Every year more Ozarks families get the news their children have cancer.

Some of them take an immediate trip to Memphis for treatment at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Today the Morgan sisters playing out in the yard on a summer day look like the picture of health, but it wasn't always so sunny for Macy and Madison.

“When she was 8 months old Carrie found a lump on Macy's left side,” said dad Brian of his wife.

“Cancer was the farthest thing from my mind,” Carrie said.

That's because Carrie's husband was leaving for Iraq to defend his family as a member of the National Guard.

“It was the day I was to leave when all this happened,” Brian remembers.

Brian was plucked out of the line to board the aircraft for the Middle East.

The guard let someone else fight the war on terror so he could wage war for his daughter's life.

Macy had a wilms tumor, the fourth leading cause of cancer in children.

Just like a doll the hospital gave her sister Madison to help her understand, the Morgan's baby girl had a tube coming out of her chest during treatment..

“Not only did they take her kidney they went into her lung and removed the spots,” said Brian.

Macy had stage 4 cancer, the most advanced.

During her first birthday, she was in the middle of six months of chemotherapy; then she had 9 days of radiation.

Macy lost all her hair and her baby teeth that were just coming in.

A dentist capped her teeth and pulled the others; her hair grew back.

As the weeks went by the Morgans tried to get back to life as normal.

“After six months they do what is typical one month followup to make sure the cancer is gone and all that,” recalls Carrie. “And that's when we received the devastating news Macy had relapsed.

They found more spots on her lungs.

So Carrie, Macy and Madison moved into the Target House, a St. Jude facility for more treatment.

“At that point God and I had a few words to talk about, “ she said.

Looking back at their experience through a scrapbook, that was a low point for the Morgans.

“When they told me she had relapsed I knew God had a plan to take her home and it was my responsibility as a mom to do what I needed to do to love her and give her what she deserved as a baby and as a small child that had to suffer such a disease as cancer,” Carrie said.

During that five plus months, Brian would fly to St. Jude every weekend to see the three women in his life.

Both parents say the hospital gave them hope.

“I don't want anyone to experience it,” Brian said. “But for what it was and they way they led us through it was the way they gave us support. It's heaven on earth- if there's such a place that's where it is.”

Carrie agrees: “If it wasn't for St Jude I wouldn't have my daughter today.”

And Madison wouldn't have a baby sister.

The Morgans take Macy back to St. Jude next month for her six month checkup.

That date fills the Morgans with feelings of hope and anxiety.