and<br />
character produces hope, and hope does not put<br />
us to shame, because God’s love has been poured<br />
into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has<br />
been given to us.” Sophia has faced her suffering<br />
with joy and hope and is confident in the God<br />
who holds her future and looks forward to<br />
continuing to be a light to others.<br />
Hometown RANKIN • 49