Adventist Stories

Our daughter was 8 months old when we found out we were expecting our son, Ward. Our little family of three was about to change forever.

At 26 weeks into the pregnancy, we found out something wasn’t quite right. Our anatomy scan showed problems. The doctors first thought he had clubbed feet, so we had more tests done after a long weekend.

It wasn’t clubbed feet. The doctors said it could be one of two things: a 1 in 50,000 chance that he had a fatal condition and wouldn’t make it to birth, or a 1 in a million condition where he simply hadn’t developed both of his fibula bones.

We did more tests and waited. We celebrated our daughter’s first birthday, Christmas, and New Year’s before we learned that we were having a 1 in a million little boy. Those few weeks were incredibly hard.

Even though we weren’t out of the woods yet, we prayed for this special boy, knowing he would need both legs amputated below the knee. We found ourselves hoping we’d go through an 8-hour surgery to help him—and that’s exactly what happened. Ward was born at 36 weeks because of my high blood pressure, but he was perfect!

He was a perfect baby, but a very tired one. At 15 months old, he still didn’t understand sleep, and we thought we were tired before all of this!

We knew the decision was coming, but it wasn’t just our lives we were making this choice for. We had to think of our whole family, especially Ward.

At 9 months old, we made a life-changing decision for him. He didn’t know what was happening, and honestly, neither did we. But with the help of amazing doctors, we knew it was the right thing to do for our family.

On December 28th, 2021, we amputated Ward’s legs. That day changed all of our lives, but it changed us together as a family.

Our lives aren’t normal, but we get by. We do lots of physical therapy, and it's not a Monday if I’m not yelling, "Where are your legs?" (It’s me; it’s always me!)

We celebrate every small victory and cry about things we can’t change, but we’re here, and we’re making it.

Now, Ward is 2.5 years old and thriving! He has a long road ahead, but seeing how much he’s already accomplished reminds me every day how strong he is. We’ll keep taking life one step at a time.

Credit: The respective owner

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