September, For Us, Holds Everything
A MESSAGE TO OUR COMMUNITY
September has arrived, and all over the country backpacks are being packed, first-day photos are being taken, and routines are settling back into place. For most families, this frantic means new pencils, new teachers, new schedules.
For the families we walk alongside, it can look different. Some children are packing bags for the hospital, for another round of treatment, another surgery, another stretch of days spent far from home.
For the families juggling first-day-of-school photos with hospital bracelets. For the donors and volunteers who make sure no one carries that weight alone, and for a community that keeps saying yes, again and again, to families in their hardest chapters. We have so much to share with you!
September, For Us, Holds Everything
Before this was a foundation, before it was a house in Aurora, it was a boy.
September is the month our namesake, Elijah, was born, in 2000. It is also the month, in 2017, that our family said goodbye to him at age 16, after a courageous five-year battle with a rare heart condition called restrictive cardiomyopathy. Elijah was the youngest of four, the heartbeat of our family. He was happiest helping out on the hazelnut farm or running the court as a point guard. He enjoyed cheering on the Trail Blazers and especially watching "One Shining Moment" every March. He faced his hardest days with a patience and grace beyond his years. Even the doctors and nurses who worked with him recognized Elijah’s character and tenacity.
His favorite verse, Philippians 4:13, became more than words to our family: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." He clung to it through every struggle, and it lives on in the work we do in his name.
So this month carries both. The day he arrived, and the day we let him go. Grief and gratitude, side by side, which, if you've spent any time with the families we serve, is a feeling you know as well. It's why Elijah's Heart House exists; so that no family has to hold that kind of weight without a place to rest and a community behind them.
IMPACT SNAPSHOT
So far this year, because of our donors:
85 families were walked alongside through medical crisis
71 financial assistance grant checks were sent to families across the country
14 stays were hosted at Elijah’s Heart House in the Portland metro area
100+ applications were received
Families received an average housing reimbursement of $2,000–$5,000
Anthony's Story: When "Unexpected" Is the Only Word Big Enough
This summer, a family from Maryland found themselves far from home after their one-year-old, Anthony, needed emergency heart care in Philadelphia. Their hospital social worker called Ronald McDonald House, but there were no rooms available.
That's the exact moment the foundation exists for.
We stepped in to cover their housing so the parents could stay right where they needed to be, by Anthony's bedside, not worrying about a hotel bill.
Their message to us said it all: "I can't thank you enough. Everything helps when something happens unexpectedly. Here is a sweet pic of our little guy who is very grateful for people like you all." That's the whole mission, in one text.