A father in Armenia was so taken with his newborn son that he refused to let the bundle of joy go, even when his wife threatened to leave him if he insisted that they keep a child born with Down syndrome.
New father Samuel Forrest said he had “a few moments of shock” when he was told that his son Leo had Down syndrome. But it wasn’t long before he just fell in love with his boy.
His wife had other ideas, however.
“She told me if I kept him, then we would get a divorce,” the new father said.
Sadly, his wife was not making idle threats. A week after the couple left the hospital, she did just that: abandoned them both.
Forrest hopes to move from Armenia to his home in New Zealand, but without the help of his wife, he is finding the planning difficult. Void of that help, Forrest decided to turn to the crowd-sourced GoFundMe fundraising site to help him care for his newborn.
Forrest hoped to raise $60,000, but as of the publishing of this story, his page has raised well over $400,000.
Forrest was overjoyed, and he promised to donate some of the excess funds to “programs here in Armenia that will support future parents to keep their kids despite all disabilities.”
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.