Gabriel Smith is a 7 year-old boy whose life was saved six years ago when he received a bone marrow transplant at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Last week, he finally got a chance to say thank you to his donor, giving up a trip to Disney World to do so.

Gabriel was just an infant when he was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, and doctors soon found that the baby had bone marrow failure and needed a transplant. Thankfully, a donor was found halfway around the world in the form of 25-year-old Dennis Gutt, a carpenter in Germany.

“They found Dennis through the Be the Match registry and on the day of the transplant they told us he was a 19-year-old from Europe,” said Gabriel’s mom, Lauren Smith. “That’s all they were allowed to tell us.”

Dennis underwent the operation and then moved on with his life, never knowing what became of his donation. Gabriel was 14 months-old when he received the life-saving bone marrow in October of 2013.

Earlier this year, the Make-A-Wish Foundation contacted the Smith family offering to grant a wish for Gabriel.

“At first, he said, ‘Take my donor to meet Mickey’,” Lauren said. “But we couldn’t do that, so he was asked to choose one: Meet your donor or go to Disney. He chose to meet his donor, Dennis, without any hesitation.”

Make-A-Wish Illinois flew Dennis from Germany all the way to Illinois so that he could meet Gabriel, and the two bonded immediately. The Smith family said they will be staying in touch with Dennis on social media until they can meet again.

“We have plans that if we ever do get to Disney World, he’s coming with us,” Lauren said. “We want him to go because he deserves everything that we can do for him.”

Find out more about this wonderful story in the video below.