For a little over a year, Florida mother Courtney Williams Baker has worked hard to raise her daughter Emersyn. Simultaneously, she’s been fostering some pretty intense emotions. This mother’s been seething with indignation and anger since before Emersyn, who’ll be two in February, was even born.
Apparently, when Baker was still pregnant, doctors diagnosed Emersyn with down syndrome. Shockingly, the doctors had advised Baker to terminate the pregnancy.
Now, this mother and her daughter, who’ve come so far since the initial diagnosis, have composed a powerful letter to the doctors who advised her to abort her fetus. Her message is simple: even after the doctor’s stern opinions, her child was perfect.
Baker opens her letter and subsequent Facebook post by saying, “This took so long to write because I understand how important it is. I wanted it to be perfect. Just like Emmy.”
“I came to you at the most difficult time in my life,” Baker’s letter to her doctor explains. “I was terrified, anxious, and in complete despair. I didn’t know the truth yet about my baby, and that’s what I desperately needed from you. But instead of support and encouragement, you suggested we abort our child.”
“The most difficult time in my life was made nearly unbearable because you never told me the truth,” Baker wrote. “My child was perfect.”
After mailing the moving letter, Baker posted it her to Facebook in April. She recently shared it on the Parker Myles blog. Since doing so, the post has gone viral receiving nearly 10,000 shares.
In an interview with ABC News, Baker talks about summoning the courage to compose the letter and send it, “Every action, from opening and closing the mailbox to raising the red flag, was closure for me,” said Baker. “I have no idea how the doctor might have reacted to my letter, but I do have faith that God can work any miracle and he can change any heart.”
Having sent the letter and seeing the impact that it’s made on the parenting community, Baker realised that this was about more than her and her doctor’s morbid suggestions. With the attention that the letter has garnered, this mum decided to become an inspiration for expecting mothers and parents of children who suffer from down syndrome.
“My prayer is that no other mummy will ever have to go through what I did,” the mother wrote in her subsequent Facebook post. “And my prayer is when you see that next baby with Down syndrome lovingly tucked in her mother’s womb, you will look at that mummy and see me, then tell her the truth … ‘Your child is absolutely perfect.’”
READ: Stunning photo collection celebrates beauty of children with down syndrome