Parents who wouldn’t abort “deformed” baby share pictures of him today

When Chris Eidam and Sarah Heller discovered that they were going to have a baby, they were ecstatic.

And like most parents, joy and excitement immediately took over the young couple.

24 weeks in to her pregnancy, an ultrasound revealed that their baby had a cleft lip and palate.

It was a shock to both Chris and Sarah, but this was their child and they were going to love him no matter what.

The boy was beautiful and they wanted the world to know.

Cleft lips and palates occur when tissues don’t fuse during the pregnancy.

2,650 babies are born with a cleft palate and 4,440 babies are born with a cleft lip with or without the cleft palate. Children with clefts usually undergo surgery to repair their lips and palates.

Then follows therapy for them to learn how to eat and speak.

Heller and Eidam took pictures of their son and posted them on social media for everyone to see. They hoped that sharing photos would normalize cleft lips and palates but in the world of social media, people can be unkind.

Someone on Instagram asked Sarah what was wrong with her child’s face saying, “What’s wrong with your baby’s nose? I’ve never seen anything like that. It doesn’t look good.”

A few hours after, Sarah and baby Brody went to dinner with some of her friends when the server brought over what looked like a folded napkin.

Sarah thought someone sent her a note of some kind but when she opened it, she was stunned to see a check for $1,000 with the note in the memo line, “For the beautiful baby.”

Brody had lip surgery on January 3 and the check helped cover some of his bills. He’s a strong baby, responding well to treatments and healing quickly.

He’s a beautiful boy!

Brody needs a gastrointestinal tube for nutrition as eating was still difficult. When Brody’s between nine and 12 months old, he’ll have another surgery to repair his palate.

Sarah says that the emotional support she receives from people reminds her that there is a lot of good out there in spite of the harsh criticisms from others. There is more good out there!