This special love is Madeline. She is the youngest of our 3 girls and was absolutely our most feisty. She was our best sleeper and our sweetest snuggler.

At 2 years old, we took Madeline in for what we expected to be an overnight hospital stay at most. We were quickly told it would be closer to a week as she was incorrectly diagnosed. It ended up being a blessing in disguise because that misdiagnosis led us to almost an entire year more to share with her.

Later that week, she was transferred to the oncology department at Banner UMC. Our sweet girl had stage 4 Metastatic Neuroblastoma. Our world shattered. Over the next 11 months, our amazing little fighter went through 5 rounds of chemo, 1 round of high dose chemo, a stem cell transplant, and 12 rounds of radiation. Then it was back again for immunotherapy. At this point, she was NED-no evidence of disease. We thought the worst was behind us and celebrated every chance we got, including her 3rd birthday.

It is with immeasurable sadness that we had no idea, it would be her last celebration at home. After complications from treatment, Madeline was put on oxygen, followed by a ventilator, and then ECMO. It was 6 sedated weeks of constant love that we only hope she felt. On May 24th, 2022, our Little Baby as we so adoringly called her, was taken from us. But her memory will always be here and continues to live on through her father and me, and her two amazing sisters who could not have been more smitten with her.

We created Raising Daisies for her and for so many like her who deserve so much more.