Choosing Thomas - A Follow-Up

A couple days ago, I had a post up called, Choosing Thomas. If you have not seen it, please go and watch it. It is beautiful in presentation and wrenching in experience. In response to that video, here is a short letter that the mother, Deidrea Laux wrote to Jill Stanek (pro-life blogger) that is important to read.

Hi Jill -

My name is Deidrea Laux and I noticed that you posted our story from the Dallas Morning News.

I just wanted to tell you thank you for getting the word out there. One of the primary reasons we opened our lives up during such a difficult time was to bring awareness to situations like ours. We are blessed to be surrounded by a very supportive medical community. Once we decided to move forward with our pregnancy, our OB pulled together a team to walk us through medical decisions and they supported us 100%.

However, what was lacking was any information about perinatal hospice. Fortunately, through family support and connections we found a wonderful pediatric hospice nurse, Kathy Rose. I was shocked to discover that in a city the size of Dallas there is no official perinatal hospice program. Had we not found Kathy, we would have been forced to navigate the non-medical issues on our own.

Our belief that Thomas's life began at conception is very strong and there was no obstacle too big that we would have chosen a different course of action. But I wonder how many parents are out there facing this same situation and are without support like we had. Will they make a different decision because they are traveling this difficult journey alone?

Our hope is that one day every family given a fatal prenatal diagnosis will walk out of their doctor's office knowing termination is not the only or "best" option but choosing life for their child can be a very beautiful and rewarding experience.. Not to mention, it's the right thing to do.

So, thanks again for getting us one step closer to making this a reality for every family.

Blessings,

Deidrea Laux