A week ago today I watched a video that I'd linked to from Facebook about a young woman named Lizzie. Lizzie used flash cards which cover her face during the video to tell her story. She told of her diagnosis with a syndrome that was so rare it was unnamed. It distorted her facial features and interfered with her ability to gain weight. Lizzie looks dramatically different than most people. She tells the story of being in high school and someone taking an 8 second video of her, putting it on YouTube, and titling it "World's Ugliest Woman." She explains how some of the comments on the video would say "Do the world a favor and kill yourself" and how it hurt her, but instead of getting revenge, she got even. Lizzie set goals for herself to prove that she is an amazing person, and she accomplished all of those goals, such as graduating college and having a family. At the end of the video Lizzie removes the flash cards and you get to see her face. Personally, I th
On February 18th, 2011, our lives were changed forever when our son Christian Taylor Buchanan entered the world. He was born with a bilateral cleft palate and lip and almost completely blind. This blog is the story of his life, the joys we share, the challenges we encounter, and the amazing and trying journey ahead of our family!