September 29 marks an important day in former Arkansas governor and current Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee's life. It's not his birthday or a wedding anniversary. It's not the day any of his children were born or an important milestone in his storied political career.
It's the day that, 50 years ago, God gave him and his wife, Janet, a miracle in the wake of tragedy.
Mike and Janet were married in May 1974. Mike explained on X today that both were in college at the time, but they couldn't afford it, so Janet left and took a job as a dental assistant while he finished his senior year. She would go back after he finished, or so that was the plan.
Instead, Janet began having back trouble. She tried all sorts of medication and therapy, but eventually her doctor told her she would need surgery for a "'textbook case' of a slipped disc." In mid-September of 1975, Mike sat in a waiting room while his new bride had that "textbook" surgery, but the doctor came out and ushered him into a private room.
"That is NEVER good news. Good news gets delivered in the big room; bad news is shared in the small private room," the ambassador wrote. I think many of us who have had loved ones in the hospital can attest to that.
The doctor whose "face was as white as his lab coat" told him that Janet didn't have a slipped disc at all. Instead, she had a malignant tumor that was in the canal of her spine. It was also inoperable. The tumor would most likely kill Janet, and there was nothing doctors could do. The couple who was "barely 20 years old and married for barely a year" was understandably devastated.
Doctors eventually presented an option to do an alternative surgery that might rid her of the cancer, but it would leave her permanently paralyzed. And it was a long shot that it would even work at all. "We thought we had our whole lives in front of us. Now we were faced with the likelihood that there was little future for US ahead," Mike wrote.
On that fateful day, September 29, 1975, Mike sat in the waiting room while his young bride underwent the surgery that would change her life no matter the outcome. The doctor came to see him much earlier than expected and told him he was able to remove the tumor and Janet had survived, but he wasn't sure that she'd ever be able to move the lower half of her body.
That evening, she was able to move her toes slightly, which gave them all hope. The next step, however, would be radiation to make sure the cancer was gone completely, and the doctor told them that it would damage her body to the point that they'd be unable to have children.
Even so, Mike got up every single day at 5 a.m. for the next six weeks and drove Janet from her hospital bed set up in their small apartment to her radiation treatment, a 150-mile round trip to Little Rock. He said he even had to turn the back of his car into a bed because she couldn't sit up straight. He was also working full-time and taking the remaining classes he needed to get his degrees in December.
Obviously, Janet survived and not only regained her ability to walk, but went on to become a mother. The couple has three children, including Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-Ark.). They also have seven grandchildren.
"Life during all of the years has been a mixture of peaks and valleys. We’ve seen depths of poverty in our lives to a level of prosperity we never imagined possible. We’ve taken large risks. Some failed, but others succeeded beyond our dreams," Mike wrote on X.
In the story he shared, Mike said he and Janet were blessed by people who prayed for them or sent them cards with $5 and $10 in them to help pay their mounting medical bills, but ultimately what they experienced was a miracle of God's grace. He concluded with a message:
September 29 is just another day for most people. But for us, it’s a HOLY day. A day we remember that God heard the prayers of many. He didn’t answer with a sudden miracle or with blinding lights and a dramatic moment. But step by step, moment by moment, He intervened and built a road for us to travel. We believed Him then. We believed His Word. All these years later, we believe even more. And we believe His Word even more than ever. It’s not something we merely 'think.' We have lived it. I will always remember what the great Bible teacher Ron Dunn said, 'That when you hit bottom, you at least find out it’s solid at the bottom. 'And he said, 'It’s one thing to say ‘God is all you need; but when God is all you’ve got is when you find out that He truly IS all you need.’
I don’t have a clue about the future, but because of having lived the past, I am certain that whatever challenges come, God is still good…all the time!
Here's the ambassador's full story if you'd like to read it in his words:
Today marks 50 yrs exactly when @janethuckabee & I faced an unexpected challenge. After getting married in May of 1974, I was in my final yr of college and Janet left college to work full-time with the plan for her to finish once I did. We couldn’t afford to both go at same…
— Ambassador Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) September 29, 2025
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