The Peters
Get to know the founders of the T.O.P. Foundation
Our Story
On July 5th , 2022 we were informed that we were adding three bundles of joy to our family, talk about wow! While my husband and I were ready to add to our little family of three, doubling the number of people in our crew was a complete surprise to us, especially since we were not on any fertility treatments. That being said, we were excited to embark on this new chapter.
We started our journey with Texas Children’s Hospital on August 9th and got to see the babies for the very first time. We confirmed that Baby A and B were an identical set and Baby C was fraternal.
With bi-weekly appointments to the medical center we continued to see these little ones grow
as we prepared our home to welcome three boys in what we thought would be January 2023.
On December 6, 2022 our lives were turned upside down when we were informed that Baby B had an estimated mass the size of a baseball under his jawline. We relocated to the medical center the following week and prepared for our high-risk exit delivery scheduled on December 27, 2022.
That day we met the boys for the very first time and our hearts grew 3x over.
Milo Harrison Peters (Baby A)
Theo Oliver Peters (Baby B)
Luca William Peters (Baby C)
Post-delivery was an emotional time navigating the medical twists and turns during their stay in the NICU and preparing for Theo’s mass resection on January 4th. On January 4th we prayed over Theo, saw him off, and anxiously awaited the team’s updates. It was about 8 hours later we were informed the surgery was successful and the 10 cm mass was sent to be biopsied.
While we waited for the results we were finally able to hold Theo without any breathing support on January 12th, what a treasured memory for us all.
Unfortunately, a week later Theo started having breathing complications again and we noticed a mass appeared on the side of his chest. It was during that time that we were also hearing that his mass was no longer assumed to be benign and on Jan 23rd received confirmation that he had Sarcoma Cancer but were still hopeful it was caught in an early stage. Two days later Theo had a cardiac arrest event and was moved to an isolation room.
On January 27th we were informed that Theo had been diagnosed with terminal high-grade soft-tissue Sarcoma Cancer. It was at that moment our world collapsed leaving us to hold on to whatever final moments we had left with our beautiful son.
On January 31st we had a small celebration of life before Theo’s passing. Theo was surrounded by loved ones the day he became our angel. We are grateful for the time we had with him and are at peace knowing our sweet angel is on heaven’s side and will forever be in our hearts. In his 1 month on earth Theo touched so many lives in such a meaningful way helping our family reestablish the importance of being present with the ones you love along with individual reflections helping us all evolve into better human beings.
During this period of our lives we got to see how resilient we are as human beings, how having faith can bring peace in a time of chaos and how having a community of family and friends can offer you so much strength and that sometimes… needing help and having hands extended to you is okay and quite frankly beautiful. This sentiment fueled with the desire to honor our son ignited the T.O.P. Foundation (Theo Oliver Peters Foundation) focused on supporting families in need and helping them get back on TOP to where the world seems right again.
-Riley & Pilar Peters