Hello lovely friends and family,

Ofir and I are reaching out here in early holiday spirit to fundraise for a cause near and dear to our hearts (…very literally!).

As you may know, a few weeks after birth our daughter, Arielle, was diagnosed with congenital heart failure. In a nutshell, she had a complex heart defect that caused her heart and lungs to work extra hard to pump blood, preventing her from adequately being able to gain weight in the first few months of her life (you can learn more about her condition - having multiple VSDs - here ).

After 5 months of trying our best to wait for the defect to heal on their own, it was determined that she would need to have her heart repaired to keep her alive. This resulted in open heart surgery at 6 months old on December 17, 2025.

While we were told that we could expect to be in the hospital with a quick healing time of 4-5 days, the complexity of her condition earned us a 2 gruelling weeks in the critical care unit, and another few days in the cardiac ward at Sick Kids Hospital over the 2024 holiday season. It is hard to describe the feeling of helplessly and fearfully sitting by your baby's bedside while the world celebrated the warmth of family and holidays - so we will go with "tough".

The incredible Sick Kids Hospital performs up to 4 heart surgeries a day (4!! A DAY!!) for little ones like Ari, and there will undoubtedly be caregivers in a similar position by their bedside this holiday season.

Between steep daily parking costs, and the need to buy meals from the shops on site daily, hospital life gets expensive. We are raising funds to buy holiday meal gift cards for the families of patients in the Cardiac critical care, and general care units at Sick Kids Hospital.

Our goal is to raise $1500 to purchase 60, $25 gift cards. So one $25 donation supports one meal, $50 will support 2 and so on. If we exceed our goal, we will extend these gift cards to families in other wards!

Today Ari is doing GREAT!! Despite the surgery not being able to fix 100% of the issue, she has since healed the rest herself and has been given a clean bill of health by her cardiologist. We are so thankful for our time and access to Sick Kids Hospital and the amazing medical team there.

Thanks again and happy holidays!