Hello! Thanks for stopping by.

When I was 29, my son, Ethan, was born with a rare heart condition; the left side of his heart did not develop properly. Before he was born, I was the 30th woman in the U.S. to have an in-utero surgery to open Ethan’s aortic valve. 

As the years progressed, we went through the revolving door of medical appointments and procedures. When Ethan was 7, what should have been a simple valve surgery turned into the most arduous journey of my life.

My husband and I rented an apartment in Boston for a month to access the care Ethan needed. However, the complexity of Ethan’s heart turned one month into another. 

And another month.

And yet another month. 

During this season, my son Blake was three, and I was pregnant with my third son, Chase. 

Thirteen months later, we left home without our beloved Ethan, in debt, despondent, and holding a story that turned out to be more painful than we imagined. We were grieving the death of our beloved 7-year-old Ethan while tending to a four-year-old and a 6-month-old baby.

It was the hardest thing to climb out of. The ripple effects on our lives, finances, careers, and mental and physical health had a lasting impact on us. Ethan changed everything in our lives in every way. The joy he brought our family and world will always outweigh the hardship. 

We took all that and created the Ethan Lindberg Foundation to serve families like ours so they would not have to be in our position. I witnessed families have a better outcome while I deeply suffered. It was simultaneously challenging and beautiful. 

Life threw me another twist.

Two years after Ethan died, my fourth son, Bodey, was born with a rare muscular dystrophy, Muscle Eye Brain Disease. He is blind, cannot walk, talk, or feed himself, and is fully disabled. 

Some days are soul-crushing, and some are sprinkled with immense grace. Each day-to-day is a physical and emotional mountain to climb. Strange as it is to say, Bodey’s journey is more challenging than Ethan’s, which I never imagined possible. 

I struggle, but I keep going. Bodey has transformed my heart, too. I love him dearly, just as I love and cherish each of my four boys and the roles they have played in shaping the woman I am today—I am thankful for the profound lessons they continue to teach me.

One day, I was sitting in a coffee shop thinking about what I had learned most on this journey, and I wrote “Heart Strong” on a napkin. I had learned to be Heart Strong - invited to grow through my challenges, find out what I’m made of, and continue to learn more about who I am and what I am here to do because of my story and experiences. Shortly after came the Heart Strong Questions that I want to keep answering in my life:

We all face challenges. 

The questions are:

Who will we become?

What will we create?

Where will we help?

How will we inspire?

My greatest hope is that people will look at the life I create from my story and experiences and say, “If she can do it, I can, too.”

In 2023, we decided to operate the organization as The Heart Strong Collective to signal an expanded mission and to focus on building a movement to inspire people to be Heart Strong. Join us as we encourage people to be Heart Strong and give back to support families like mine.

Warmly,