Parents Don’t Terminate Pregnancy: Months Later, Mom Is Brought to Tears at Dinner

A stock photo of an ultrasound (Illustration - Shutterstock)

The parents of an Omaha boy who was born with a severe cleft palate shared their story about a stranger’s kind offer after the child was bullied.

“They asked us if we wanted to keep the pregnancy,” said father Chris Eidam, according to WOWT. He was recalling the moment doctors told them that the child would be born with the disorder. Ultimately, they decided to deliver the child, Brody.

“We were really caught off-guard,” said Sara Heller, the boy’s mother, of their reaction to their son’s ultrasound images.

She added: “I mean you can see he’s just a regular normal baby.”

After he was born, Heller and Eidam posted photos of Brody to social media on a regular basis.

“It is OK to be proud of your baby no matter the circumstances,“ Heller said, according to Today.com. “We wanted to change what ultrasound/newborn/first year pictures on our Facebook/Instagram accounts looked like. We wanted to spread awareness of cleft lips and palates.”

Most of the comments she received were supportive, but one time, she was taken aback.

“What’s wrong with your son’s face?” asked one person on Facebook.

“He’s three months old and being bullied?” Heller then questioned. She thought that the comment would be the first of many to come.

“My job as his parent and his advocate is to tell his story,” she said.

Shortly after the comment, during a night out at dinner with a friend, Heller said Brody got a surprise.

“I’m just thinking what could this be? It’s probably some nice message on a napkin,” she told WOWT. But instead, “It was a check!”

It was for $1,000 and the memo line read: “For your beautiful baby.”

It wasn’t clear if the check was in relation to the negative comment she had received.

“The generosity of a complete stranger restored our faith in humanity,” she said, according to Today.com. “Being Brody’s parent has taught me that people care. Strangers all over the country want to hear his story, and they want to pray for him.”

According to the report, the $1,000 helped pay for some of the child’s medical expenses. Weeks later, the child had lip surgery and photos show that he appears to be healing well.

Heller said she has received a great deal of emotional support, which she appreciates.

“This experience has shown us just how strong the cleft community is. We’ve been contacted by people all over the country … they are praying for us and asking us to reach out if we need anything,” she explained.