30/08/2025
On August 30, 2017, when Teddy was just four and a half months old, our world changed forever. His bloodwork showed numbers no parent should ever have to hear — a white count of 116,000, platelets dangerously low, hemoglobin nearly cut in half, and almost forty percent of his blood already filled with leukemia cells. The words that followed were the hardest: Infant Pre-B Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
Only about ninety infants in the United States each year face this diagnosis. Teddy’s fight began in Room 452 at USA Children’s & Women’s Hospital, where we lived 227 consecutive days — from diagnosis until April 13, 2018, just four days after his very first birthday. That room held his first holidays, his first birthday, and so many milestones that looked nothing like we imagined, but everything like the grace and grit that carried us through.
In January 2019, over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, relapse sent us on our very first flight together — not only as a family of three, but the first flight for any of us. It wasn’t for vacation. It was on a medic Learjet bound for Philadelphia. We landed at CHOP not knowing what the future held, but by the time we unpacked, Teddy had qualified for a T-cell therapy trial that brought him into remission that March. One year later, on February 5, 2020, he received a bone marrow transplant from a perfect stranger — a 10/10 donor match who gave him the greatest gift: a second chance at life.
There are so many moments in this journey that words alone can’t capture. That’s why we’ve shared eighty photos — glimpses of birthdays spent in hospital rooms, milestones celebrated alongside nurses, doctors, and friends who quickly became family. We invite you to look through them, to see not just the fight but also the joy, the laughter, and the community that carried us when we didn’t know what tomorrow would bring.
As we move toward September — Childhood Cancer Awareness Month — we want Teddy’s story to stand as a reminder. Behind every statistic is a child. Behind every diagnosis is a family. And behind every breakthrough is a fighter whose courage lights the way.
Thank you, God, for Your favor over Teddy and over our family. And an incredibly huge thank you to everyone who stood with us in so many ways — from the amazing organizations and charities that provided shelter, food, and compassion, to the for-profit business that carried us across the country on a $382,000 medical jet transport at no cost to us. You gave us dignity in our greatest time of need, and you became living proof that we were never walking this road alone.
🎗️💛
Angel MedFlight Worldwide Air Ambulance Services
HEADstrong Foundation
Ronald McDonald House Charities of the Philadelphia Region
