Mother Whose Son Was Born Without Eyes Shares Her Story of Faith: 'God Is Good, and He Takes Care of His Children'
Lacey Buchanan gave birth to a boy without eyes, but the Christian mother never resented God for her son's condition and remained faithful to Him despite all of her motherhood trials.
"God's promises are true even when things don't turn out the way we think they should," she told The Gospel Herald. "God has a plan that is so much bigger than we can ever see in our limited scope and vision. God is trustworthy and He is good on His promises. God is good, and He takes care of His children."
Buchanan was 23 when she got pregnant with her first child. Her future looked very bright: The Tennessee native was enjoying her second year of marriage to her high school sweetheart, and she was even planning to go to law school.
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But after undergoing her 18-week ultrasound, Buchanan and her husband, Chris, received shocking news from her doctor. Their unborn baby, Christian, had a birth defect although doctors were uncertain just how severe it was.
The Buchanan learned about the full extent of the birth defect on Feb. 18, 2011 when Christian was born. Their baby has a rare syndrome known as Tessier cleft lip and palate, leaving him with a severe cleft palate and missing eyes.
Buchanan said she and her husband automatically felt an overwhelming love for their son, but at the same time, they could not help but be heartbroken for him.
"Our faith was definitely challenged," she admitted. "We asked all the questions that anybody would ask in that situation. We asked, 'Why isn't God fixing it the way we think He should?'"
When Christian was three months old, Buchanan faced another ordeal. An acquaintance sent a private message on Facebook and reprimanded her for not aborting her son. The acquaintance told Buchanan that it would have been a compassionate act to abort Christian, because he is only going to have a miserable life. Buchanan was even called selfish for carrying on with her pregnancy.
"I didn't realize that people would look at my child and make a snap judgment that he should be dead because of his birth defect. I knew the truth about the beauty of his soul despite how he looked," she said.
So Buchanan decided to make a video to defend Christian and his right to live. In the video, Buchanan shared the joy her son brings to her, and the love she feels for her boy. She considered it a true triumph whenever Christian giggles while receiving unfriendly gazes from strangers. She believes he will grow up seeing so much more than people without any sight defects.
After posting the video, Buchanan was surprised by the attention it garnered. It now has millions of views. Buchanan even landed a book deal because of it. "God took that and did something amazing with it," she said.
Buchanan believes Christian's story resonates so well with others because it's about love. "It's about the love of a mother and a child, but it's so much more than that," she said. "It's about the love of the Father for His children. We're all sinful, but God sees His children because of Jesus and I feel like people resonate with that real, true, love. I think the world is hungry for love, and they were able to see that in that video for just a few minutes."
Christian is now six years old and loves karate. He attends the Tennessee School for the Blind, and his story is now detailed in Buchanan's book, "Through the Eyes of Hope."
