Grieving Parents Give Unbelievable Gift to a Stranger in Honor of the Little Girl They Lost: The Amazing Story of How They Found Her

Larry and Carrie Carroll flew from Los Angeles to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport just days before Thanksgiving, their two sons in tow. They weren't on their way to visit relatives and it wasn't a destination holiday, either. They did, however, have a mission fitting for the giving season.

After landing a couple of thousand miles from home, the two boys, one less than a year old, fell asleep on the four-hour car ride to their final destination of Savannah, Georgia — a city the Carrolls had no ties to except for one: the name.

That's because there was a body missing from the car that day. Eight months ago, the Carrolls' 2-year-old daughter with luminous blue eyes died in her sleep. An autopsy would reveal tiny Savannah had died of natural causes, something dubbed Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood.

Savannah Carroll died earlier this year of natural causes, prompting her father to start a campaign encouraging other parents to enjoy "stolen moments" with their children. (Image via Savannah Fund/Facebook)

"When we first saw a highway sign to Savannah, we got all excited," Larry told TheBlaze. He and his wife took advantage of the rare quiet from their sons to reminisce about the child now missing from their lives. "We just talked the entire time. As we got closer and closer, we shared more and more Savannah stories with each other. It was actually very healing."

The Carrolls weren't going to Savannah just as a way to remember their daughter, though. They were going to find another little girl and give her an unbelievable gift — nearly $100,000.

In the hours after Savannah's death in April, Larry, raw with grief, took to a crowd-funding website to share his daughter's story, the "stolen moments" he had shared with her, and to mourn the ones they wouldn't have in the future. On the Fundly site, Larry appealed to parents:

I ask that you do this for my Savannah, the girl I would give anything to have back in my arms right now: Hug your child tight, tell them that you love them. Every. Damn. Day.

And the next time your child wants to play with your phone, even though they have peanut butter all over their hands and will just delete all your apps and make the screen too bright and you don't know how to change it back...let them do it. And appreciate the fact that you're witnessing such beauty. As parents, it's the only thing we can do.

Larry Carroll with his daughter, Savannah. (Image via Savannah Fund/Facebook)

Larry's post went viral and soon, people started sharing the "stolen moments" they had with their own children. Thousands of people also donated money to the Savannah's Stolen Moments Campaign, raising $97,299.

Larry said he'd expected to raise maybe a few thousand dollars — enough to send a little girl and her family on a nice trip, helping them enjoy the time he had been robbed of with his little girl. But the flood of donations far exceeded his expectations: he raised enough money to not only fund a trip, but to establish a substantial college fund for someone's future.

'She Was Guiding Us' 

With such a large sum of money, Larry and Carrie had the daunting task of finding a deserving girl who reminded them of their own. In the months after Savannah's death, the couple mulled over possible cities to visit where they would observe parents and their children from the sidelines. They hoped to witness a parent sharing such a "stolen moment" with their child and then approach them with the offer of nearly $100,000.

The city of Savannah seemed like the right place to start, not only because of the name, but because of the number of parks in the city where they hoped to meet such a family, Larry said.

"We woke up the next morning [and by] 10 a.m. were out of the hotel for the first time, our eyes were wide open to anything and everything," Larry said. "We were just looking for people who were treating their kids right, active parents, parents who love their children and talk kindly to them, are happy to let them be silly and let them be little kids."

Image via Savannah Fund/Facebook

On their search, the Carrolls trekked to several park squares, eventually ending up in Forsyth Park. There, they found what seemed to be a promising playground.

"The skies opened up and everyone ran for the hills. [There we were] standing all alone in middle of this playground," Larry said. "Throughout the day we kept seeing these things ... clues, signs from God. She was guiding us."

Before the rain on their way to the park, Larry recalled, a woman walked up to his wife and handed her a palm leaf that had been twisted into the shape of a rose.

"The woman walked up to my wife and said 'This is a Savannah rose, it never dies,'" Larry said. "For people like us who were looking for signs ... that’s a powerful thing for a stranger to walk up to you and say."

