We’ve always known Maggie is one in a million. Now we have confirmation. Maggie has been diagnosed with colorectal cancer (adenocarcinoma). We have been in shock since Monday because we thought we would be battling Crohns’s or Ulcerative Colitis. This cancer literally has an incident rate of one in a million for pediatric patients. None of the 24 doctors in her GI doctor’s practice has ever seen this in a pediatric patient.  We are waiting for further tests and a meeting Thursday, April 10 with a pediatric surgeon and oncologist at Blair Batson in Jackson to decide our course of action. We know it will involve aggressive treatment and surgery in some form or fashion.

You will see a recurring theme through our journey will be prayer. We covet your prayer as we lift our own to the Lord. We have been overwhelmed in the best sense of the word with your love and support since Monday. How we love our Temple Baptist family and His people in churches, homes, schools, and clinics all over the South who are praying and loving us.

Maggie is one in a million, and we didn’t need this to show us. But we have it now, so we will deal with it. Our one prayer is that God will be glorified. For anyone, especially a parent, that is a tough prayer because it comes with no qualifiers. You may have to remind us of our prayer sometimes and hold us to it.

Maggie and Melissa medal at the Abbie Rogers Civilian 5 mile race

Maggie is a fighter. Against my better inclination to hide the attached photo due to my own presence in it, I want to post it because it shows just who Maggie is. A little over a month ago, Maggie decided she wanted to start running with the ultimate goal of completing the Princess Half Marathon and 10K at Disney World during her senior year. She set this goal not with an especially great love of running but because she wanted the Disney bling! Medals are given to all finishers; three medals if you complete both races! I decided to join her, so we started training and signed up for our first 5k. We arrived at Temple Baptist on March 29th for the run benefitting Abbie Rogers Civitan Camp. I asked Civitan coordinator Chris Potin if he was expecting a big turnout. He answered, “Well, if it were a 5k instead of a 5-mile, we might have more. That keeps some people away.” Yeah, I think it probably would; like the people who actually read the flyer correctly! Maybe that doesn’t sound like a huge difference, but to new runners who couldn’t even complete a 5K without walking the uphill parts, it was huge. For a runner with an unknown illness sapping her energy, it was a big deal. After forgiving me, Maggie agreed to try it with me. We made it. It was not pretty, but it formed a lasting memory. Not only did we finish, we each placed first in our age brackets. We got medals! And not the kind with pictures of books, scrolls, and lab equipment! A new experience for these Hanberry girls!

Please pray we run this race to finish and have our medals to place at His feet. All we really want is a “Well done.”