This
is the story of the Brenna. Who, after a difficult start to life, has been
blessed with a wonderful mom and dad by her side.
Courtney and Evan Westlake live a happy life with their son
Connor. They have decided to make their lives that much better with a second
child. Like all soon-to-be parents, they are chomping at the bit to see the
first ultrasound pictures. They are ecstatic each and every time they see new
pictures, reassured that everything is going well. A few months into the
pregnancy, they discover that they will give birth to a little daughter: Connor
is getting a little sister!
The
young married couple are overjoyed and begin to joke together. “I’m not going
to braid her hair!” laughs Evan. The big day arrives and just a few weeks
before New Year’s the little girl is born. All plans for the future are
shattered instantly. Brenna, their newborn daughter, must be rushed to
intensive care immediately. She isn’t moving, has an extreme temperature and is
covered in wounds all over her body.
Brenna
is suffering from a serious form of a hereditary disease called Ichthyosis. Her
skin development is disrupted, leading to distinctive scaling and
deep reddening on her whole body. Courtney and Evan are first allowed to
hold their daughter 2 weeks after the birth. From then on, their daughter’s
skin must be treated daily. Next to the physical challenges, Courtney
recognizes immediately that it will be a hard emotional battle for their
newborn daughter.
Wherever
she goes with her daughter, other children point at her, make loud comments, or
ask her parents rude questions. This makes Courtney very sad. And not just for
her own daughter! She can understand the children, since her daughter is
clearly different than the rest of them. But what she cannot understand are the
reactions of other parents. They push their children away as quickly as
possible, hold their mouths closed, and tell them to be quiet.
Courtney
asks herself: “Why do they make the distance between us so insurmountable? Why
don’t they take us as a positive example for learning that others look
different, but it’s not always bad?” She wishes to be spoken to by other parents,
to participate in their conversations about her daughter. She is unbelievably
proud of her little sassy daughter, who doesn’t let anything get her down and
is worshiped by her older brother.
The
young mother simply doesn’t understand: “Why do other parents avoid
conversations about people who look different? What are they afraid of? They
could just come up to us and ask how old she is. Then the kids would see that
everything else is normal. And when a kid asks why Brenna is so red, why can’t
they just be honest and say ‘I don’t know, but it’s not important how someone
looks. We all look different anyways, right?'”
Even
Brenna’s father Evan is proud of his little daughter. And Courtney is witness
to an indescribable beautiful scene between father and daughter. Evan bathes
Brenna every evening as part of her treatment. Evan strokes her very gently,
yet firmly, with a wash cloth over his daughter’s head, to wash her sparse
blonde curls. He repeats the whole procedure patiently and steadily. This is
the same man who said he would never braid his daughter’s hair.
Courtney
enters the bathroom and together they braid their daughter’s tiny braids on the
back of her neck, where she has the most hair. The little girl touches her
hairdo proudly as her parents suddenly realize that their daughter can do
anything she wants, even if nothing has happened as they imagined.
“When you
found this mother so strong and want to show others how to handle people who look different, then share this story with everyone you know”
Source->www.hefty.co