Adoptive mum abandons baby with rare disability

BABY Abigail Lynn Fisher should be living with her adoptive family in Georgia right now. Instead they abandoned her when they saw her birth defects.

It’s not the scenario birth mum Christina Fisher planned when she found out she was pregnant last year, reports Northwest Florida Daily News.

The 36-year-old had already raised one child and wasn’t prepared to raise another. So when she discovered she was pregnant she made the tough decision to find a loving home for her child.

But sadly when Abigail was born on January 11, her adoptive mother fled the hospital after seeing the newborn‘s deformities. She never came back.

“I took it as a sign that she was supposed to be mine,” said Christina, “And now, she is my heart …”

“Without her I would cease to exist.”

Christina was living in a caravan and found herself “basically homeless” toward the end of her pregnancy when the park closed.

Fischer and Abigail’s father were not in a relationship when she got pregnant. She had thought she was done with babies and little kids.

Her daughter, Debra, is 18 and finishing high school.

“Í wasn’t ready to start again,” Christina said.

She decided to give the baby up for adoption. Through an agency, she was paired with the family in Georgia. She talked to them weekly and sent them photos of the ultrasounds. All the prenatal tests were normal.

“Nothing was detected, they just told me her ears looked a little small,” she recalled of the prenatal testing.

“I let her (adoptive mum) take the other wristband into the NICU,” Christina said. “She came out crying, looked at Debra and left the hospital. We never heard from them again.”

The adoption agency was “appalled” by the news, Christina said, and the family has been “flagged” in the agency‘s system.

Doctors told Christina that her baby had Treacher Collins, a condition that affects the bones and tissue of the face, causing malformation.

Christina doesn’t see Abigail’s deformities. She sees “a little angel” and a “princess.”

“I can’t imagine my life without her,” she said.

Symptoms of Treacher Collins syndrome via Better Health
Symptoms and signs range from barely noticeable to severe and disabling. Typically, the characteristics of a person with Treacher Collins syndrome may include:

•cleft palate
•small jawbone (micrognathia)
•disproportionately large mouth (macrostomia)
•small or absent cheekbones
•large and pointed nose
•droopy misshaped eyes with notched lower lids
•absent lower eyelashes
•absent floor of the eye sockets
•overgrowth of scalp hair onto the cheeks
•low-set, misshapen, small or absent ears
•deformities of the ear canal
•conductive hearing loss or conductive deafness, caused by malformations of inner ear structures.

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14 Comments

- - Melissa89 said
  - 28 Jul 2016
    2:49 pm
That is heartbreaking!

- - mom134803 said
  - 27 Jun 2016
    12:14 pm
Aw bless your wee Abigail, she is perfect indeed ! Glad she’s too young to be aware what happened. As someone already said Abigail is better of without these adoptive parents. Glad that this whole situation and maybe even Abigail’s condition moved and touched mums heart. By the sound of it she will do a great job loving on and caring for Abigail.

- - meedee said
  - 07 Jun 2016
    4:22 pm
Its a good thing that the adoptive mother walked away. Unless you can love a child with all your heart then its best you walk away and allow someone who can love that child to take them on. I would rather this then to hear that a child had been brought up in an abusive home where they never felt loved.
- mom19782016 replied
  
  22 Jun 2016 , 9:54 pm
  I really agree with your post. You said it better than I could have.
- - mom156049 said
  - 07 Jun 2016
    2:57 pm
I can understand the adoptive mother not wanting to take on a child with a disability. She shouldn’t have walked out without saying a word however. Lucky she did tho so birth mum has kept her and loves her

- - zoedunstan said
  - 06 Jun 2016
    9:48 pm
I’m glad she stepped up to take care of that beautiful little girl even though she was unprepared for what lay ahead. Shame on those “adoptive” parents.

- - youngoldlady said
  - 06 Jun 2016
    6:24 pm
Yes it can be a shock seeing a baby like this if not expecting it. But to totally run away from it is not the done thing. Maybe ask for sometime to get over the shock. I wish the mother all the best in the future and hope she can get the help she will need as her young daughter grows up.

- - mom90758 said
  - 06 Jun 2016
    5:31 pm
Well, I think that Abigail will grow up a lot better with her mother than with those adoptive parents that didn’t want to deal with this situation.

- - BellaB said
  - 06 Jun 2016
    4:40 pm
I can sympathise with the adoptive parents feeling shocked, and maybe needing some time, but bolting is beyond the pale.

- - tessie said
  - 06 Jun 2016
    4:25 pm
The adoptive mother was heartless. All I see is a beautiful little girl who is a little different. Just shows that to some people beauty is only skin deep. By the looks of the description there are no major health problems. I hope those people never get to adopt a child. I wish Mother and Daughter all the love and happiness that they deserve.

- - mom112217 said
  - 06 Jun 2016
    3:48 pm
Beautiful photos of Christina and Abigail,a happy ending after all!

- - Nas01 said
  - 06 Jun 2016
    2:09 pm
She is so cute. Wishing her and mum a life full of love and happiness.

- - mom160421 said
  - 06 Jun 2016
    1:52 pm
I hope that Christina will receive the financial help and support she will need to raise baby Abigail. She has love in abundance which is wonderful.
- june11 replied
  
  01 Jul 2016 , 11:22 pm
  Without the condition being pointed out the only noticable things immediately obvious to me is the baby has a very long forehead. As her hair grows it can be combed forwards to help to conceal that. Hopefully she won’t suffer severe ear problems such as hearing. Crooked ear canals can restrict hearing. My left one is crooked so I can hear better from my right ear than my left. It is more noticable to me when on the phone.