Laundry

• Collapsible hamper – to tote to and from home or to use at the in-hospital laundry facility
• Laundry pods
• Dryer sheets

Toiletries

• Dental kit – toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, mouthwash
• Lotion
• Face wipes
• Deodorant
• Lip balm
• Dry shampoo

Our friends at Monday generously donated hygiene items that we have been able to bring to families in the CICU, at Ronald McDonald House and include in survival kits. Huge thanks!

Contents will vary based on availability and bonus donations, but this is the general idea. If you’d like to send us some kit supplies, check out our wishlist here. 

Siblings 10+

• Handmade pillowcase – for use at home or in the hospital, this also serves as the bag for the goodies
• Mental health journal and pens
• Fidget
• Card game
• Power bank
• Snacks
• Candy
• Lip balm

Siblings 9-

• Handmade pillowcase – for use at home or in the hospital, this also serves as the bag for the goodies
• Stuffed animal
• How I Feel Journal and pens
• Activity Set
• LCD writing tablet
• Cape and mask
• Snacks

Again, contents will vary based on availability, as well as each child’s needs. If you’d like to send items for sibling kits, you can see our list here.

If you’d like to help us keep these kits going, there are a few easy ways to jump in. Our wish lists are always there for specific items, but monetary donations are welcome and help keep us flexible when needs pop up fast or change last minute. They let us restock, pivot and say yes when a family needs something we didn’t plan for but absolutely should have. 

Every kit we give out is built with intention, care and the belief that families walking into a CICU room should not also have to figure out where to find the basics in the middle of everything else they’re carrying. If you are a heart family in need of a kit, please request one here.

Our first Holidays with Heart auction is live and ready for you to explore. This is the event we built from love, grit and the brightest sparkle of our sweet baby girl Jewels. Every item has a story and every bid helps us support families with children in the pediatric cardiac ICU.

You will see local favorites, Oklahoma makers and some incredible experiences that would brighten any holiday. Many of these bundles were created with caregivers in mind. Every dollar raised goes straight back into survival kits, milestone celebrating Jewels’s Joyboxes and family support through the Sparkle Strong Foundation.

Browse. Bid. Share. Help us make this first year a beauty.

This isn’t a post I ever wanted to write. But we’re going to be real, we have to hold both the joy and the heartbreak. And the truth is, sometimes the worst happens.

As I researched and embraced my new role of heart mama (because I fully and ferociously chose our Jewels knowing fully what her diagnoses held), I avoided every mention of loss, stats regarding mortality rates, resources for bereaved parents. I didn’t want a flicker of those thoughts in our space. No chance that we would think it into existence. Still, despite the endless layers of love, hope, prayers, science, confidence, medical knowledge, grit, support, willingness and wishes, sometimes a CHD journey ends in the unthinkable.

And for our precious, happy, beautiful, wonderful Jewels, it did.

Our Fight

She was all joy and fight wrapped up in one precious, tiny body. I absolutely knew that she would pull through and beat the odds. As we spent the beginning of 2025 back in the CICU (after three beautiful months at home), as I fought with every fiber of my being to get her transfered to a new hospital, as I pushed all the decision-makers hard to see the whole picture when deciding if she would be a transplant candidate, as we beat every obstacle the hospitals, the foster system, the universe and her body put in our way, I was absolutely confident that I would walk down Main Street USA with my baby girl, new heart beating strong in her chest and huge smiles on all of our faces. We’d finally be able to exhale.

She loved her little world, too. We kept her away from screens until one day in her second CICU stay, someone turned on the TV, and she discovered Bluey. From then on, the theme song was her jam. She’d whip her head toward the TV the moment those first notes played. Church Doll, a ladybug lovey named by one of her respiratory therapists, was always tucked in with her. She lit up at the sound of her Princess Tiana doll, loved squeezing and smacking her crinkly books and never got tired of her ocean drum and jingle bells.

One of my favorite hospital memories came in Dallas, when our nurse Allison aka Nurse Fart (lovingly coined by the middle kiddos, Jada and Tavi) and I bundled Jewelsy Pie into the stroller and we went on a tour of the hospital. We wandered into other units, met other kiddos, and Jewels even got to go outside, something she hadn’t done in months. When we came back, we sat outside her room with nurses and other moms, just talking while the babies listened in. It felt almost normal. Just women talking, kids nearby and life happening. One of the moments I’m most thankful for during our CICU days.

Her spirit was sassy, happy and pure. And I miss it more than I can ever say.

Jewels’s sparkle is woven into every single thing we do here at Sparkle Strong. And while her heart has stopped, her light hasn’t. It shines on in the kits we give, the Joyboxes we pack and the families we walk beside. It lives in her siblings and how they continue on with a sparkling glint in their eyes that is equal parts love, fondness and grief. And I hope it continues to live in her legacy, in the way we continue to bring joy to those navigating the spaces we’ve now left behind, in the moments of magic that fight their way through the shattering pain of her absence on Earth.