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A very powerful story about the choice to choose life, even for a baby with no chance of a long life.


Faith Anne Van Steyn was born three weeks early, at 4:59 a.m. on Aug. 8. She lived for only 46 minutes. Yet every moment of her life — every breath, almost — was carefully documented. And every moment of her life, she was beloved.
“She was so sweet,” says her mother, Jackie Van Steyn. “She was beautiful, and we loved her.”

This is a story about love and loss and, most of all, choice — the choice to carry a child to term even though doctors said she had no chance of surviving; and the choice to cherish her memory through pictures taken by a volunteer photographer.

In similar circumstances, it’s perhaps the rare couple who would make the same decisions as Jackie and Mike Van Steyn of Laguna, married for three years and active in their nondenominational Christian church.
But compassion alone leads us to understand that they loved their baby long before Jackie even knew for sure she was pregnant.

And compassion as well lets us see how important it was for them to keep Faith with them after she was gone — in a lock of her dark hair, in plaster casts of her tiny hands and feet and, most of all, in the powerful photographs taken by Tamara Scott, a nurse and part-time photographer.

Read the whole story at: Lifestyle/Scene – Anita Creamer: A gift to cherish – sacbee.com

A few paragraphs stood out because I have discussed and debated these issues here on this blog and elsewhere.


In a blur of follow-up tests and consultations, they came to grips with the situation. Their daughter had trisomy 13, a chromosomal abnormality that can cause brain damage, facial malformations and more. If trisomy 13 babies make it to term, they’re likely to die within the first few months of life.

Tests showed that the Van Steyns’ baby had holoprosencephaly — her brain hadn’t divided into two cerebral hemispheres — and she would never breathe well on her own, because she had a proboscis instead of a nose.

“At diagnosis, Jackie was already 22 weeks along. The baby’s heartbeat was strong, and she was active and kicking. Doctors assured them that continuing the pregnancy posed no risk to Jackie — and further, that with appropriate care, their baby wouldn’t suffer after birth.”

UPDATE! More on the memorial service and pictures of little Faith. This is true faith. This is real courage. This is real love.

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