Dan and I were immensely blessed in the weeks following Toby’s death. Even more than we realize, we know. By people that we knew and many that we didn’t. After the fog began to lift, we had an immense feeling in our hearts to “find a way to do good, give back, pay it forward” in memory of Toby and in a way that we could also share his story and people could know our precious son who was behind these actions. That is how and where the foundation started.

Our challenge came in creating a name for the foundation. We wanted it to have meaning, even if it was something that was truly special to us right now and we also wanted Toby’s name to be a part of it. For a few weeks, this seemed harder than we thought it would be. We tossed around many names, phrases, things that reminded us of Toby. But nothing seemed it “fit.” Then one evening it clicked. The Little Fox.

In preparing for Toby’s arrival in May, we decided to use the outdoor/wilderness theme for his nursery. There was hunter green and orange and pictures of a fox and a bear. Dan had nicknamed Luke “bear” from the time he was a few months old, and when we saw the bear and the fox together, we knew that was perfect for Toby. He had a little toy fox that was almost always with him and that was buried with him. And now, anytime we see something with a fox on it, it reminds us of Toby. That is the perfect way to remember Toby and the perfect name for this Foundation that we have created in his memory.