This morning, John-Paul, a 2-year-old Holts Summit boy will go into surgery. His scalp will be pulled back and parts of his skull will be removed to reshape his head.

There is no medical reason for this surgery, but we learn from his mom that her decision to go through with this is nestled in her role as a mother, to protect her child.

Just because he's named after a pope, doesn't keep John-Paul from acting like a 2-year-old. His mom says he is typical in every way and is constantly on the move.

"He rides a bike, he runs and kicks, and throws," said Michele Williams, John-Paul's mom.

But there is one specific difference between John-Paul and his seven other siblings. John-Paul has Sagittal Synostosis.

Michele explains that the sagittal bone on top of John-Paul's head fused too soon. This forced his brain to push the back of his skull out to make more room. The surgery will widen John-Paul's head and make it more round.

There is no real way of knowing whether this condition is having any negative effects on John-Paul. However, Michele says that sometimes when he is playing he feels pains through his head.  She says the discomfort does not last for very long and John-Paul goes back to playing. Her family can only guess these instant headaches are caused by his condition.

As for motor skills, John-Paul is clearly fine, but his speech is delayed.

"They don't know of any correlation between developmental delay and any craniosynostosis connection," said Williams.

There is no medical reason to have surgery to correct John-Paul's skull shape. The surgery would be cosmetic, but that is not why Michele and her family made the decision. She says that her other kids play baseball and want to play football and she knows John-Paul will want to follow in their shoes.

The surgery is an intense one, lasting between 5 and 12 hours.

"They do have to pull his scalp back, and they will have to remove some of his bone," said Williams. 

Ideally, John-Paul would have had this surgery as an infant, but doctors didn't notice his condition until he got older. That's extremely frustrating for Michele because she repeatedly asked her pediatricians if there was something wrong with the shape of her son's head.

"He's seven out of eight kids. I've seen six little heads. You know there's something different," said Williams.

John-Paul's brother Nicholas plans to help him through the ups and downs of the next few months with his recovery.

"(I will) be there for him when he's crying and everything," said Nicholas Williams.

He's even going to shave his head to support his little brother.

"I don't' want him to feel like he's the only one," said Nicholas.

"Everyone's going to do it. We have about five families with boys and dads. We're doing this for John-Paul. And, while he may not remember why, I'll remember why," said Michele Williams.

As parents, you have to make decisions for your children because they can't do it for themselves. But, that doesn't make it easy. Michele is scared and questions whether she is making the right decision. Her faith is helping her hang on.

"Mother Theresa used to say 'god doesn't give you anything he thinks you can't handle,' and then she would come back and say, 'I just wish he didn't think I could handle so much.' So, ditto, baby," said Williams.

Michele knows in her heart she's making the right decision and feels this is better for him.

As scary as today's surgery is, Michele says tomorrow is even more daunting. John-Paul's eyes will be swollen shut, and she's worried about how he will handle that.

The Williams family is planning on lots of TLC for their little 2-year old.