At 24 weeks of pregnancy, Amy Jade Morris received news that no mother ever wants to hear.
Doctors looked at an ultrasound of her daughter Mila and found that half of her cerebellum was missing, the structure that should have been shaped like a butterfly. They also couldn’t see the vermis, the part that connects it to the rest of the brain. The prognosis was so uncertain that they suggested terminating the pregnancy several times. Amy and her family spent an agonizing week making their decision, but the answer was always the same: Mila was their daughter, no matter what happened.
She was born on January 24 and went straight to the NICU because they feared she wouldn’t be able to breathe or feed on her own. She ate immediately and without any problems. At 4 months she rolled over, at 5 she sat up on her own, at 6 she tried solid food, and at just 7 months, she said her first word: daddy. Doctors said she might never walk or talk. Mila didn’t get the message.