Unable to find a little girl at the park given the weather, the Carrolls headed indoors to one of the city's many museums. They visited a train museum and hit up the kids' section of an art museum. Though the Carrolls were enjoying the time with their own boys all the while, they didn't find a family that struck them.

At that point, it was getting dark and close to dinnertime. Not ready to give up their search quite yet, Larry searched for indoor playgrounds and found a place called Jumping Jacks. It seemed like a promising place, given that their eldest son is named Jack.

The Carrolls drove 30 minutes out of the city to a small strip mall. Jumping Jacks had bounce houses, laser tag and other attractions for kids. To their disappointment, the place was empty.

"We got there and Carrie and I just kind of chuckled and we resolved to let Jack play and have his night," Larry said.

Twenty minutes later, the rain stopped and the sun came out. Through the doors of Jumping Jacks came a mother and her five children.

'Out of All the People in the World'

Sarah William's 10-year-old son wanted to ride go karts for his birthday. Given the weather, Sarah had been ready to push back the celebration. But she took her kids to Jumping Jacks, a place they'd never been before, instead.

Among her five children, two of whom Sarah is in the process of adopting, was 4-year-old Isabella. Isabella and the Carrolls' son Jack hit it off right away.

"Her and Jack would hold hands and run around together like I had known him my entire life," Sarah said. "I kept watching and I was like, this is so beautiful."

Isabella reminded the Carrolls of their own daughter. Thanks to the money raised by thousands of people after Savannah's story went viral, Isabella's family will get the trip of a lifetime and she will have a hefty college fund. (Image via Savannah Fund/Facebook)

All the while, Larry played with the children, watching as the quick friendship formed as well. After some time, Larry spoke with Carrie and suggested she introduce herself to Sarah while he and the kids took on a game of laser tag.

After just eight minutes, Larry said, his wife came back to him, her eyes full of tears.

"She just looked to me and said 'yeah, yeah, it’s right'," Larry said.

Then the Carrolls approached Sarah again — this time with the offer of a lifetime.

"Larry and Carrie came back and they sat down in front of me ... by this time Carrie is sitting down with the baby [and] Larry says, 'Can we talk for a moment?' I was like, 'OK, yes,'" Sarah told TheBlaze. "Then he goes into story about the Savannah fund and his daughter and the stolen moments.

"At the end of everything he said, 'Your daughter reminds me so much of my own. She reminds me of Savannah.' I cried and Carrie cried," Sarah said.

When the Carrolls told Sarah they wanted to give her more than $97,000 for a family trip and to start a college fund for Isabella, she was stunned.

"I was thinking this cannot be real. No one walks up to you literally and says, I have raised this in memory of our daughter ... it’s yours, do you want it?" Sarah said. "In my head I’m like 'absolutely!'"

In reality, Sarah said, she slumped over and cried.

"I was amazed that out of all the people in the world, all the places in the world they could have been and we could have been, we were there at the same time and this happened," she said.

'Appreciate What You Have When You Have It'

After their time at Jumping Jacks, the Carrolls and Williams went to Applebee's for dinner and a celebration.

"It was like this big Thanksgiving dinner," Larry said.

The Carrolls and Williams share a meal together. (Image via Savannah Fund/Facebook)

A few days after the overwhelming gift given to her daughter, Sarah said she hadn't yet decided where to go for their trip. She does know that she wants to continue a pen pal relationship between Isabella and the Carrolls' son, Jack. The Carrolls look forward to being kept up-to-date on Isabella's life as she continues to grow.

"My own kind of selfish hope is Carrie and I want to live vicariously through them," Larry said. "It’s going to feel to us as if that’s the vacation that [we could have taken with] Saavy. Eighteen years from now when [Isabella] graduates college, we’d love to attend the ceremony."

The Carrolls also hope the "stolen moments" campaign is something they can keep going, both in encouraging parents to enjoy the little things with their children and also funding trips for families they think embody this sentiment.

The biggest takeaway Larry said he wants is for parents on the verge of saying "no" to their child's whimsy or request to ask themselves: "'Is this no really necessary?'"

"Our message is just appreciate what you have when you have it," Larry said. "Take a lot of pictures and give a lot of hugs and kisses."