Go Wolves

Today is Whitney's first volleyball game as a member of the Cross Timbers Wolves 7th grade team. She's so excited and will be even more excited to learn that she is a starter. It's really quite incredible for her to have made a team when I think back about her life. Just four short years ago she underwent major surgery that would forever change all of our lives. Her team of doctors found a tumor in the middle of her spinal cord in her neck region. We were all hoping that it wouldn't grow any and she could escape radical surgery. The girls and I went on a ski trip with our church group that year. Bill Tate, the infamous Mayor of Grapevine, happens to go to church with us. He and I were on a ski lift adoring God's beautiful creations, when he told me he had noticed a change in the baby. She was only eight at the time and he's always considered her the baby. I quitely listened to what he shared with me and made an appointment for her when we got back home. To all of our astonishments the tumor had doubled in size. April 10, 2002 she was wheeled into a 8 hour surgery to remove it. Unfortunately they didn't get it all and she underwent 25 radiation treatments. She spent a week at Childrens Medical Center and another week at an inpatient rehabilitation center. She had to learn how to walk, run, use her entire body all over again. The doctors told me before the surgery there were no guarantees on the shape she would be in when she recovered. Now fast forward four and half years later. She's no longer left handed because the surgery left two of her fingers a little wacky and she chose to become right handed. And she made a team out of 90 plus kids. God bless her little soul..