Diana Oestreich 
What would you do if a rare brain disorder took your 5-month-old baby?
How would you get through the day when you ought to be celebrating his 4th birthday? The Gibson family has to ask themselves this question every May.
Here is what Eli’s mom says:
“Every year on my son’s birthday, my family puts ‘love is a verb’ into action. So instead of Thomas the Train or Mickey Mouse birthday parties, we find ways to love others.”
In honor of Eli’s birthday they choose a tangible way to love. This family knows pain, and they also know gut-wrenching amounts of love. Every year, in the same month when they’re missing their son the most, they lean forward to love another.
This year, the Gibsons are rallying their community to create a new story of hope for a family in a conflict zone, to give someone else’s child a chance at life instead of death—by providing a lifesaving heart surgery for a child who can’t live without one.
This kind of love doesn’t make sense—the kind that experiences unbearable loss and, right in the middle of that pain, seeks to remake the world for someone else. The Gibsons will never be done missing Eli. They simply decided that no family should experience the loss of a child like they did.
A new love is created when a baby enters a family. That love doesn’t stop being part of the world when a child’s heart stops beating. Every day, Gibson’s carry the love that Eli birthed in them. He continues to spark joy in the world as his family helps to provide heart surgeries for kids, in celebration of their son.
Without surgery, the Gibsons know life will be cut short for children in war-torn countries like Iraq and Libya. They’ve decided to change that story, and make sure the parents will celebrate more birthdays than they ever dared to hope!
We are so honored to be part of the Gibsons’ story, to celebrate their love for Eli.
Join them in honoring their son—in making love a verb as they raise money this month to provide a lifesaving heart surgery for a child in need.
Donate today in honor of baby Eli.
