'People stare at my baby and say I should have aborted him but he's a miracle'

Lacey Buchanan and her husband Chris were thrilled when they were told they were expecting a son. But they had no idea of the heartbreaking struggle that lay ahead

Loved-up pair Lacey and Chris started dating when she was 15 and they married when she was 21.

A couple of years later, Lacey fell pregnant and the couple were overjoyed to find out they were having a son, Love Sunday reports.

They decided to name him Christian and eagerly began planning for the birth.

However, only a week later the Buchanans received the phone call every parent dreads – something was wrong with their baby.

‘Our little boy was diagnosed with a bilateral cleft palate and lip,’ explains Lacey, 26, from Woodbury, Tennessee. ‘We were crushed. How could this happen to us? Why did this happen to us? We’re good people – why do we deserve this?’

A tough start

On February 18, 2011, the day Lacey and Chris had been waiting for arrived. They made their way to Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville, not knowing whether they’d be coming home with Christian or not. But at 9.32am, after a C-section, Lacey and Chris were relieved to hear their baby come into the world screaming and, more importantly, was alive.

Unfortunately, it was soon clear Christian’s condition was much worse than anyone had expected. Not only was he born with a Tessier cleft lip and palate, leaving him unable to close his mouth, he also had clefted eyes.

They had not formed properly and he was left with gaps where they should have been, rendering him blind. His condition is exceptionally rare and Christian is one of only 50 such cases in the whole world.

The distraught couple found themselves caught between feeling so happy their son was alive and panicking at how they would go about raising a child who couldn’t see. To make it worse, they couldn’t take him home with them.

‘Getting discharged from the hospital was a hard day,’ Lacey recalls. ‘We packed our bags and as we left in the car I remember seeing Christian’s little seat, empty, and his nappy bag. We cried the whole way home.

We had to leave our baby boy 60 miles away and go back to a quiet house that should’ve been ringing with the sounds of his cries.’

Christian was allowed home a month later, but things soon became extremely difficult. Lacey and Chris found themselves battling against people’s reactions to their son.

‘Any time we took Christian out in public, people would stare,’ she says. ‘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.’

Changing opinions

Despite such taunts, Lacey remained strong, and as her son grew she was reminded of how precious life is. ‘As he got older, he started laughing and playing,’ she says. ‘And when people would stare, Christian would start giggling – and they would giggle too.’

What started off as a tragedy became a heartwarming story, as people started finding Lacey on Facebook or recognising Christian from hearing about him.

‘People began to tell me how much Christian inspired them and how beautiful he is, so things got a little easier,’ Lacey adds.

Two years after Christian was born, Lacey and Chris had another son, Chandler, who is totally healthy – and Christian adores him.

Christian has now undergone palate reconstruction surgery to help him eat, so he can live a more normal life. He is now at pre-school and is a healthy, happy child.

‘Those judgmental glances and whispers don’t really bother me anymore,’ Lacey says, ‘because I know that Christian is beautiful, inside and out. He is the love of my life and a miracle. I am so glad I chose life.’