Purple Toe

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This year, in first grade, Charlotte was asked to write about a time where she was hurt. When I heard this, I quietly walked over to see what she was going to write about. I wondered which of the countless moments she would choose. There were so many and with every single one, me and Brian’s heart would quietly break. Those breaks can never be fixed of course but we patched them up when we could and moved on. But not Charlotte😊She picked up her chunky pencil and wrote about dropping a heavy object on her toe which made her toe nail purple. She then drew a picture of the falling object landing on her purple toe.

I don’t know what she remembers or what scars are left that we can’t see. But I know when she was asked to write about something that hurt, she contemplated the time she fell of her bike or the time she jumped off the bed and hurt her ankle, ultimately choosing the purple toe story instead of countless others I can recall during her fight. I know I have shared my fair share of smiling, bald headed pictures of our brave girl over the years, but during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, I think it’s important to remind ourselves what it costs these kids to be here. And these are only a few of the moments I could stomach to capture...there are so so many more that hurt too much to share or were too incredibly difficult for me to even try to capture as I hoped to document her amazing journey towards complete healing. 

Thank you for going gold with us, for taking time out of your lives to care about our girl, and to spread all the awareness you can so that the best treatments yet to be discovered can happen. For now, our baby girl‘s hurts are all better...even her purple toe💜 🌈#charlottestrong #charlotterules


Christmas in pediatric bone marrow transplant. She was so so sick 

With a therapist trying to gain strength to walk and stand again after being bedridden in both PICU and in oncology floor for several weeks

Emotional pain...missing home and her family and her life

Countless moments she could remember but God has given her grace and she has been protected against what haunts Brian and I

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