Victor's Here!

By Steven and Julia Wells

We are honored to be the chosen birth parents for this precious child.  We have been waiting all of our lives for this little boy! The Lord has been preparing us for over 25 years.  Early in our marriage, when young friends had a baby with Down’s, we asked each other and ourselves how would we feel if God gave us a baby with Down syndrome.  We agreed that it would be O.K. We’d be fine with that.  Over the years, we have had many friends that have children with Down syndrome, one very dear adult friend with DS and some providential education during our undergraduate studies, giving us a good understanding of how it works and why.   During this pregnancy, Julia felt sure she was carrying a special needs baby.  Our prayer was not that God would spare us, but that he would keep us out of the hospital and that the baby’s heart would be healthy.  He answered our prayers and we are grateful! God is so good!

We used to think that “special” was a nice way to say different or defective but now we see something else.  This vulnerable little one who needs and will always need a little more help and care, causes our hearts to have even more tenderness towards him.  He is indeed special, as in miraculous.  The midwives tell us that a baby born entirely in the caul (in his bag of waters) as Victor was, is a rare and special birth.

Not everyone gets to have a baby with Down syndrome; we have been given a prize.  We feel very “lucky” (blessed, chosen, honored) and we will tell him what we’ve told all of our babies, “You are just right and you are just the right baby for us!”  Thank you God for this indescribable gift!

  At first he tried and tried so hard to nurse, but just couldn't get it. Soon he started to lose weight.  Every 3 hours he would try for a 1/2 hour, then Daddy would feed him pumped breast milk with a syringe and tubing, while Mommy massaged his tongue down as he sucked on her finger. This went on 24 hours a day, for two months!  All this effort has paid off, because Victor is now nursing well.

We are learning that there is nothing like a special needs child to encourage and promote family unity.  It has been such a joy to me, as a mother, to watch each of Victor’s siblings get so involved and excited at each little accomplishment he makes.  Victor is now 13 months and is mastering the “commando crawl”.  On May 12th, he had his 4th reconstructive surgery to lift his eyelashes off of his cornea and reattach a ligament to his lid.  Also, they laterally opened the outer corner of his eye where they had previously sewn it shut to help his cornea heal.  He is recovering well and the doctors are optimistic that this should be his last eye surgery!