“Hope For Lailah”
Donation protected
We were expecting our beautifully healthy baby girl early this May. We were ecstatic for her arrival, as her nursery was finally coming together. We had a very normal pregnancy until 30 weeks when our baby was diagnosed with Trisomy 18 by an amniocentesis.
Trisomy 18 is another name for Edwards syndrome, which is a chromosomal condition that is not compatible with life. We were told that our baby would be lucky to make it to full term, or if she was born, survive past the first year of her life. We still cannot wrap our heads around the fact that our perfect baby who has no soft markers for trisomy 18 or no physical signs of abnormalities is actually suffering a chromosomal defect. Our little miracle has already proven statistics wrong. She’s active, she’s growing, all her organs have developed normally and she’s perfectly symmetrically formed. What we do know is that chromosomes don’t lie. Our baby is a full T18 baby with little hope for survival. Against all odds, she is fighting to meet us and we will fight for her.
Realistically, she has not been given the fighting chance that she deserves to thrive in this world, but she has been given both a mother and a father who will forever cherish her life and love her unconditionally. Her tiny soul has forever made an imprint on our lives. She has taught us more about ourselves in the past couple of weeks than we have learned in the last 29 years of our lives. We have made the decision together that we can either live in this pain and sadness everyday or we can be thankful for what we do have. We are thankful to be strong in order to support one another. We are thankful to have our health that maybe we once took for granted. We are thankful for the family and friends that we have who have supported us and encouraged us to keep going. We are most thankful for the love we share. As we learned the hard way, life isn’t always fair, but love always wins. We will always have one another and the bond we share is unbreakable.
Lailah chose us to be her parents and we chose to bring an angel into this world. We named her after the guardian angel of childbirth, which also means night. She always and forever will be our angel of the night. She has forever changed our lives, for she gave us both the gift of being a mother and father. She will always be our first born.
When Lailah is ready to be born, Danielle unfortunately can not deliver in Binghamton due to the fact that they do not have the facilities available to properly care for her needs after she is born. We have been working with a very compassionate and caring team of health professionals in Rochester in order to prepare for her delivery and the decisions that need to be made after. However, it’s a very long trip for us every time we go. Any donation would greatly help our family during this difficult time to cover any medical or funeral expenses before and after our daughters birth. Once she is born, we would like to stay with our baby in the NICU for as long as we have her on earth.
We appreciate all of your love and support as without you all, we would not be so strong today. Although it hurts, we have been trying to focus on the positives, for it’s the only way to get through this. Tomorrow is never guaranteed.
We thank you again, for any help that you could send our way. Even if it’s a prayer for our family. We love you all! Xoxo
Anthony, Danielle & Lailah Hope
Trisomy 18 is another name for Edwards syndrome, which is a chromosomal condition that is not compatible with life. We were told that our baby would be lucky to make it to full term, or if she was born, survive past the first year of her life. We still cannot wrap our heads around the fact that our perfect baby who has no soft markers for trisomy 18 or no physical signs of abnormalities is actually suffering a chromosomal defect. Our little miracle has already proven statistics wrong. She’s active, she’s growing, all her organs have developed normally and she’s perfectly symmetrically formed. What we do know is that chromosomes don’t lie. Our baby is a full T18 baby with little hope for survival. Against all odds, she is fighting to meet us and we will fight for her.
Realistically, she has not been given the fighting chance that she deserves to thrive in this world, but she has been given both a mother and a father who will forever cherish her life and love her unconditionally. Her tiny soul has forever made an imprint on our lives. She has taught us more about ourselves in the past couple of weeks than we have learned in the last 29 years of our lives. We have made the decision together that we can either live in this pain and sadness everyday or we can be thankful for what we do have. We are thankful to be strong in order to support one another. We are thankful to have our health that maybe we once took for granted. We are thankful for the family and friends that we have who have supported us and encouraged us to keep going. We are most thankful for the love we share. As we learned the hard way, life isn’t always fair, but love always wins. We will always have one another and the bond we share is unbreakable.
Lailah chose us to be her parents and we chose to bring an angel into this world. We named her after the guardian angel of childbirth, which also means night. She always and forever will be our angel of the night. She has forever changed our lives, for she gave us both the gift of being a mother and father. She will always be our first born.
When Lailah is ready to be born, Danielle unfortunately can not deliver in Binghamton due to the fact that they do not have the facilities available to properly care for her needs after she is born. We have been working with a very compassionate and caring team of health professionals in Rochester in order to prepare for her delivery and the decisions that need to be made after. However, it’s a very long trip for us every time we go. Any donation would greatly help our family during this difficult time to cover any medical or funeral expenses before and after our daughters birth. Once she is born, we would like to stay with our baby in the NICU for as long as we have her on earth.
We appreciate all of your love and support as without you all, we would not be so strong today. Although it hurts, we have been trying to focus on the positives, for it’s the only way to get through this. Tomorrow is never guaranteed.
We thank you again, for any help that you could send our way. Even if it’s a prayer for our family. We love you all! Xoxo
Anthony, Danielle & Lailah Hope
Organizer
Anthony Siracusa
Organizer
Johnson City, NY
