🎒💔 She Was Ready for Kindergarten — Now 5-Year-Old Annalise Mae Will Begin School From Home

Five-year-old Annalise Mae was excited for one of the biggest milestones of childhood.

She was ready to start kindergarten.

She had already met her teacher and some of the classmates she was supposed to spend the school year with. Like so many children her age, Mae was preparing for a new classroom, new friends, new routines, and a whole new chapter.

Then her family received heartbreaking news.

Because of her ongoing cancer treatment, Mae will not be able to walk into that kindergarten classroom alongside the other children this year. 💔

Many people have been following Mae’s journey since her family first shared her story.

For months, her headaches, nosebleeds, and swelling were believed to be related to allergies. Eventually, doctors discovered that the little girl was facing a rare childhood cancer.

Mae endured chemotherapy and radiation, but her family later learned that the illness had spread to the lining surrounding her brain and into her spinal fluid.

Now, while other children are carrying backpacks into school, Mae will begin her education from home.

Her doctors have placed her in a homebound learning program, allowing a teacher to come to the family’s house while Mae continues her treatment.

It is certainly not the kindergarten experience her family imagined.

But Mae’s mother, Madison, is choosing to look at their circumstances through a different lens.

“Our hopes of her having a somewhat normal childhood isn’t going to plan… but who needs normal? That’s boring.”

Her words capture something powerful about the way this family continues to face each difficult moment — with love, humor, determination, and hope. ❤️

At the same time they were preparing for what should have been one of the happiest milestones of Mae’s childhood, they were also packing their bags for another week at Riley Hospital.

That contrast has become part of everyday life for this family.

A little girl who should be worrying about crayons, classroom activities, and making new friends is instead balancing schoolwork with an intensive medical journey.

Yet there is something cancer has not been able to take from Mae.

Her smile. 🌸

According to her mother, that beautiful smile remains, even through everything she has endured.

And now, her family is asking people to do what they have asked from the very beginning: pray.

Pray for healing.

Pray for strength.

Pray for Mae’s family as they continue walking through this difficult journey. 🙏

And pray for the day when Mae can finally experience the first day of school she has been waiting for — walking into a classroom beside her classmates, carrying nothing more than a backpack and that beautiful smile.

Until then, her education may look different.

But her dreams do not have to disappear.

Keep fighting, Mae. Your story is still being written. 🩷🎒🕊️