the Peterson family

All About The Peterson Family Story:

Today, we have four living children, which is an abundant blessing we never imagined possible. Jon, Stacy, Jaxon, Emi, Sadie, and Wyatt Peterson live in Santa Barbara, California. Our first born son was born 13 years ago. January 31, 2012, Drake joined our family forever, but passed away as a newborn. His cause of death was a genetic mutation that resulted in cardiomyopathy. He died because his heart could not function correctly, and despite three days of intensive interventions at UCLA there was nothing more anyone could do.

Drake’s condition was discovered during Stacy’s pregnancy at 26 weeks, in Santa Barbara by local experts. Things quickly took a turn when Stacy also developed life threatening conditions and was admitted to UCLA for three weeks as a patient, before delivering Drake by emergency C- Section. Drake was born at 33 weeks gestation. He was loved and nurtured by Jon from his first moments, as Stacy was critically ill and not able to see Drake for the first 24 hours of his life. Close family members surrounded us and filled the hospital waiting room, stopping everything in their own lives for days to respond to our crisis, to pray for us and support us.

On day three of his life, Drake passed away peacefully in Stacy’s arms with Jon alongside. Stacy recovered and was able to go home the same day. Although still lives with health impacts from this event. All worth it she says. A mother’s love is remarkable.

After we lost our baby, friends and family flooded us with Daisies. To this day, the Daisy flower is a symbol of remembrance of Drake. Every year on his birthday, we still receive daises from loved ones. Hence the name “Daisy Drake” Over the years we have seen the impact of Drake’s short life in so many ways in our own lives and our community around us.


Through our personal and professional work, it has become abundantly clear there is a need to connect families with support after the loss of a newborn. The emotional and financial impact is devastating. The unexpected stressors and challenges of navigating complex healthcare systems can also be overwhelming. We were blessed to have an incredible support network to help us. Also, we were fortunate to have the education and awareness to understand the importance of proactively seeking professional counseling right away to help us cope. Counseling has been an ongoing way through the years, that we have ensured we are staying united as a couple and coping in healthy ways. The loss of Drake impacted us, we miss him always, but we have been able to move forward with hope and healing.