A mother whose son was born with a rare form of cleft palate that left him with no eyes has made an inspiring video revealing their struggles - and how the baby boy battled their bullies with his laughter.
In the YouTube video, Lacey Buchanan, from Woodbury, Tennessee, holds up cards describing her excitement at falling pregnant with son Christian, and the fears and snide comments that followed.
During the seven-minute film, she holds one-year-old Christian into her chest, only revealing his face to the camera at end of the video as she kisses him and shows him off proudly.
Inspiring: Lacey Buchanan holds up her one-year-old son Christian in a moving video she has made about the boy, who was born with a severe cleft palate that left him blind
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The inspiring video tells the story of Lacey, who met her husband Chris when they were 15, and went on to marry him when they were 21. They fell pregnant when she was 23, one note card reads.
But a week after the discovery, doctors called the couple to say something was wrong: it appeared that their unborn child had developmental problems.
Memories: Lacey holds up cards describing the moment she found out her son had a rare condition
The baby boy suffered from Tessier cleft, a rare and severe cleft palate that can affect different areas of the face - such as the nose, eyes and jaw - in addition to the mouth.
Christian had no palate, was unable to shut his mouth and was born without eyes.
At four days old, he underwent his first surgery. Through a series of operations, doctors have closed his cleft lip but his palate will require more surgeries, his mother said.
He spent four weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.
When he was finally ready to leave and returned home, 'things were hard', one of Lacey's note cards reads. She and her husband Chris were unprepared for how to raise a blind child, she explains.
She also struggled with judgmental stares and whispers from people they passed. People would ask 'What's wrong with your kid?', with one woman even telling her she was 'horrible' for not aborting him.
WHAT IS CHRISTIAN'S CONDITION?
Christian was born with a Tessier cleft, a severe type of cleft lip and palate that is characterised by severe deformities of soft tissue and bony parts of the face.
It occurs when parts of the face do not fully fuse together while the baby is in the uterus.
There are different categories of Tessier clefts, with deformities affecting the centre of the face, the nose and eyes, or large abnormalities of the lower jaw.
It occurs in about one in 150,000 births. In her video, Lacey points out her son is one of just 50 people in the world with Tessier cleft.
Those born with the condition must undergo a series of operations due to medical problems associated with it, including breathing, eating, speaking and hearing difficulties.
As Lacey, 25, struggled to stay strong, it was Christian who fought back.
When people would stare at him, he would begin to giggle - and they would start to giggle too.
'Anyone who meets Christian falls in love with him pretty quickly,' one note card reads.
She also says she knows she did the right thing not to abort him as he is 'the love of my life'.
On her YouTube channel, she added: 'He is such a happy and healthy little boy and he is so spoiled and so loved! He inspires people every day.'
Writing on her blog, Leading The Blind
, Lacey said she was inspired to make the video after she saw another YouTube film by a woman named Lizzie, who had also suffered judgmental comments for her looks.
Lacey, who is a law student studying in Nashville, said Lizzie's condition meant her facial features were distorted and she struggled to gain weight. She, too, revealed her face at the end of the film.
'This inspired me so much because I can relate to knowing how it feels to look different,' she wrote. 'It may not be me that looks different, but the stares at my son hurt no less than if they were at me.'
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