Posted on 02/05/2015 6:21:35 PM PST by mountn man
When Samuel Forrest of Armenia heard a baby crying from outside his wife's hospital room, he knew his life would change forever.
Not only had he become a father, but he would soon receive some unexpected news about his newborn son.
"This pediatrician walks out of the room with a little bundle -- that was Leo," Forrest said. "She had his face covered up and hospital authorities wouldn't let me see him or my wife. When the doctor came out, he said 'there’s a real problem with your son.'
Forrest followed doctors and nurses into a room where he'd finally get to meet his baby.
"When I walked into the room they all turned to me and said 'Leo has Down syndrome," he told ABC News. "I had a few moments of shock."
"They took me in see him and I looked at this guy and I said, he's beautiful -- he's perfect and I'm absolutely keeping him."
Soon Forrest walked into his wife's hospital room with Leo in his arms.
Her reaction was unlike one he ever expected.
"I got the ultimatum right then," he said. "She told me if I kept him then we would get a divorce."
Forrest, who's from Auckland, New Zealand, said he was completely unaware of the hospital practices in Armenia when it came to children.
"What happens when a baby like this is born here, they will tell you that you don’t have to keep them," he said. "My wife had already decided, so all of this was done behind my back."
Despite his wife's warnings, Forrest said he never had a doubt in his mind that he would hold onto his son.
One week after his birth, Leo's mom filed for divorce.
"It's not what I want," Forrest said. "I didn’t even have a chance to speak with her in privately about it."
Forrest, who works as a freelance business contractor, has plans for he and Leo to move to his native country of New Zealand where he said they'll receive support from loved ones.
In the meantime, he's enlisted for some help on his GoFundMe page titled "Bring Leo Home."
"This really came out of the blue for me," he said. "I don’t have a lot, I have very little in fact. The goal is to raise enough for a year so I can get a part-time job so Leo doesn't have to be in daycare and I can help care for him. He's lost a lot in two weeks. It'd be different if he had his mommy."
Forrest has recently been working with disability awareness groups to share his story in the hopes that parents will become better educated on children with special needs.
"After what I've been through with Leo, I'm not going to sit back and watch babies be sent to orphanages," he said. "As a child with Down syndrome, that becomes somewhat of a label. If we can get around this label, we’ll see that they’re normal. They’re a little different from us, but they’re still normal.
"They all have niches and I want to work hard to find out where Leo's special. This little guy is great."
God Bless Samuel and Leo. I’m almost afraid to ask — what the heck do they propose to do with such babies — with Leo if his Dad hadn’t kept him? The baby has been born live — by anyone’s measure it’s a human being. What would they have done?!?!?
Good Guy. I hope he and his son get the help they needs to move back to the father’s home.
I looked, his goal was 60K and he already has 85K.
God bless this man! When my wife was pregnant 25 years ago, we had tests done and the doctor told us that the baby showed indications of Downs and suggested an abortion. We said NO WAY! A few months later our daughter was born, perfectly normal.
Downs Syndrome children are also “normal”.
As are children born with a all sorts of minor and major physical problems.
Raising a special needs child will never be easy.
Nobody ever prays to have a less than “perfect” baby.
I can understand a period of shock, if there was no indication of any possible problem, but to reject the baby, and divorce your husband for not rejecting the baby?
That's just wrong.
What would they have done?!?!?
They said an orphanage.
I know so many people with Downs syndrome who lead great lives. I even know one who went to college.
Our company has a woman with Downs in her 50s who works for us. She doesn’t do financial forecasting, but she does a lot of tedious jobs with a smile.
IMHO, it is the measure of a society in how they deal with children who have challenges.
Being pro-life is being in favor of working to help every child no matter what challenges they have.
Good for him. Every human life is precious.
$122,400 now
Wow
Dear God, that story is horrifying.
Just to elaborate, I mean that it is horrifying that a medical person could make a mistake and implicitly make a death recommendation based on that mistake...and to think of all the people who fall for such a lie! When of course a DS baby is also a blessing!
I feel the same way, though it took me a few years to fully realize the implications of the doctors recommendation as we were just so glad to have a healthy baby.
I have been to orphanages in the former Soviet Union, I wouldn’t put a dog in them.
Imho, that speaks volumes about the mother's character. The father is better off without her.
From one sheepdog to another, I’ve been to orphanages in Kiev, and aside from one that my buddy funded and built, I wouldn’t want to go to one either. The street kids living in the parks was horrendous too.
One of the ones I visited was north of Zhitomir. All of the children were abandoned by their parents due to health problems.
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