Dear friends and family,

I have difficult news to share with you. Yesterday morning, I was told by my neurosurgeon that I most likely have a cancerous brain tumor on my left temporal lobe. His belief is that it is a glioblastoma. The location of this tumor is on my brain’s speech center, which makes it inoperable. I do not know what grade it is, but I am praying it is the least aggressive stage. This initial prognosis was scary to say the least and the surgeon estimated my life expectancy at 1-5 years.

Later in the day I had a much more positive meeting with our oncologist who told me not to give up hope that I may have lymphoma, which has a 70% cure rate if you are cancer free after 5 years from initial treatment. Additionally, there is still a very slight chance that this is an infectious parasite that will respond to treatment, which would be the easiest diagnosis to treat.

We will get the pathology results on Wednesday and I will share the prognosis with each of you-my friends and family. I have always found strength through others and I don’t expect this journey to be any different. I hope that each of you will join me in my fight. I have been blessed to know many inspirational fighters and I am going to follow your example.

Please know that I am committed to fighting this disease, whatever it is, and that I will not give up until it is beaten. I thank each of you for your thoughts and prayers, and ask that you continue to support Kris, James and all of our family by sharing your experience, strength and hope. I am fortunate that all of my immediate family are now in Florida, and we are finding strength together and developing our battle plan.

I have not often shared my faith in such a public forum but I fully believe in the power of my God and Jesus Christ to bring us through this challenge. We will come out the other side forged into steel by the fire of adversity. God loves each of us and sent his only son to die for our sins. This minor sacrifice is nothing compared to his passion. Please continue to pray for us.

I love all of you, my friends and family, and hope that I can share with you my strength and hope during our journey. Please don’t hesitate to call me to check in. I miss you all and love you all deeply.

JJ