Molly Margaret's Miracle

Hey friends! Gosh, we’re so grateful for all of your prayers, texts and love over the last week. ❤️

Surgery went really well and pretty much as the surgeon expected. He was able to remove what he estimates to be about 85% of the remaining tumor without compromising her right kidney or any other organs – praise God! Of course we wanted it all to be gone but we’ll take what we can get and the blessing of no organs being harmed is not lost on us. Dr. Rice said the tumor was very sticky and even harder to remove than he anticipated it would be. So we are incredibly grateful for how much he was able to remove. Molly Margaret did wonderfully through surgery. As soon as we got to her she opened her eyes and started reaching for us. We spent several days just snuggling and allowing her body to rest and recover. It’s so gut wrenching to see your baby cry out in pain. Thankfully, we were able to keep pain managed pretty well. The first two nights post surgery she spiked a fever. This can be a very normal, expected inflammatory response to surgery but since she has a port and has received chemo we took a few extra precautions to ensure we didn’t miss anything. They kept us an extra day and night to make sure the fever didn’t spike again outside the 48 hour post surgery window which it did not – thank you, Lord! Molly Margaret also developed a very weird intense rash and blistering on one of her arms. No one is really sure where it came from. So the extra night was worth it to just ensure we were heading in the right direction before coming home. Molly Margaret really turned a corner on Thursday and was feeling so much better by the time we came home on Friday. We’ve had a great weekend being in the sun and continue to recover. Honestly, if you saw her right now you would have no idea she had surgery last Tuesday. Moving and grooving, chatting and for the most part acting like nothing happened. What a miracle!

The big next step is hearing what the pathology says makes up this remaining tumor. Please pray vigilantly that there are only mature cells left that are no longer malignant and not an issue to leave as is. We won’t get that news for a bit longer – at least a week. Using the wait to worship and praise God for His continued provision thus far. Trusting that He’s already seen the path results and will meet us in that news.

Specific prayer requests:

• For pathology results that would declare there is no cancer left in Molly Margaret’s body.
• For continued healing over Molly Margaret’s body.
• That the rash on her arm would continue clearing up and not get infected in the process.
• That we would continue to steward this trial well. That we would not grow weary in bearing witness to the Lord’s goodness in our lives.
• For continued good rest!
• That we would continue to see a positive response to the OMS treatments. That there would be no regression.

This week, a friend texted to share of how Molly Margaret’s story impacted someone. It hit us hard as it was just the reminder we needed that this is not wasted. When we were first in the hospital receiving the diagnosis we felt the Lord speak so clearly to us asking us to use this circumstance to bear witness to who He is. We knew that if one person’s faith was changed, if one person came home to the Father because of this story, it wouldn’t be wasted. But as the journey prolongs it’s easy to get tired and just want it to end. When we hear stories of God working, we remember that this “through” is purposeful. That every hurdle that’s felt like a setback has allowed someone else to hear this story. The longer this has gone on, the more people have gotten to witness a good good Father sustaining His tired and weary children. What a gift it is to suffer. To be held by our Creator. To watch Him work in our lives and the lives of people we know and don’t know. Thank you for praying with us. Thank you for walking alongside us in this journey. The Lord is surely still at work and we won’t stop declaring His goodness now.

• Neal, Mackenzie & Molly Margaret 🤠