Mother of Baby Born Without Eyes Thanks God for Son Despite Naysayers

WOODBURY, Tenn. – The mother of a baby boy who was born without eyes is expressing her gratitude to God for her son’s life despite the negative comments she receives from those who claim that she should have aborted her child because of his condition.

Lacy Buchanan and her son Christian have been inspiring the masses worldwide for the past two years after she posted a video of her story on YouTube, which has since gone viral with hundreds of thousands of views.

“This is my plea to anyone considering abortion,” she wrote in the description for the film. “Rethink your decision, no matter the circumstances. I am so glad I chose life!”

The situation began in 2010 when Buchanan and her husband Chris learned that they were expecting. The excitement soon turned to dismay when they received a phone call that there was something wrong with the baby.

“Our little boy was diagnosed with a bilateral cleft palate and lip,” she told reporters. “We were crushed. How could this happen to us? Why did this happen to us?”

Although doctors were concerned that the Buchanan’s son might not make it to birth, they continued with the pregnancy and trusted God. They named him Christian.

In February 2011, Buchanan gave birth via C-section, and it was discovered that not only did Christian have a cleft palate and lip, but his eyes did not form properly, leaving him with spaces where his eyes should have been.

The couple took their son home a month later, but found many reactions from others to be disheartening.

“Any time we took Christian out in public, people would stare,” Buchanan remembered. “They would whisper behind my back, ‘Look at that baby!’ I even had one girl telling me I was a horrible person for not aborting Christian.”

She said that in sharing her story online, she has also received many unkind messages.

“I have literally had strangers see a single picture of Christian on Facebook and say ‘If i saw that kid walking down the street, I would murder him.’ They judge that Christian’s life isn’t worth living based on one single picture,” Buchanan writes on her website. “But most of you who know him know how awesome he is and how loved he is and how great his quality of life is.”

Christian is now three years old and has since had reconstructive surgery to correct his cleft palate, and will undergo other operations in the years to come. The Buchanans say that Christian is a normal child just like any other little boy; he just sees with the eyes of his heart instead of his physical eyes. Christian loves to laugh and play, and engages in conversation.

And although some have made rude remarks about the Buchanan’s son, others have expressed what an inspiration the family is to them—including the thousands who have learned of Christian’s story through YouTube.

“God’s really using Christian to touch other people’s lives,” Chris Buchanan told local television station WZ-TV last year. “Just with something as simple as a little video.”

“Those judgmental glances and whispers don’t really bother me anymore, because I know that Christian is beautiful, inside and out,” his wife states in the video, smiling. “I also know that I did the right thing by not aborting Christian. He is the love of my life and he is a miracle.”

Source: http://christiannews.net/2014/10/21/i-am-so-glad-i-chose-life-mother-of-baby-born-without-eyes-thanks-god-for-son-despite-naysayers/

I Forgave my Mother for Abusing Me

(http://www.realsimple.com/work-life/life-strategies/inspiration-motivation/stories-forgiveness/abusive-mother)

As children, Pascale and her younger brother endured constant torments from their mother: “She would hit me and my younger brother, fling plates in our direction, and call us names. My father tried to get between her and us, and she wouldn’t spare him, either.”

Pascale’s parents were both successful physicians, but their home life was deeply troubled. “My mother had had an abusive childhood,” says Pascale. “So maybe as a result, she subjected me and my brother, who was severely autistic, to her constant drama.” The harassment extended into adulthood. Even when Pascale was off at college, her mother would call once a week to berate her: “She disparaged my appearance, my friends, my academics. I felt that she was driving me over an emotional ledge.” After graduation, Pascale moved across the country, away from her parents. There she eventually got married and, in 2002, had a daughter of her own, Sofi. Pascale hoped that Sofi’s birth would soften her mother.

No such luck. “Once Sofi was five, she became independent-minded, and her behavior set my mother off,” says Pascale. Her rages returned, now directed at Sofi. Pascale sought help from therapists. “I wanted this relationship to stop causing constant pain in my life,” she says.

Then, in 2010, at the age of 73, Pascale’s mother suffered several massive consecutive strokes; her brain was irreparably damaged. Arriving at the hospital, Pascale was shocked to find her mother unable to communicate or even understand language. As the only relative capable of caring for her mother—Pascale’s father and brother had both died—she felt duty-bound to help. She sat by her mother’s side around the clock, reading books aloud and just talking—though not sure what, if anything, her mother could understand.

“At first I was angry. I felt she had left a mess that I had to take care of,” says Pascale. But as the months went by, her fury at her mother, who was now in such a vulnerable state, slowly dissipated. Finally, one day, an exhausted Pascale suddenly laid her head down in her mother’s lap. “And the hatred went away. It was just…gone,” she says. “For the first time, I stopped condemning her. And that gave me peace.”

Forgiving her mother also helped Pascale, who now owns a personal-health-and-wellness consulting firm, let go of other resentments (such as a rift with her ex-husband, with whom she split in 2007). “I’ve become less interested in holding on to all forms of bitterness.” Pascale’s mother remains in a vegetative state, but Pascale visits her at the nursing home weekly. “I see now that forgiveness is not so much about what you receive from people,” she says, “but what you give them.”