Recipient Stories

There are hundreds of people who followed Ellie’s journey from afar and found inspiration in her story. I had the honor of witnessing her life up close for nearly a decade. Her impact runs deeper than inspiration—she and her family helped shape how we support every family we serve.

We got Josie when she was 9 months old, placed with us through medical foster care. We knew she had Marshall-Smith Syndrome, but we had no idea the journey the Lord was about to take us on.

Jasper was whisked away to the NICU, and we began navigating life with a medically fragile baby. He was diagnosed with BPD (bronchopulmonary dysplasia), which meant we had to stay home much more to limit exposure.

Thirteen minutes after birth, Renesemee’s heart started beating. She definitely was a fighter. Her daddy holding her made her start breathing.

Sophia’s diagnosis reminded me how short life is. I need to cherish every moment I have with my two other kids. We love to talk about Sophia and how she is in a far better place now. We miss her dearly. My kids draw pictures of her all the time. Life is truly such an…

We hope that Evie lives a normal, full life, stays strong, and that—as her family—we never take a single thing for granted. We don’t sweat the small stuff anymore. Life is precious.

Everything changed at the time of his birth. Only then did we begin to understand the magnitude of his sickness and the challenges that were ahead. After he was born, his doctors could finally give us more information about the severity of his condition. Reality set in once we had some concrete facts.

I hope for happiness, health, love, and wellbeing. I hope life is fair to him. That he surrounds himself with people who see his worth and respect him. Friends who cherish him. I hope he dreams of all the possibilities and ways he can contribute to changing the world.

We had 10 weeks from the diagnosis to love Cecelia as much as we could. We sought an induction the day before her due date, as I couldn’t feel her kicking and moving as much as before. It was really scary. She stayed with us though labor, her heartbeat on the monitor. We had a…

I hope that we continue to move on and heal from losing our precious Elizabeth. We want to be a light to others that have helped us during our most difficult times, and we hope to help others that will face hard times in the future. We want to keep her memory alive and continue…