An adorable baby boy was born last month in Foley, Alabama, with a rare facial anomaly that left him without a nose.

Little Timothy Eli Thompson, better known as Eli, came into the world March 4 with a condition called congenital complete arhinia. It means he has no external nasal structures or passages and it affects just one in 197 million people. In fact, there have been only 28 reported cases since 1931, according to the medical journal IJSS Case Reports & Reviews.

Eli’s mother, Brandi McGlathery, knew something was special about Eli the minute her doctor laid him on her chest.

“I pulled back and said, ‘Something’s wrong!'” she told AL.com. “And the doctor said, ‘No, he’s perfectly fine.’ Then I shouted, ‘He doesn’t have a nose!'”

After examining him in a neonatal intensive care unit, doctors gave him a tracheotomy to help him breathe.

Now, he’s healthy and happy and headed home to meet his new family — and he’s bringing more than 20,000 friends along for the journey.

“He has done wonderfully since then,” McGlathery told the newspaper. “He’s been a much happier baby.”

Eli is “Facebook famous,” McGlathery said of the 20,000-strong page that’s documented his life. “I can’t hide him.”

“Eli’s gotten more publicity in the past two weeks than I have in my whole life!”

Her friends are pitching in, too. “It makes me feel really good that I have a support system,” McGlathery said. “Everybody’s been awesome.”

Someone set up a GoFundMe campaign, which has raised more than $7,000 that will go toward “years and years of surgeries and doctor’s appointments.”

“We’re going to do our best to make sure he’s happy,” McGlathery said. “The rest of him is so cute, sometimes you don’t realize he doesn’t have a nose.”

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.