When Louise was diagnosed in the womb our OB told us that Dandy-Walker was one of the worst conditions we could have hoped for. She probably would never walk or talk. Why would they put her through her needed heart surgeries since her quality of life would be so poor...a useless existence in her opinion. Furthermore, she told us that Louise would be bottom of the list for a heart should she need a transplant...why put good money after bad? The best she could offer was that hopeless trip to UK for an abortion. We had to think of the other children you know.
Shortly afterwards I was speaking to our children's ballet teacher. The founder and head of Ballet Ireland and a Prima Ballerina in her day.She told me we'd get her walking...and dancing...ballet no less. I cried the whole way home, my little girl would never be a ballerina.
The sweet ballerina baby-gro Louise had as a newborn in PICU would rip my heart out every time I put it on her. Every little girl dreams of ballet shoes and tutus. How do you tell your daughter that won't be her?
Today, Louise put on her tiny ballet shoes and smiling from ear to ear tip-toed into her first ballet class...with the very same teacher who had promised me she'd dance. On the way out, her own eyes misting over, she told me she remembered the incident well.
