AsiaOne:
One-year-old Christian was born with no eyes due to a rare form
of cleft palate called Tessier cleft.
But that hasn't stopped his mother Lacey Buchanan from loving
him and proudly showing him off to the world.
In an inspiring video uploaded onto YouTube, Lacey reveals their
daily struggles, including the battles against bullies Christian
has to face.
The seven-minute video has since gone viral, raking in more than
a million views and counting.
Using handwritten cards, she tells the story of how she met the
father of her child when she was 15 years old and fell in love.
She married her husband Chris when she was 21, and became
pregnant with baby Christian when she turned 23.
"We were SO excited!!!" she wrote. At her 18th week ultrasound,
the couple found out that they were having a boy, making them even
more excited.
However, a week after the happy news, the couple received a call
from doctors telling them that there was something wrong with the
fetus. It appeared that their unborn child had developed problems.
The couple were crushed.
As the baby grew in her womb, the doctors became increasingly
unsure about the state of the child, warning Lacey that she had a
85 per cent chance of miscarrying.
However, the Buchanans are devout Christians and they refused to
abort the baby, believing that he had a purpose and they would love
him no matter what.
Lacey and Chris went to Vanderbilt Medical Center to deliver
Christian in on February 18, 2011, fearing that they might not come
home with their son.
The couple were delighted when Christian survived the delivery.
However, their happiness was short lived. Christian's condition was
much worse than doctors had predicted.
He was born with a Tessier cleft lip and palate, and was unable
to even close his mouth.
Tessier cleft is a rare and severe cleft palate that can affect
different areas of the face, such as the mouth, nose, eyes and
jaws. Only 50 people around the world suffer from this
condition
Worse still, Christian was born blind - his eyes were also
clefted and hence never formed in the womb.
"Our baby boy was blind. We were heartbroken,' Lacey wrote.
Four days after he was born, he had his first surgery in which
doctors closed his cleft lip. He then spent four weeks in a
neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
At first, the couple were at their wit's end on how to raise a
blind child. Lacey readily admitted that 'things were hard' when
Christian was finally able to return home.
The couple had to deal with unkind stares and insensitive
comments from strangers. Some would would ask 'what's wrong with
your kid?'. One woman even rudely chided Lacey, saying that she was
'a horrible person for not aborting Christian in utero'.
Everywhere they went, people would stare, with many pointing at
Christian asking 'what's wrong with that baby?'.
However, it was Christian who won over his critics.
He started laughing and playing as he got older, and when people
stared at him, he would start giggling, and strangers would giggle
along with him.
Soon, people started finding Lacey on Facebook and recognising
Christian from her description of him, allowing the family to make
'a ton of new friends'.
"Anyone who meets Christian falls in love with him pretty
quickly," she said. Many people tell her how much her child has
inspired them, and how beautiful he is
Those judgmental glances and whispers don't really bother me
anymore," she said.
She added that she knows she did the right thing in not aborting
Christian as he is a "miracle" as well as the love of her life.
Throughout the video clip, she holds Christian close to her
chest, occasionally holding up pictures - including her wedding
photo, a picture of her pregnant, and photos of Christian smiling
and laughing - to illustrate their journey.
At the end of the video, she holds up Christian to face the
camera and kisses him, proudly showing him off to the world.
This is the link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDZ3sEIl22c