My son Seamus

My husband and I had an unplanned pregnancy with our son Seamus. At the 19 week ultrasound, we were told that he would be born missing his left ventricle. We were told that he would need at least three open heart surgeries or a heart transplant and that abortion was an option if we didn’t think we could handle it.

We chose to go through with our pregnancy and when Seamus was born, we found out that he had several other anomalies in addition to the ventricle issue and he had his first open heart surgery at 7 days old.

Over the course of his short life, he had 4 open heart surgeries and spent a total of six months in the hospital. In the time he wasn’t in the hospital, my husband and I spent every moment we could giving him an extraordinary life and he spent his life with a smile on his face. He went to the zoo, to baseball games, to hockey games, he went swimming, and pet a giraffe.

We were lucky to have him for 14 months and 13 days. It was the most incredible time of both of our lives. It taught us about being parents and made us realize who we are as people.

I can’t imagine not having had the experience of being Seamus’ mom and would not trade the difficult times or the pain of losing him for the happiness he brought into our lives. To think that we were given the option of not having the light he brought into our lives is something I can’t even bear to imagine.

My husband and I are in the process of trying to adopt and can’t wait to be parents again.