[LadyCPlum]

http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/dad-...25&cid=fb_abcn

GRANTED, we do not have the wife or hospital's side of the story, but if this is true, this is the absolute definition of unconditional love. This is a father. A daddy. A MAN.

When Samuel Forrest of Armenia heard a baby crying from outside his wife's hospital room, he knew his life would change forever.

Not only had he become a father, but he would soon receive some unexpected news about his newborn son.

"This pediatrician walks out of the room with a little bundle -- that was Leo," Forrest said. "She had his face covered up and hospital authorities wouldn't let me see him or my wife. When the doctor came out, he said 'there’s a real problem with your son.'

Forrest followed doctors and nurses into a room where he'd finally get to meet his baby.

"When I walked into the room they all turned to me and said 'Leo has Down syndrome,". "I had a few moments of shock."

After the news had sunk in, Forrest held Leo for the very first time.

"They took me in see him and I looked at this guy and I said, he's beautiful -- he's perfect and I'm absolutely keeping him."

Soon Forrest walked into his wife's hospital room with Leo in his arms.

Her reaction was unlike one he ever expected.

"I got the ultimatum right then," he said. "She told me if I kept him then we would get a divorce."

The baby's mother, Ruzan Badalyan, told that she did have a child with Down syndrome and she has left her husband, who has the child, but she declined to elaborate.

Forrest, who's from Auckland, New Zealand, said he was completely unaware of the hospital practices in Armenia when it came to children.

"What happens when a baby like this is born here, they will tell you that you don’t have to keep them," he said. "My wife had already decided, so all of this was done behind my back."

Despite his wife's warnings, Forrest said he never had a doubt in his mind that he would hold onto his son.

One week after his birth, Leo's mom filed for divorce.

"It's not what I want," Forrest said. "I didn’t even have a chance to speak with her in privately about it."

Forrest, who works as a freelance business contractor, has plans for he and Leo to move to his native country of New Zealand where he said they'll receive support from loved ones.

In the meantime, he's enlisted for some help on his GoFundMe page titled "Bring Leo Home."

"This really came out of the blue for me," he said. "I don’t have a lot, I have very little in fact. The goal is to raise enough for a year so I can get a part-time job so Leo doesn't have to be in daycare and I can help care for him. He's lost a lot in two weeks. It'd be different if he had his mommy."

Forrest has recently been working with disability awareness groups to share his story in the hopes that parents will become better educated on children with special needs.

"After what I've been through with Leo, I'm not going to sit back and watch babies be sent to orphanages," he said.

"As a child with Down syndrome, that becomes somewhat of a label. If we can get around this label, we’ll see that they’re normal. They’re a little different from us, but they’re still normal.

"They all have niches and I want to work hard to find out where Leo's special. This little guy is great."

[CrunchyCripple]

If she doesn't feel love for the baby, she just doesn't. It's obvious since she immediately made the decision, no hardship for her. It's quite possible that she wouldn't have loved a normal baby either.

She can't help the way she feels - it's her nature, she can't fake that kind of thing. Even though I do automatically think "Wow, what a fucking cunt."

It seems cruel, but it's better this way. To be raised by someone who does not love you, is an un-nurturing, neglectful and often times abusive upbringing. That's what turns people into sour, fucked up adults.

Not everyone is naturally, or even has the ability to be programmed into a nurturing human being.

Being able to make a baby and properly care for one are two completely different things. Unfortunately.

So, don't they have common tests during pregnancy that detect downs? She should have found out beforehand - unless she wasn't getting proper pre natal care.

[Darkest Angel]

Saw this on Facebook. I think what he is doing is wonderful. He plans to love and care for the child despite whatever hardships may come. She, on the other hand, seems to lack maternal instincts for a child that she brought into this world. I applaud him and best of luck. Shame on her.

[Oswald2001]

Many women - and men - should just not be allowed to have children.

[Illbegotten1]

Simply because you are a female who can carry a baby and give birth to it does NOT mean you are "automatically" programed by the "nature" of your sex to want to be pregnant, or go through birth, or rear any child society and it's more demanding members (usually religious) will hold the female to simply because she is female. Just as it is NOT acceptable to me (as a rational atheist) to have every egg that is fertilized result in a living baby, for whatever reason women rationalize having a baby. There are women enough who are thrilled with finding out they are pregnant, enjoy their pregnancy, look forward to that baby, and have a mate who are just as thrilled, and both of them actually make more than the effort to raise that child to be a decent person, and once they have grown to be a family unit, have funny, even hilarious stories about what everyone went through while the kids were growing up, and even the hard times are, with time, told with love and laughter.
It is unfair to label this woman as a "cunt" or "selfish" or imagine she would do the same even if this were a "normal" child. Perhaps she is just being rational, does not want to spend her life shackled to someone she must constantly care for, and does not wish to waste her entire life on that one person. There are women who do, and they cannot imagine doing anything differently. Just like there are men who have done what this man has done and cannot imagine anything different.
If any of you want to throw kudos at the ones who do because they do, hey, feel free! But don't punt the ones who don't for following their own natures and feel self-satisfaction in demeaning any other human being to make yourself somehow look better.
I would use the most often used example, the Spartans, but every society has had to decide who lives and who dies based on how much work and resources must go into ONE child to the detriment of the TRIBE as a whole. We are not here because our ancestors were "wonderful, loving people who would do anything for a baby". We are the progeny of the people who made hard decisions based on simplicity of the survival of the group.

"You're horrible." - Sansa Stark, Game Of Thrones
"I'm honest. The world is horrible." - Sandor Clegane, Game Of Thrones

It's an old story, told even before there was writing.

[Desensitisation]

In the end, she did the right thing for all involved. The child will be loved by the father. The father will love the child. If the mother has no love for the child, best not to be around at all.

[Menalipa]

$450+ raised so far!

[CrunchyCripple]

Originally Posted by Darkest Angel ↗

Saw this on Facebook. I think what he is doing is wonderful. He plans to love and care for the child despite whatever hardships may come. She, on the other hand, seems to lack maternal instincts for a child that she brought into this world. I applaud him and best of luck. Shame on her.

Shame on her? How can you condemn someone for not having something they just do not have? You cannot force yourself to love another person if it's just not there. You can fake it, but they always know.

[Pyramid_Head]

The "mother" should be hung.

[Oswald2001]

Originally Posted by Menalipa ↗

$450+ raised so far!

Uh, oh!

These people just might just be on the grift.