The author of the book writes "As high as you can", Konstantina Karousou
"Ms. Constantine you have given birth to a bad, ugly child who will do NOTHING to life her. NOT NOT…"
These were the first words of the then eminent geneticist that exploded in our ears like a bomb two days after the birth of our daughter and anger engulfed our hearts after he shattered our hope with his negative words about our baby's development. Until then I had a beautiful life full of happiness married to the man I loved, holding our first child, Jason, who came into our lives four and a half years ago. A gifted child full of health and intelligence. Every day he made us laugh with his jokes and we feel how happy we are. We decided that we wanted another baby and that's how our little Maria came into our lives.
Like Jason, we adored Maria from the moment we found out about the pregnancies. Maria came into our lives with a serious condition called "partial pubic hairline". In the third month of pregnancy I had a virus, which manifested itself as a half-day colic, which I did not pay any attention to. This, however, affected the brain of the fetus with the result that the middle life was not completed, as well as the heart and kidneys, which on the same day completed their development. On the third day of her birth, we met the pediatric neurologist Lena Skoutelis, who informed us exactly what this condition is and that we will have to work very hard to get good results. "Of course you will encounter difficulties, but the more you give her the more she will progress."
He spoke to us honestly and suddenly we felt a caress in our hearts reawakening hope. Constantine's hand touched mine tenderly. Although the situation looked anything but easy, we without a second thought rolled up our sleeves and engaged with our child with all our hearts, so that we could see her go on with her life, taking small steps that filled us with joy and hope . Only by realizing the seriousness of the condition and accepting the whole situation could we aim to help her. There was no scope for us, since she was our baby and her development and life depended on us.
Her needs were not only food, her bath or the hug and affection of the family and so many other ordinary things, which every parent does to their newborn baby. Thus, in our thirty years of life, we were called to raise our Maraki with so many difficulties, that while she grew and conquered things, we feel proud of the efforts she made with our own support. At the age of two years and four months he underwent open heart surgery in London.
After several complications we managed to return to Greece, leaving the heart problem behind us forever. As for the kidneys, it was fortunately a regression, which nature over time corrected by itself. As for the agenesis of the midbrain, its treatment, or rather the cooperation of the two hemispheres of the brain, where the problem existed, depended on the work that would be done on the child by the specialists but more so by the family.
And we had appetite and energy and positive thinking, but the most powerful card is love. The goal we had for Jason, i.e. to grow up with love, care, affection, proper guidance, so that he becomes an honest person with morals and values, we set exactly the same goal for our little Maria. Not even for a moment did it cross our minds to leave her to her own devices.
