When you see your baby for the first time it’s overwhelming the love you feel looking at this perfect new bundle of joy.
So to imagine parents taking one look at their child and refusing to accept that child is unthinkable.
Baby Adam was such a shock, when he was born at a missionary hospital in India, that his parents refused to take him home.
They told doctors that if they took him home to their village he would be poisoned.
But one doctor was observing closely and saw beauty in this boy that his parents couldn’t. Together with his wife they gave him the chance this sweet baby deserved.
Adam was born in 2011 with a rare syndrome called Bartsocas-Papas, which left him with a cleft palate, missing eyelids and fingers and legs fused together.
Doctors said he wouldn’t live long and his parents refused to take him home.
But Adam had a healthy brain, lungs and heart and one doctor saw something special in this baby.
Jessica, a nurse, and Raja Paulraj, a psychiatrist from India, had been married just six months when baby Adam entered their lives.
They were both working at the hospital where Adam was born when Raja texted Jessica to tell her about an abandoned baby; it was love at first sight and the couple had to take him home.
Adam needed surgery immediately if he was to survive and Jessica, originally from the U.S. contacted friends and family back home to see if they could help.
With skyrocketing hospital bills in the US, the family was faced with the daunting task of generating enough funds to pay for them.
Jessica was put in touch with doctors at UNC Hospitals in North Carolina where the first of several of his surgeries took place.
While doctors gave their time for free to help baby Adam their hospital bills were mounting. Then something amazing happened.
A collection was started, and the family, along with thousands of strangers, raised $100,000 in just one week.
Doctors were able to ensure that Adam could close his eyes and mouth for the first time.
“Is he going to be perfect? Yes, he’s already perfect. Is he going to be normal by the world’s standards? Never,” said Adam’s doctor, John van Aalst.
With the love of his family and his two younger brothers, Adam flourished into a happy little boy who was given a chance when others had dismissed him.
The struggling family gave Adam the security and love that he deserved.
Sadly, Adam passed away on June 12, 2016 at the age of four.
”Our little bird met his Maker and Sustainer…the Shepherd of his soul early this morning. There was incredible peace that enveloped his fragile, swollen body. He will be missed by so many. It’s indescribable to explain this ache”, Jessica wrote.
Adam spent his life bathed in such pure love and adoration, so I can only imagine how much he will be missed by his family.
Today, a few years after the boy’s tragic death, his mother Jessica reflects on the time she had with Adam.
”I have learned things from our Adam that will surely echo in my heart and mind forevermore,” Jessica wrote in an update.
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Through the love and care of Raja and Jessica, they were Adam’s guardian angels and I’m glad that he got to spend the time he did have with them in a happy, loving household.
I’d like to wish the Paulaj family good luck in the future.
Please share to pay tribute to the memory of a beautiful boy and the couple who loved him unconditionally.
