ALI HAS (A NEW) HEART! Metro toddler home, thriving after heart transplant

IOWA — You remember the story of two-year-old Ali , right? She was stuck in a Madison, Wisconsin hospital awaiting a heart transplant, and her friends back here held a lemonade stand to help out.

Well they raised over $1,000 to help Ali and her mom as they awaited the call of a lifetime. And on July 31, that call came.

"I was like 'are you serious?'" said Isabella Hageman, who'd been living in Wisconsin with Ali for months, "and the doctor was like 'yes, your daughter is getting a heart.'"

For the umpteenth time, the tiny girl was swallowed by a forest of machines. For 14 hours, her family could only wait.

"I tried to sleep but wasn't very successful," Isabella remembers.

"Isabella was sending us updates via text throughout the night," said Isabella's dad and Ali's grandfather, Al Hageman.

In the morning, the doctors broke the news with smiles on their faces.

"They're like 'this is the best heart she could've gotten," Isabella said. "It's perfect."

"He put the heart in and it immediately started beating," Al added. "It was like the perfect fit."

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Recovery from heart surgery is a long road but once again, Ali took it step by step. By August she was playing outside, by September she was home in Iowa, and by October, well ... she was a blue-eyed blur. A pigtailed powder keg. A lover of all things her life has rediscovered.

"She loves the car," Isabella said, "she loves to be outside, she loves to cook — like we couldn't cook before."

And for her family, the dark clouds obscuring their future have cleared.

"Having both of them back, it's like our family's back," Al said.

They're planning for Ali's third birthday next month, and for Christmas after that, and for the day next year when they'll learn the names of the donor family. The ones whose tragedy granted their relief.

"I just wish I could hug them, you know?" said Isabella. "I look forward to being able to connect with them."

"Out of your tragedy you're saving someone else's child," Al added. "That's like the gift that you can't ever repay."

So much to look forward to in a life that's alive and beating again.