Welcome to Cheers for Amanda! This is a site dedicated to our awesome daughter, Amanda. If you have come here, chances are that you know what a great person she is. Ok, ok, I may be prejudice here...mom's are allowed to be... but ask any one of her 5 brothers & sisters, loving extended family, or her friends at Christian Fellowship School and they will tell you the very same thing. If you don't know her well, maybe this site will help to give you a little glimpse into how very special we believe that she is.

Amanda is ....

Delightful! Funny! And way too pretty for her daddy's comfort! :-) She is an awesome cheerleader & soccer player (GO KNIGHTS!), sings in the choir (and in the kitchen with me...but that no more details will be given on that kitchen part) and, most importantly, she has the most incredible heart for her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. She plans and already prepares for a future of service to Him and longs to go to Africa to begin. Amanda's life path is filled with love and joy, laughter and possibilities and now, we share with you that it also contains a dark area that holds for our beloved daughter, cancer.

So that each of you will know what led us to the creation of the site, I will give to you the details that have brought us to this point.

A short while ago, Amanda began to tell us that her left leg was bothering her. She said that she was having trouble sitting still in class (no offense to her teachers) but that her leg ached if she left it still for any length of time. Because she has recently begun Cheerleading practice for the fall basketball season, we thought it was muscle related. We cared for it as you would any strained or stretched muscle; however, it continued to bother her with the pain now also bothering her knee. I made an appointment with our family physician and an x-ray was taken of her knee. Everything looked fine in that x-ray and the Dr. & I discussed taking her to a Sports Physician who might be better trained to look for an athletic type of injury. An appointment was made for Monday, the 9th of October. Dr. Kinderknecht, an excellent sports physician, checked Amanda over and after talking with her about the pain she was having told us that she had all the symptoms of pressure or damage to the sciatic nerve in her lower back. His concern was that it is very unusual for an athlete of Amanda's age to hurt that nerve. After talking privately with me, Dr. Kinderknecht asked permission to order an MRI to get a better look at Amanda's lower back to try and better clarify the source of her pain.

Amanda and I headed over to Regional Hospital and an MRI was done that afternoon. Monday evening, Dr. Kinderknecht called our home. His words were ones that no parent ever wants to hear. He found a growth in the pelvic area of our little girl. He told me that he wanted us to see a specialist immediately and that he was already working to make arrangements for a Dr. that he believed was the very best one to see Amanda. On Tuesday we received a call that told us we were to leave for Overland Park, Kansas the next morning to meet a Dr. Howard Rosenthall. He is the head of one of the best sarcoma institutes the nation.

Wednesday found us at Menorah Medical Institute meeting with Dr. Rosenthall and praying for the safety and the very future of our little girl. Dr. Rosenthall and his staff were wonderful to us and immediately got to work taking care of Amanda. More x-rays were taken and appointments were scheduled for Thursday. We spent Wednesday night in Kansas City sharing a new experience with Amanda (the Cheesecake Factory was awesome!), loving every moment that we had together laughing and counting (the counting part is a private memory for us) and all the while silently begging God to grant wisdom for her Dr.'s and for Him to please stay very close to our precious daughter.

Thursday morning found us back at Menorah. Dr. Rosenthall scheduled a biopsy procedure for Amanda early that afternoon. Later that afternoon Larry and I sat together as her Dr. broke to us the news no parent should ever hear, that our precious child has a rare form of childhood bone cancer known as Osteosarcoma. (For more information on this type of cancer you may check out the website of Sarcomas - Definition, Description, Causes and symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, Prognosis, Prevention, Parental concerns ) Her tumor is located in the area of her left pelvic bone where the hip ball and joint join the pelvic bone.

After Amanda was out of recovery and back in her room, Larry and I talked with our daughter and shared with her what the Dr. had found. She had the most incredible spirit and simply asked, "Can we fight it?" We both answered her, "ABSOLUTELY" and she rested in her trust of us and that answer.

Now that we knew what we were facing, Larry and I faced the need to break the news to our family and friends. Top of our list were five very important parts of Amanda's life, her brothers and sisters. After Amanda was comfortable, we decided together that I would come back to Columbia and break the news to our other children in person. Larry spent a precious evening & night with Amanda at Menora so that she was never alone. Back in Columbia, Joshua, Haley, Abby, Anna and Caleb became my priority. They needed and they had the right to hear it first, from a parent, before the news was spread to others who also loved Amanda. Thursday evening, October 12th, 2006, found me with five of our beloved children gathered together as we grieved and comforted each other with hope and promises of God's provision. With that done, Larry and I began to make calls.

On Friday the final pieces of Amanda's prognosis were completed. Caleb travelled with me as we headed back to Overland Park that morning to rejoin Amanda and Larry. A CT scan and a full body bone scan were completed and we settled in to wait for their results. 5:30 p.m. seemed to take forever but finally, we were able to meet back with Dr. Rosenthall for our final consultation. Praise be to our Heavenly Father as we thanked him for a report that told us her cancer had not spread to distant sites. With that good report we were finally released and headed back to Columbia with our daughter.

Well, I know that may have taken you a bit to read through, but we wanted to get the details out that would help people to understand the path that has brought us to this point.

And so, welcome to Cheers for Amanda. You will find medical updates here, a place to send messages of cheer and encouragement to Amanda and our ongoing prayer requests. Please visit often as I know that Amanda will love to find happy messages from those who care for her and we will be thankful to have you keep our prayer requests before the Lord. And so, as I end, I ask for you to join with us as we pray for 1) Peace, comfort and healing for our precious daughter, Amanda. 2) Peace and protection for Joshua, Haley, Abby, Anna & Caleb - her brothers and sisters - as they grieve this news and as they walk this path along with their beloved sister. 3) God's presence and comfort for Larry & I as we lean on Him and learn to trust Him as He holds our child during this time, 4) for Amanda & Caleb's friends at CFS and our extended family that they will be comforted in their concerns and fears and finally, 5) that we, the McDaniel family, will walk through this time in a way that will bring glory to our Heavenly Father.

Thank you.
Prayers for my precious daughter are both coveted and believed in,
Denise