Dad-to-be’s beautiful tribute to wife carrying baby who won't survive
'We'll go to the hospital for a birth, and go home without a baby.'
By Livia Gamble
February 20 2017
A dad-to-be has shared a heartbreaking tribute to his "brave, tough and incredible" wife.
When Royce Young and his wife found out their baby Eva is growing without a brain, instead of terminating the pregnancy Keri, decided then and there that she would carry her daughter to full-term and donate her organs.
"The other night, before I left for New Orleans, I was watching my beautiful wife sleep peacefully on the couch," his post, which was shared on the Love What Matters Facebook page began.
“I looked at her laying there, her belly big with our daughter kicking away, a daughter that won't live more than a few days, and it just overwhelmed me of how incredible this woman is.”
He added: “I thought back to the moment where we found out Eva wasn't perfect, and how literally 30 seconds after our doctor told us our baby doesn't have a brain, somehow through full body ugly crying, Keri looked up and asked, 'If I carry her full term, can we donate her organs?'
“I remember our doctor putting her hand on Keri's shoulder and saying, 'Oh honey, that's so brave of you to say.' Like, how nice of you, but come on. Keri meant it.”
Young said he was in complete awe of how selfless the woman he is lucky enough to be married to is.
“In literally the worst moment of her life, finding out her baby was going to die, it took her less than a minute to think of someone else and how her selflessness could help," he said.
“It's one of the most powerful things I've ever experienced.
“It hit me that not only am I married to my very best friend, but to a truly remarkable, special human being.”
The couple made the decision to carry Eva to full term for a lot of reasons, but mainly so they could donate her organs.
“We don't say that to try and sound like great people or anything,” he said. “It was just a practical endgame that in our minds, before we came to the realisation Eva is alive and our daughter deserves to meet her mama and daddy, gave us a purpose to continue on.”
As the “finish line” approaches, they know it comes at a cost. “We'll go to the hospital for a birth, and go home without a baby.”
Young wishes things were different, but this is their “reality” and “there's no stopping it.”
“I want my daughter to be perfect. I want her to blow out her candles on her first birthday. I want to watch her bang her head on our coffee table trying to learn to walk. I want her to run up a cell phone bill texting boys. I want to walk her down an aisle. I want to change it all so, so badly. But I can't.”
He finished his post describing just how remarkable his wife really is.
“I'm looking at Keri right now and I don't even have to ask.
“She's TOUGH. She's BRAVE. She's incredible. She's remarkable. She's cut from a different cloth, combining wit, beauty, courage, silliness, character and integrity into one spectacular woman.
“And somehow, she's my wife. Not that I needed some awful situation like this to actually see all of that, but what it did was make me want to tell everyone else about it."
Read the full post here.
