This is Eli

This is Eli, short for Elias. And he is nothing less than amazing. When his mom was 21 weeks pregnant and going in for a routine ultrasound they found out their first born child, their son had a heart condition called, tetralogy of fallot. Ever since then it has been a roller coaster of emotions. Rachel and Dustin (the parents) had a crash course in all things medical and parenting. Elias spent his first 2.5 weeks at the St. Louis Children's Hospital and that is where he will have his first open heart surgery before he is even 6 months old. Mom, Rachel, says, "It is such a roller coaster of emotions. We go through a lot of appointments and it can get very stressful but he is SO strong. He is doing better than most babies born with this condition and amazes his doctors... so we have a lot of hope for him. He is such an amazing blessing we have and when we get overwhelmed by everything that is going... we just focus on him and that helps so much." 

Below you will find some sweet photos of Eli. I did want to point out one photo though, the one with the beads.... Each of those beads stands for a test, procedure, etc. that Elias has already gone through in his short 3 months of life so far. It is truly amazing. HE is amazing. Enjoy the sneak peaks of this amazing boy with an amazing story. 

A bead for every single procedure and/or test.