A Letter to Zoe's doctors and nurses from her Daddy

Dear University of Iowa Children’s Hospital Medical Team,

My family would like to express our immense gratitude for your efforts in caring for our daughter Zoe during her recent stay in the PICU. Our experience with the doctors, nurses, and staff was exceptional and words cannot fully express our thankfulness for your incredible skills, compassion, and service. We know that you did everything humanly possible to save Zoe’s life, and for this we will be eternally grateful.

As you have done so much to minister to our family, we would briefly like to attempt to do the same for you, although in a somewhat different way. We’d like to do so by explaining the reason we ended up in the PICU in the first place.

We know that there are those who wonder why a family of six would adopt a little girl with a serious heart condition and in many peoples eyes little chance of survival. The answer for us is very simple. We adopted Zoe, and her brother Zane because all six of us were orphans at one time as well. No, not physical orphans, but spiritual ones. As human beings, we are born sinners and as a result were separated from our Maker and heavenly Father, God himself. And despite the fact that at one time we wanted nothing to do with him, he decided to adopt us into his family. Romans 5:8 explains how he did this: “But God demonstrated his love towards us in this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

I am sure you know that our adoption of Zane and Zoe has been costly – financially, physically, and now emotionally and spiritually. However, our adoption of the Z’s pales in comparison to what it cost God to adopt us. His price was the greatest ever – the life of His one and only perfect Son, Jesus Christ. On a Roman cross 2,000 years ago, Jesus died so that we could be adopted into God’s family and live with him forever.

This leads to another ‘why’ question we know many people are asking about Zoe. Why did God allow her to die? Why would he have us adopt her, only to take her away less than three months later? To be honest, we don’t know all of the reasons for what God is doing through her life and death. But here is what we do know. We know that Zoe has touched hundreds if not thousands of lives. We know that she has brought smiles to people all across the world. We know that many people have been drawn closer to God as they have offered countless prayers on her behalf. We know that Zoe has changed all six of us, and many more, for the good. Most importantly, we know that God has used Zoe to point people to their greatest need, a relationship with himself. 

Of course, despite all of this our hearts are still breaking. We love this little girl as if she has been a part of our family since birth. We are writing this the night before her funeral, knowing tomorrow will likely be the most difficult day we have ever experienced. But in the midst of our pain, we also have hope. You see, we are confident that Zoe is in heaven, and one day will be reunited with her. In reality, tomorrow we won’t say goodbye to Zoe, but only “see you later”. That’s because one day we will be reunited with her in heaven where we will live together as children of God forever. It is our sincere prayer that you have this same hope. If not, or if you are not sure, we would love to have the opportunity to talk with you more.

Once again, thank you for caring for our baby girl. We will forever be indebted to your efforts on her behalf.

In Christ Alone,

Chris, Eva, Landry, Bryce, Peyton, Ty, & Zane Carr