Our Beloved Vitoria de Cristo

We created this blog to tell the world about our beloved daughter Vitoria, who with acrania and anencephaly, lived with us for wonderful 9 months of pregnancy and exciting 2 ½ years of life outside the womb. May everyone know about her sweetness and tenderness. About her life, humanity and dignity. All the precious lessons learned with this little angel that God has sent us. It was a joy to have her with us. Vitoria still lives in our hearts and it will always be an honor to be her parents!

10/29/2010

Old posts - New translations

Dear friends!

We have new translations of old posts. So I invite you to take a look at our blog archive if you´d like to know a bit more about Vitoria´s first months of life after birth. There are only a few posts, comparing to the blog in portuguese, but they are so special, because they are about so hard days our beloved daughter faced, and I can remeber God sustaining us all the time. Hope you enjoy it!

10/22/2010

Bath time with grandma

Look how lovely baby girl havig a bath with grandma Alice!

10/21/2010

Marcela´s Flowers

Dear friends,

I´d like to share with you a video about baby Marcela, who was born in a little town from Brazil with anencephaly. She lived for one year and eight months. Her life was essential to not legalize the abortion of anencephalic babies in Brazil. It is an amazing story. Note that you can turn on English subtitles.

*Please be careful with you tube sugestions of videos, some videos sugested at the end of this one may not be helpful.*

Marcela's story part 2

This is part 2 of the video about Marcela de Jesus Ferreira, an anencephaly survivor.

Marcela's Story

10/20/2010

A beautiful sunny afternoon

May the Lord be praised, because he has made clear to me the wonder of his grace in a strong town.

And as for me, I said in my fear, I am cut off from before your eyes; but you gave ear to the voice of my prayer, when my cry went up to you.

O have love for the Lord, all you his saints; for the Lord keeps safe from danger all those who are true to him, and gives the workers of pride their right reward.

Put away fear and let your heart be strong, all you whose hope is in the Lord. Psalm 31:21-24

My hand will be his support; my arm will give him strength. Psalm 89:21

The Lord in heaven is stronger than the noise of great waters, yes, he is stronger than the great waves of the sea. Psalm 93:4

The Lord will give strength to his people; the Lord will give his people the blessing of peace. Psalm 29:11

A summary of our story...

Vitoria de Cristo was the most wonderful and precious gift we have received in this life. She was an immensely loved and special child, that brightened and rejoiced our lives during the 916 days she lived from her birth, with 38 weeks of gestational life. 2 and half years of an amazing miracle!

During her pregnancy she was diagnosed with acrania and was considered incompatible with extra uterine life. At birth she was diagnosed with anencephaly, diagnosis that came to be questioned over her growth due to her survival, all her reactions and expressions.

For us, names never made any difference. She has always been our victory and we always knew she was worthy of love simply by existing.

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The beginning of our story

On 12th week of pregnancy, we discovered our first and so wanted baby had a serious problem called acrania. There was no skull over her head, and brain structures would be damaged in contact with amniotic fluid, resulting in anencephaly. We were informed this kind of malformation is incompatible with life, and that our baby would certainly die right after birth. For this reason, we could ask legal permission to terminate pregnancy, according to Brazilian law.

Even though, we decided to believe that God could change this sentence and make the miracle of healing our baby, permitting her to survive after birth. We named her Vitoria de Cristo (Victory of Christ) and decided to love her the same way we have been loved by God: in a personal, individual and unconditional way.

And when she was born, we were surprised by a wonderful miracle, a precious life we have seen growing in front of our eyes, by God´s mercy.